Netanyahu mustn't demolish the strategic alliance with U.S.
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Sefi Rachlevsky - (Opinion) February 21, 2012 - 1:00am

In an interview with The New York Times, Defense Minister Ehud Barak listed three conditions for going to war against Iran, a threefold test: Military action must significantly delay Iran's nuclear program; it must result in minimal harm to Israel's home front; and it must receive massive American and international support. As prime minister, Barak brandished the test of results as his sword, and fell on it several months later. But now, the same old song is playing again.

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Israel's risky option on Iran
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Los Angeles Times
by Dalia Dassa Kaye - (Opinion) February 21, 2012 - 1:00am

Talk of a military strike on Iranian nuclear facilities is not subsiding. If diplomacy can't head off Iran's nuclear ambitions, advocates for a military strike in Israel and the United States will only gain strength. While proponents may believe that Israel can endure the short-term military and diplomatic fallout of such action, the long-term consequences are likely to be disastrous for Israel's security.

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Striking Iran's nuclear program is out of Israel's league
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Yoel Marcus - (Opinion) February 17, 2012 - 1:00am

Our favorite duo, Bibi and Barak, operate like Sylvester Stallone's Rambo. Real macho men who win in every movie. Against his powerful enemies, Rambo sweats, gets a black eye or two, bleeds, but in the end he wins, to the appropriate background music. Rambo's weakness, at least early in his films, is that he doesn't seem to think ahead, even when he's bleeding after what happened to him. The viewers in the movie theater know that the blood is paint and in the end he'll be victorious.

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Israel a bigger concern
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf Times
by George S. Hishmeh - (Opinion) February 16, 2012 - 1:00am

The carnage under way in Syria, particularly in Homs, is reprehensible. The bloody conflict, which has so far cost the lives of some 7,000 people, threatens to precipitate a civil war in this key Arab state adjoining several other prominent countries in the Middle East. What it will take to bring about a cessation of hostilities in Syria is the 64,000-dollar question, as Americans would say. Despite the pleas of besieged Syrians, all attempts to end the crackdown on protesters have failed.

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Do not jump to conclusions in Iran-Israel row
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
(Editorial) February 16, 2012 - 1:00am

Israeli diplomats and Iranian nuclear scientists now have something in common: the danger of being killed by a magnetic car bomb. The technique has now been used against members of both groups. Israel denies involvement in such murders, the most recent one last month, of Iranian scientists. Iran denies responsibility for car-bombings this week against Israeli envoys in Tbilisi and Delhi. Men reportedly carrying Iranian identity papers were arrested after a botched magnet-bomb attack in Bangkok on Tuesday; Thai officials say Israeli diplomats were the intended targets.

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Israel PM: Iran sanctions are not working
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
by Daniel Estrin - February 16, 2012 - 1:00am

NICOSIA, Cyprus — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says sanctions imposed on Iran are important but so far haven't been effective. Netanyahu said Thursday that the Iranian president's guided tour of centrifuges at Tehran research reactor on Wednesday was proof that sanctions have not properly crippled Iran's efforts to develop nuclear capabilities. The Israeli leader was speaking to reporters in Cyprus, where he was meeting officials on a brief visit to discuss cooperation on energy and other matters.

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Palestinian hunger striker Khader Adnan 'near death' in Israeli detention
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Harriet Sherwood - February 16, 2012 - 1:00am

A Palestinian prisoner on his 61st day of hunger strike while shackled to a bed in an Israeli hospital is in immediate danger of death, according to a medical report submitted to the supreme court in an effort to secure his release. Khader Adnan, 33, a baker from a village near Jenin, is being held without charge by the Israeli authorities under a four-month term of "administrative detention". He began his hunger strike on 18 December, the day after being arrested.

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Israel’s other reasons to bomb Iran
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
by Osama Al-Sharif - (Opinion) February 15, 2012 - 1:00am

US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta predicts that Israel will direct a preemptive strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities “in April, May or June”, according to David Ignatius, the widely-circulated Washington Post columnist. In the view of many Western analysts, Israel has taken the decision to bomb Iran and is only waiting for an opportune time to direct its blow.

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The U.S.-Israeli Trust Gap on Iran
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
(Editorial) February 15, 2012 - 1:00am

TWO MONTHS ago we questioned a decision by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta to spell out publicly his objections to an Israeli military strike against Iran’s nuclear program — a speech that must have cheered the commanders of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. Now Mr. Panetta has indirectly caused a similar stir: After a conversation with Mr. Panetta this month, The Post’s David Ignatius reported that the Pentagon chief “believes there is a strong likelihood that Israel will strike Iran in April, May or June.”

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How history lessons could deter Iranian aggression
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Fareed Zakaria - (Opinion) February 15, 2012 - 1:00am

We are hearing a new concept these days in discussions about Iran — the zone of immunity. The idea, often explained by Ehud Barak, Israel’s defense minister, is that soon Iran will have enough nuclear capability that Israel would not be able to inflict a crippling blow to its program.

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