Countering Israeli propaganda
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
by George S. Hishmeh - (Opinion) June 9, 2011 - 12:00am

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may have had a point when he claimed that Syria allowed Palestinian youth to jump the border fence separating northern Israel from Syria's Golan Heights — occupied by Israel after the 1967 war — in a bid to deflect attention from the bloody demonstrations against President Bashar Al Assad. As things turned out, the world's attention ended up being focused on Israel's lethal response — it gunned down two dozen unarmed Palestinian youths climbing the border fence that Israel built 44 years ago after occupying the Golan Heights.

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Memories of Six Day War see violence return to Golan Heights
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
by Kevin Connolly - (Analysis) June 9, 2011 - 12:00am

When the early sun burns away the last of the misty night in Majdal Shams it leaves a landscape that looks a little like model railway scenery - all evenly-shaped pale hillsides and symmetrical thickets of darker green trees and patches of grey rock. When the noise of gunfire dies away in such a place, the silence that follows has an air of unreality. It feels too still and too deep. It must have felt this way in 1967 when the guns fell silent at the end of the Six Day War leaving Israel in possession of the rich farmland and spectacular mountains of the Golan Heights.

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Dagan was right about the Palestinians but wrong about Iran
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Ari Shavit - (Opinion) June 9, 2011 - 12:00am

My gut feeling is that Meir Dagan is mistaken about Iran. The former Mossad chief recently said it would be stupid for Israel to attack Iran. For three years there was great tension in the international community over the possibility that Israel would launch a surprise attack. But then just last year, the tension subsided. The success of the clandestine struggle against Iran and of economic sanctions against the regime have put off the moment of truth. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak are not as crazy as some tend to present them.

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IDF must not shoot unarmed people
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Larry Derfner - (Opinion) June 8, 2011 - 12:00am

Here’s a tip on how to deal with these unarmed Palestinians in Syria (or elsewhere) racing fearlessly in broad daylight at our well-defended borders: We should stop killing them. We should stop shooting them, even in the legs, because people can and do die from such wounds, and some almost certainly did near the Syrian border on “Naksa Day” at the start of the week.

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Readiness and blindness in the Golan Heights
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
(Editorial) June 7, 2011 - 12:00am

The IDF proved this week that it does a good job preparing for the previous war. It may only be an isolated incident, whose character was more civilian police-oriented than military, but anyone who found flaws in the intelligence and military systems on Nakba Day (May 15 ) must admit the lessons were learned, the forces were deployed and the mission was accomplished. On Sunday, Naksa Day, the Israel Defense Forces succeeded in blocking hundreds of demonstrators who, surrounded by cameras, stormed the border fences in the Golan Heights, carrying flags, posters and loudspeakers.

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Violence on Syria border leaves Israel in a no-win situation
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Amos Harel, Avi Issacharoff - (Opinion) June 6, 2011 - 12:00am

There's a major difference between what happened yesterday, on what the Arabs call Naksa Day, the anniversary of the beginning of the Six-Day War, and Nakba Day last month, marking the displacement of Arabs when the State of Israel was established. Most significantly, this time the Israel Defense Forces was prepared for clashes at the Syrian border and in the Golan Heights.

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IDF: Protesters caused their own deaths
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Hanan Greenberg - June 6, 2011 - 12:00am

The IDF said Monday morning that many of the Syrian protesters who stormed the border fence and Quneitra crossing in honor of 'Naksa Day' were responsible for their own deaths by igniting mine fields on the border. Meanwhile the army also announced at around 11:30 am that although the border demonstration had ended by late Sunday night, many were gathering once again in an area nearby. No violence was reported.

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Palestine’s own spring
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Le Monde Diplomatique
by Alain Gresh - (Opinion) June 6, 2011 - 12:00am

The images of Palestinians massed at Israel’s borders on 15 May represented a dream for some, and a nightmare for others. On the 63rd anniversary of the declaration of the Jewish state and of the nakba (catastrophe) for the many thousands of Palestinians expelled from their homes, demonstrators from Syria (1), Lebanon, Jordan and Gaza converged on the promised land. They were only a few thousand but the world wondered what would happen if millions marched peacefully to the borders and walls next time.

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In India and Israel, the burden of protest falls on the victims of injustice
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Pankaj Mishra - (Opinion) June 6, 2011 - 12:00am

At a dark moment in postcolonial history, when many US-backed despots seemed indestructible, the great Urdu poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz, whose centenary falls this year, wrote: "We shall witness [the day] when the enormous mountains of tyranny blow away like cotton". That miraculous day promised by the poet finally came in Egypt and Tunisia this spring. We have since witnessed many of the world's acknowledged legislators scrambling to get on the right side of history.

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Unarmed demonstrators – the new threat?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Jacques Neriah - (Opinion) June 4, 2011 - 12:00am

Ignoring all the warnings that were readily available, Israel is finding itself facing new, dire challenges – challenges for which it has failed to prepare and for which it has yet to think of a response. For years, the traditional Israeli reaction to provocation has been a show of force – firing tear gas, water cannons and, if needed, sending in the police cavalry.

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