It sure looks and smells like apartheid
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
by Rami Khouri - (Opinion) July 20, 2011 - 12:00am

The Israeli parliament’s vote last week making it a crime to support any boycott of Israel, including products from Israeli settlements in occupied Arab lands, has rightly generated considerable debate about what this means for Israel, Zionism and Israelis.

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Coalition seeks to discourage Christians from fleeing ME
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Ray Hanania - (Opinion) July 19, 2011 - 12:00am

Not many in the Middle East care about the plight of Christians.They are marginalized on both sides of the Arab-Israeli line. But regardless of the reasons, the numbers of Christians have dwindled over the years, in part because Christians can more easily emigrate to Western - predominantly Christian – nations. In Jordan, one of the Arab countries where Christians feel safest, a coalition including Muslim and Christian clergymen, politicians and journalists are launching a campaign to convince Christians to stay.

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Amid Murdoch scandal, Israel backers worry about muting of pro-Israel media voice
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
by Ron Kampeas - July 19, 2011 - 12:00am

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- Pro-Israel leaders in the United States, Britain and Australia are warily watching the unfolding of the phone-hacking scandal that is threatening to engulf the media empire of Rupert Murdoch, founder of News Corp.

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King's Torah splits Israel's religious and secular Jews
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
by Yolande Knell - July 19, 2011 - 12:00am

Recent protests in Israel highlight the differences between the country's religious and secular Jewish communities. Hundreds of right-wing Jews have taken part in demonstrations outside Israel's Supreme Court over the brief detention of two prominent rabbis in the last few weeks. There were clashes with police on horseback on the nearby Jerusalem streets and several arrests were made.

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Israel's stupid and self-defeating new law
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Telegraph
by Michael Weiss - (Blog) July 13, 2011 - 12:00am

One of the more elegant ways pro-Israel activists used to be able to confront the absurdities of anti-Israeli activists was by referring to the tolerance and patience that Israel has for its many critics and enemies. An Islamist cleric whose answer to the Jewish Question is straight out of Torquemada? We’ll let him become mayor of an Arab village. A sinister campaign for the economic and cultural boycott of Israel? We’ll let the head campaigner work toward his doctorate at Tel Aviv University, where his oral defence will no doubt be an attack on his own academic viability.

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Israel gives go-ahead to museum opposed by Muslims
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Statesman
by Amy Teibel - July 13, 2011 - 12:00am

The Israeli government has approved a Jewish group's plan to build a museum over a centuries-old Muslim graveyard in Jerusalem, an official confirmed Wednesday, in the final go-ahead for a project delayed for years by Muslim opposition. The bitter wrangle over construction of the Museum of Tolerance reflects the explosive potential of religion-based disputes in Jerusalem, where Jews and Muslims often play down the other side's historical ties to the city. The museum, which is meant to promote coexistence, is a project of a U.S.-based Jewish group, the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

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We must stop Israel from becoming a theocracy
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Shaul Arieli - (Opinion) July 6, 2011 - 12:00am

Those of us who believe that the internal debate in the Jewish community in Israel is still focused on defense needs or the number of settlements that should be evacuated, were proven wrong by the followers of Kiryat Arba's Rabbi Dov Lior. The real controversy focuses on the image of Israeli society and the nature of the country's governance. The conflict with the Palestinians is only a platform for shaping positions on this issue.

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The rabbis and the army
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Nahum Barnea - (Opinion) July 6, 2011 - 12:00am

"The admission of religion into combat regiments is growing." I did not read this report on a Hezbollah website or in a statement issued by the Iranian military. I read it on the IDF's official website, on a page that features news from the army's magazine, BaMahane. As it turns out, in the framework of a new IDF Rabbinate plan, a regimental rabbi will be appointed for every IDF combat regiment. The appointments will be made next month. The rabbis will be reserve soldiers. They will accompany combatants during training sessions and operational activity.

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Did a Jerusalem court really sentence a dog to death by stoning?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Eoin O'Carroll - (Analysis) June 21, 2011 - 12:00am

Have you heard the one about the dog who walked into a rabbinical court? Here's how the BBC reported it: A pooch made its way into a beth din in Jerusalem's ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Mea Shearim. One of the judges, believing the dog to be the reincarnation of a now-deceased lawyer whom the court had cursed some two decades earlier, sentenced the dog to death by stoning, and ordered that the sentence be carried out by children. The dog escaped before the sentence could be carried out. Dog-lovers have filed a complaint against the court.

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10 days, 10 months
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Brian Schaefer - (Opinion) June 16, 2011 - 12:00am

With June comes stifling summer heat and the French. Perhaps even more visible, or audible, is the endless stream of tour buses out of which tumble thousands of young Americans on whirlwind tours of the country. They’re loud, excited, and wielding cameras like weapons. Ladies and gentlemen, it’s Taglit-Birthright season in Israel.

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