Regards from Khaled Meshal
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from
by Amos Harel, Avi Issacharoff - (Opinion) July 15, 2011 - 12:00am

The baklava almost got stuck in the officers’ throats. A week ago, Munib al-Masri, the world’s richest Palestinian, hosted a group of Israeli officers from the West Bank coordination unit at his Nablus home. At one point he mentioned that he had received the pastry from Damascus, from his friend Khaled Meshal, head of the Hamas politburo. “Khaled sends regards,” he said.

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Israelis, Palestinians must unite to end occupation
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Yitzhak Laor - (Opinion) July 13, 2011 - 12:00am

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the political right argues, has a solid parliamentary majority, so not accepting such a majority's decisions is undemocratic. Right-wing advocates use this argument widely. But of course, this argument harms Israel because it treats its colonialism as if it were part of its political structure.

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Bethlehem's taps run dry as West Bank Israelis continue to fill their swimming pool
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Hugh Naylor - July 13, 2011 - 12:00am

BETHLEHEM // Water taps have run dry in this venerable West Bank city, fuelling public frustration and alarming Palestinian leaders. An acute shortage has panicked Bethlehem hoteliers into building massively expensive storage tanks, lest their customers flee to water-abundant Israeli resorts. Freelance profiteers have carved out a thriving black-market trade in water affordable only to a wealthy few. Meanwhile, Bethlehem's residents, who no longer have enough water to bathe regularly, are sporting scruffy hair and soiled clothing.

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Israel's boycott law: The quiet sound of going fascist
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Bradley Burston - (Opinion) July 12, 2011 - 12:00am

This is the one. Don't let what we like to call the relative calm here, fool you. When the Knesset passed the boycott law Monday night, it changed the history of the state of Israel. In real time, a tipping point of great magnitude can sound a lot like nothing at all. But if the Boycott Law makes it past challenges filed by human rights and pro-peace organizations in Israel's High Court of Justice, then anything goes, beginning with democracy itself. Benjamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak and 10 other cabinet ministers already know this. That's why they failed to show up for the vote.

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Killing chance for peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Daniel Ben Simon - (Opinion) July 12, 2011 - 12:00am

In the final moments of the vote on the Boycott Law, when it was clear that my opposition colleagues and myself are again about to be defeated, my thoughts wandered to the founders of this state. These well-known and unknown heroes who left their countries of birth, left families behind, and moved to the Land of Israel in order to build one of the 20th Century’s most ambitious projects.

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Knesset of Fools
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Foreign Policy
by Hussein Ibish - July 12, 2011 - 12:00am

In the latest of a series of extraordinarily self-defeating moves, Israel's legislature, the Knesset, has just adopted the so-called "Boycott Bill," penalizing any call within Israel to boycott Israel or its settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories. The new law allows for civil suits against boycott supporters, denies them state benefits, and prevents the Israeli government from doing business with them.

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Israeli groups to challenge boycott law in court
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Statesman
by Amy Teibel - July 12, 2011 - 12:00am

A new law that seeks to impede boycotts against Jewish settlements in the West Bank sparked a ferocious debate Tuesday between supporters who praised it as a bulwark against efforts to isolate Israel and critics who warned it threatens the nation's democracy. Human rights groups said they would ask the Supreme Court within days to overturn the law, which allows settlers or settlement-based businesses to sue Israelis who promote settlement boycotts. Courts would determine whether a boycott caused financial harm and, if so, assess damages.

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Fayyad: PA committed to protecting homeland
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
July 11, 2011 - 12:00am

RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- Prime Minister in Ramallah Salam Fayyad said Sunday the Palestinian Authority aimed to protect the Palestinian homeland from Israel's settlement project. Speaking at an event welcoming a Jordanian parliamentary delegation in Ramallah, Fayyad praised a Jordanian initiative to visit Palestine and learn more about life under occupation. Fayyad briefed the delegation on the PA's efforts to achieve statehood and thanked the visitors for their cooperation and coordination between Amman and the Palestinian government.

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Settlers' campaign forces the question
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
(Editorial) July 11, 2011 - 12:00am

As the clock ticks down towards an expected United Nations vote on an independent Palestinian state, Israeli settlers are intent on changing the facts on the ground.

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West Bank escalation reminiscent of years before second intifada
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Amos Harel - (Blog) July 10, 2011 - 12:00am

Recent events in the northern West Bank recall the sad picture at the start of the previous decade. The March murder of the Fogel family in Itamar, by two Palestinians, once again drove up tensions between settlers and nearby villagers. Particularly in the vicinity of Yitzhar, settlers are engaged in a violent struggle to restore the "balance of deterrence" through attacks on their neighbors. The result is an expansion of the defensive ring around each settlement; Palestinian farmers know they risk injury if they breach it, and that the security forces are unlikely to respond quickly.

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