Obama, don't forget Jerusalem
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Richard Cohen - (Opinion) April 20, 2010 - 12:00am

These have been busy days for Jewish bloggers when it comes to Israel. One of them, the formidable Ed Koch, has virtually incinerated President Obama for his Israeli policy. The Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel has taken out full-page ads in major newspapers to tell Obama, in effect, to lay off Jerusalem, and Ronald S. Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress, wrote the president to say how concerned he was about the administration's Israel policy. In short, it stinks.

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In its 62nd year, Israel is in a diplomatic, security and moral limbo
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
(Editorial) April 20, 2010 - 12:00am

The joy attendant on Israel's Independence Day traditionally focused on emphasizing the growing list of the young state's achievements and the sense that the country was progressing toward a better future - one of peace, enhanced physical and existential security, integration into the family of nations and the region, and a normalized existence. But the country's lifespan, which was considered a great virtue in and of itself during the first few decades, has become secondary to a far more important question: Within what dynamic is Israel operating? Is time on Israel's side?

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‘U.S. Can Stop Israeli Settlements’
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Inter Press Service (IPS)
by Ziad Abu Zayyad, Jerrold Kessel, Pierre Klochendler - (Interview) April 19, 2010 - 12:00am

Ziad Abuzayyad was Palestinian cabinet minister responsible for Jerusalem affairs and a member of the Palestinian Legislature. During previous rounds of peace talks with Israel he was a leading member of the Palestinian negotiating team Currently, Abuzayyad is co-editor of the ‘Palestine-Israel Journal’ which seeks to create a platform for exploring tangible ways to advance a peaceful two-state solution between Israel and Palestine.

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Mood Is Dark as Israel Marks 62nd Year as a Nation
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ethan Bronner - April 19, 2010 - 12:00am

Every year, Israelis approach the joy of their Independence Day right after immersing themselves in a 24-hour period of grief for fallen soldiers. Before the fireworks burst across the skies Monday night to celebrate the country’s 62nd birthday, the airwaves filled with anguished stories of servicemen and -women killed, the Kaddish prayer of mourning and speeches placing the deeply personal losses of a small country into the sweep of Jewish history.

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The False Religion of Mideast Peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Foreign Policy
by Aaron David Miller - (Opinion) April 19, 2010 - 12:00am

On October 18, 1991, against long odds and in front of an incredulous press corps, U.S. Secretary of State James A. Baker III and Soviet Foreign Minister Boris Pankin announced that Arabs and Israelis were being invited to attend a peace conference in Madrid.

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Israel Attacks and Obama Backs Down
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Asharq Alawsat
by Bilal Hassen - April 19, 2010 - 12:00am

The Israeli announcement about deporting the Palestinian "infiltrators" from Gaza to the Gaza Strip or to Jordan is the beginning of a new stage in the Arab-Israeli conflict.

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Israeli defense minister says occupation must end
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
by Amy Teibel - April 19, 2010 - 12:00am

JERUSALEM — Israel must recognize that the world will not put up with decades more of Israeli rule over the Palestinian people, the country's defense minister said in unusually frank remarks Monday. Ehud Barak's comments came against the backdrop of severe friction between the U.S. and Israel's hawkish government over an impasse in peacemaking.

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Israel's Barak concerned by rift with U.S.
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Jeffrey Heller - April 19, 2010 - 12:00am

Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak voiced concern on Monday over a deep rift with the United States over settlement policy and said Israel should do more to try to achieve peace with the Palestinians. "The alienation that is developing with the United States is not good for Israel," said Barak, head of the centre-left Labour Party in right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's governing coalition.

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Israeli president says not to lose faith in peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
April 19, 2010 - 12:00am

Israel will not lose faith in peace, Israeli President Shimon Peres said Sunday night at a memorial ceremony for fallen soldiers in wars and terrorist attacks. "It is their (the fallen's) courage that give our people the strength to face the challenges ahead -- not to fear the enemy, not to cease building, not to lose faith in the peace to come. And it will come," Peres said at his speech in Jerusalem on the eve of the country's Memorial Day.

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An open letter to Netanyahu: Act before it's too late
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Ari Shavit - (Opinion) April 18, 2010 - 12:00am

Dear Mr. Prime Minister, It isn't every day a journalist writes an open letter to the prime minister. But today is no ordinary day. Nor is this an ordinary hour. This is the hour when the clock is about to strike midnight. A rare confluence of circumstances has created a situation in which on Israel's 62nd Independence Day, the state of the Jews is facing a challenge the likes of which it has not known since May 14, 1948. The year between this Independence Day and the next will be a crucial one.

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