Middle East News: World Press Roundup

NEWS: The ATFP/APN joint Israeli-Palestinian internship program is profiled by the Times of Israel. The debate on national service highlights questions about Israeli identity. By a close vote, the Presbyterian Church decides not to divest in firms involved in Israel's occupation. Palestinian officials say they want more information before commencing an autopsy of the body of the late Pres. Arafat, as his relatives urge exhumation. An Israeli counterterrorism analyst claims polonium was planted on Arafat's effects some time following his death. Another Palestinian hunger striking prisoner is reportedly in critical condition. Young Israeli Jews and Arabs are connected by boxing. The World Bank pledges $22.3 million to help alleviate the PA financial crisis. Israel is going to produce another communications satellite. Palestinians in the occupied territories are increasingly turning to solar power for energy independence from Israel. Israel is set to acquire 20 advanced F-35 stealth fighter jets. COMMENTARY: Hussein Ibish says a recent Al Jazeera report suggesting Arafat was murdered by polonium poisoning is groundless. Hirsh Goodman says Israel should drop its hostile attitude towards international and multilateral agencies. Yaakov Katz says Israel is much more prepared now for another war with Hezbollah. Jennifer Lipman says the IOC should agree to a minutes silence to honor the Israeli athletes slain during the 1972 Olympics. Michael Young says Israel's policies are still defined by extremist attitudes of the late PM Shamir. The Arab News says Palestine is still being held hostage by the occupation. Gershom Gorenberg says it's a myth that Israel offered to exchange the occupied territories for peace in 1967. Shayna Zamkanei says Mosab Hassan Yousef's zealous evangelical Christian attitudes are not helpful to Israel.

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Jewish, Palestinian American groups ‘swap’ summer interns ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Times of Israel by Ari Ben Goldberg - July 6, 2012 - 12:00am When Waleed Issa walked into the Americans for Peace Now (APN) Washington, DC office on the first day of his summer internship in June, the 25-year-old Palestinian from the Dheisheh refugee camp south of Bethlehem was startled by what he saw. “I never saw so much blue and white in my life,” he says. “Everywhere you look, there’s a Star of David and the colors of the Israeli flag. As a Palestinian, I thought to myself, ‘This is not good news. How am I going to work here for the next six weeks?’” » Read more

Israeli Identity Is at the Heart of a Debate on Service ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Jodi Rudoren - July 5, 2012 - 12:00am On one level, the questions shaking the Israeli political system this week are pragmatic: how many ultra-Orthodox men and Arab citizens should be drafted into the military or national service, over how many years and how should those who resist be penalized? But the debate over these details masks a more fundamental and fractious one about evolving identity in this still-young state, where a “people’s army” has long been a defining principle, and about the growing cleavage among its tribes. » Read more

In Close Vote, Presbyterian Church Rejects Divesting in Firms That Aid Israeli Occupation ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Laurie Goodstein - July 5, 2012 - 12:00am A deeply divided Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) on Thursday became the latest American church to shy away from divesting in companies that supply equipment to Israel to enforce its control in the occupied territories, after a passionate debate that stretched late into the evening and a vote that was nearly a tie. » Read more

Aide: Palestinian leader wants more on Arafat ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press July 5, 2012 - 12:00am An aide says the Palestinian leader wants more information from a Swiss lab before deciding whether to dig up the remains of his predecessor, Yasser Arafat. Doctors at the lab say they found elevated levels of the radioactive agent polonium-210 on clothing reportedly worn by Arafat before his death in November 2004. The lab says the findings don't prove Arafat was poisoned. Experts are divided over whether an autopsy, sought by Arafat's widow, could clear up a lingering mystery surrounding the cause of Arafat's death. » Read more

Arafat's nephew: Body should be exhumed if necessary ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency July 6, 2012 - 12:00am The nephew of Yasser Arafat said Thursday that the late president's body must be exhumed if necessary to determine the true cause of his death. Nasser al-Qudwa, who heads the Yasser Arafat Foundation, met with President Mahmoud Abbas in Paris on Thursday and discussed new allegations that Arafat was poisoned with the radioactive element polonium-210 in 2004. » Read more

'Polonium found on Arafat's clothing was planted' ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Yaakov Lappin - July 5, 2012 - 12:00am The high levels of the radioactive poison polonium reportedly found on the belongings of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat indicate that the toxin was on them after his death, a senior counterterrorism analyst told The Jerusalem Post Thursday. Dr. Ely Karmon, of the Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya’s Institute for Counterterrorism, is a specialist in chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear terrorism. » Read more

Palestinian hunger striker in critical condition ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press by Blake Sobczak - July 5, 2012 - 12:00am A Palestinian prisoner convicted of transporting suicide bombers is in critical condition after a nearly three-month hunger strike, a rights group said Thursday. Akram Rikhawi started fasting on April 12, just before 1,200 other prisoners began refusing food to demand better conditions. Israeli authorities reached a deal with participants in the wider strike by mid-May, easing some restrictions. Rikhawi has continued to protest his detention by refusing to eat. » Read more

Boxing connects young Israeli Arabs and Jews ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press by Blake Sobczak - July 5, 2012 - 12:00am The bell clangs, the fight starts and the boxers come at each other. On one side is a 13-year-old Arab boy from northern Israel. His opponent comes from a Jewish town. The Jewish fighter from the blue corner pushes his Arab adversary against the ropes before pummeling him with a barrage of punches. Jews and Arabs have been fighting each other for decades, so boxing may seem like a strange way to build peace between the two — but that's what the Israel Boxing Association aims for. » Read more

World Bank pays $22.3 million to PA budget ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency July 6, 2012 - 12:00am The World Bank on Tuesday said it paid $22.3 million to the Palestinian Authority to help with a budget crisis. The funds are from a trust paid into by the governments of Australia, France, Kuwait, Norway, and the UK, the World Bank said in a statement. It noted that the aid was slated to support education, health care and other social services and for the economic reforms undertaken by the West Bank government. » Read more

Israel’s Domestic Communication Satellite Industry Saved ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Media Line by Arieh O'Sullivan - July 5, 2012 - 12:00am The decision to award the construction of Israel’s newest communications satellite to a state-owned company has probably saved the life of the production line and was likely done to preserve independence for defense communications. » Read more

Palestinians Turn to Solar Power To Reduce Reliance on Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Monitor by Amnon Rubinstein - July 5, 2012 - 12:00am Palestinians are almost entirely dependent on electricity provided by Israel. In Gaza, a local power station provides some 40% percent of the Strip’s electricity. The Palestinians buy electricity in small levels from Egypt and Jordan, but this doesn’t change their dependence on Israel. As a result, the Palestine Electric Company, in cooperation with the Palestinian investment firm Padico, began roughly two years ago to make preparations to build a power station near Jenin. » Read more

Israel to Upgrade Air Force With F-35 Advanced Aircrafts ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Monitor by Hanan Greenberg - July 5, 2012 - 12:00am Not long ago, a thick cloud of rumors settled on the new, much-talked-about IDF [Israel Defense Forces] acquisition of 20 F-35's, a fighter plane known as the Stealth produced by the American Lockheed Martin Company. There were rumors regarding production slowdowns and delays of the F-35, known as the “fifth generation fighter plane” (in contrast to the Israeli fourth-generation F-16's). The fear is that they will reach Israel very late — too late to serve the IDF in coping with future challenges. » Read more

Arafatuous ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Foreign Policy by Hussein Ibish - (Opinion) July 5, 2012 - 12:00am In November 2004, a sad but very familiar scene played itself out: A sick, 75-year-old man who had been living in squalor for several years after an extremely difficult life -- including a near-death experience in the Libyan desert -- finally passed away. Doctors at the Percy hospital in France determined he died of natural causes: a stroke caused by an unidentified infection. As is so often the case, human life ends not with a bang, but with a whimper. » Read more

Time for Israel to join the world ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Hirsh Goodman - (Opinion) July 6, 2012 - 12:00am Israelis in particular and Jews in general love to complain about how much the world hates us, as if the hatred of others is what makes Israel legitimate. It is time to move on, to take the victimhood out of the modern Jewish state, now approaching 65, and to live our lives without constantly having to explain ourselves to others, or to seek their approval. » Read more

A warning to Hezbollah ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Yaakov Katz - (Analysis) July 5, 2012 - 12:00am A few months ago, after the IDF began a concrete wall between Metulla and Lebanon, an Israeli observation post spotted a group of men gathered on a rooftop just over the northern border. A closer look identified one of the men as the commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) in southern Lebanon. Several of the other men were later identified as senior Hezbollah operatives, also from southern Lebanon. » Read more

London 2012: one minute to remember 11 Munich athletes - too much to ask? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian by Jennifer Lipman - (Blog) July 6, 2012 - 12:00am Seriously, in between all the running, jumping, swimming and sprinting, the Olympic organisers can't spare one measly minute to remember 11 men murdered for daring to compete for their country? You mean to tell me that there's no room for a brief interlude during Danny Boyle's opening extravaganza – not even when the rain is coming down from his fluffy fake clouds? Or during one of the minor events, the ones the organisers are practically giving away tickets to? » Read more

In death, Yitzhak Shamir is triumphant ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star by Michael Young - (Opinion) July 5, 2012 - 12:00am Yitzhak Shamir was the kind of person whom you didn’t remember was alive until learning that he was dead. The strange thing about many of the comments that followed the demise last week of Israel’s onetime prime minister was that he was portrayed as a relic – someone out of touch with the political temper in Israel today. » Read more

Palestine: A hostage state ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News (Editorial) July 6, 2012 - 12:00am he tragedy of the Palestinians has hung like a black cloud over the Arab world for almost 65 years. It is inconceivable that a people should be corralled like animals in their own country by a dominant, nuclear-armed neighbor, backed, through thick and thin, by a superpower. Yet that is what Israelis have done to the Palestinians. Moreover, there has been systematic theft of Arab land in the Occupied Territories, as a way of imprisoning the luckless Palestinians still further. » Read more

No, Israel Didn't Offer to Trade the West Bank for Peace in 1967 ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast by Gershom Gorenberg - (Opinion) July 5, 2012 - 12:00am It's a reassuring story, regularly repeated by defenders of Israeli policy: After the Six-Day War, Israel offered to give up the land it had just occupied in return for peace. But the Arabs said no, first quietly, then publicly at the Khartoum Summit. Alas, Israel was stuck with the occupied territories. In some versions of the story, Israel had virtually no choice but to start building settlements once the Arabs rejected diplomacy. » Read more

The prodigal son too good to be true ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Shayna Zamkanei - (Opinion) July 6, 2012 - 12:00am In mid-June, Israel's most trusted former collaborator, Mosab Hassan Yousef, the son of Hamas co-founder Hassan Yousef, arrived at Ben-Gurion airport. Invited by Druze lawmaker Ayoob Kara (Likud ), Yousef, who now lives in the United States, has been speaking to various groups and committees. » Read more

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