Middle East News: World Press Roundup

NEWS: With crossings closed, the pilgrimage to Mecca has become virtually impossible for Palestinians in Gaza. Pres. Ahmadinejad calls the Israeli government “an insult to humankind.” Kadima leader Mofaz demands clarifications from PM Netanyahu about a possible military action against Iran. PA debt is affecting the Palestinian private sector. Four Egyptian soliders are wounded in another attack by militants in Sinai, as Hamas asks Egypt to exclude Israel from security cooperation regarding the Peninsula. The US and Israeli navies are holding joint maneuvers in the Mediterranean. Israel's Deputy PM condemns “outrageous” attacks by Jews against Palestinians. Israeli police say hundreds of Jewish Israelis witnessed a lynching attack against Palestinians but did nothing to stop it. Five suspects are arrested in that attack. Netanyahu promises Pres. Abbas that Israel will catch whoever is responsible for a firebomb attack on a taxi that injured six Palestinians. Hamas arrests an extremist suspected in the death of an Israeli laborer in June. Israeli university heads petition the High Court to reverse a decision granting university status to a school in a settlement. COMMENTARY: Carol Williams asks if Israel is “crying wolf” regarding a possible attack on Iran. James Traub asks if Netanyahu and DM Barak are “crazy enough” to attack Iran against the wishes of the US and the majority of Israelis. Daniel Nisman and Avi Nave explain why, in their view, Israel expects an Iranian retaliation to have a limited impact. Leonard Fein questions Netanyahu's assertions that Iran is an existential threat. Uzi Rubin warns an attack on Iran could bring a massive missile response. Amira Hass outlines how Israel uses military orders to seize Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank. Jeff Barak says it's a sad state of affairs when Israel's 89-year-old president must serve as the isolated "voice of reason" in government. The Jerusalem Post says tolerance of violence and bigotry against Palestinians in Israel must stop. Ben Lynfield says little drama is expected this year if Palestinians resume efforts at greater recognition at the UN.

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A Gaza Border Slams Shut, and With It, Chances for a Pilgrimage to Mecca ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Fares Akram - August 17, 2012 - 12:00am Every Ramadan for the past two decades, Mouin Mushtaha has made the pilgrimage to Mecca during the last 10 days of the Muslim holy month. This year, as Ramadan ticked away, he sat gloomily at the office of his tourism agency here, watching the festivities on television. » Read more

Iran’s President Calls Israel ‘an Insult to Humankind’ ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Rick Gladstone - August 17, 2012 - 12:00am Iran’s president fanned the flames of confrontation with Israel on Friday, calling the Israeli government “an insult to humankind” in a speech on the annual Iranian holiday that calls for the Palestinian reclamation of Jerusalem from Israel’s control. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran was surrounded by his bodyguards at the demonstration, where he spoke. » Read more

Mofaz demands clarifications from Netanyahu over his 'intention to lead Israel to war with Iran' ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Barak Ravid - August 20, 2012 - 12:00am Israel's opposition head Shaul Mofaz sent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a letter on Monday demanding an urgent meeting on the Iranian issue. "I ask that this meeting be convened without delay, and address your intention to lead Israel to war," Mofaz wrote. According to law, the prime minister must brief the opposition head on a monthly basis. » Read more

Palestinian government debt hurts private sector ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press by Mohammed Daraghmeh - August 18, 2012 - 12:00am Palestinian drug importer Ghassan Mustaklem says he can't afford to work with the West Bank's Palestinian government anymore. He recently halted supplies to his biggest client, which now owes $12 million in unpaid bills, or more than half his annual turnover. The cutoff by Mustaklem and other suppliers has fueled a shortage of key drugs in Palestinian hospitals, making the health sector the latest victim of a deepening financial crisis for the Palestinian Authority. » Read more

Militants fire on Egyptian troops in Sinai, 4 hurt ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press by Ashraf Sweilam - August 18, 2012 - 12:00am Militants attacked Egypt's security forces and wounded four policemen in the Sinai peninsula on Saturday, in the tenth day of clashes since 16 soldiers were killed in the volatile borderland near Israel and the Gaza strip earlier this month. The troops were returning from an early morning raid where they had arrested two suspects in their homes when militants fired a rocket-propelled grenade at their convoy as it was driving along a major road, a security official said. » Read more

Hamas calls on Egypt to exclude Israel of any security coordination in Sinai ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua August 19, 2012 - 12:00am Ismail Haneya, premier of Islamic Hamas movement's rule in the Gaza Strip, on Sunday called on Egypt to exclude Israelis from any security coordination to control the security in the Peninsula of Sinai. During a speech on Sunday morning to mark Eid al-Fitr, the end of the 30 days of fasting in the holy month of Ramadan, Haneya said security in Sinai has to be controlled through coordination between Egypt and Hamas. » Read more

U.S., Israeli navies hold joint Med maneuvers in tense times ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua August 19, 2012 - 12:00am Israeli and American naval counterparts spent the last week holding a joint search-and-rescue exercises in the Mediterranean Sea, which included live fire and seaborne helicopters landings. The "Reliant Mermaid" drill also tested the U.S. Navy's destroyer-mounted Aegis-missile defense system, which, theoretically, could defend Israel against Iranian missiles. » Read more

Israeli vice PM condemns "outrageous" attacks by Jews on Palestinians ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua August 19, 2012 - 12:00am Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Moshe Ya'alon on Sunday condemned as terrorism last week's Jewish gang attack on several Palestinians in downtown Jerusalem, and a suspected Jewish firebombing of a vehicle in the West Bank. "The hate crimes committed over the weekend against Arabs in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) and Jerusalem are intolerable, outrageous and must be firmly dealt with," he said in a statement Sunday. » Read more

Israel Police: Hundreds watched attempt to lynch Palestinians in Jerusalem, did not interfere ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Oz Rosenberg - August 20, 2012 - 12:00am After initially treating the event as a brawl, police on Sunday for the first time referred to the attack on Palestinian youths by dozens of Jewish teens in Jerusalem early last Friday as a "lynching." A police representative told the Magistrate's Court that hundreds of people watched the event without helping the victims. Witnesses say the attack lasted a short while before police arrived and the attackers fled. » Read more

Israeli police arrest suspects in Jerusalem attack ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency August 20, 2012 - 12:00am Israeli police have arrested a total of five suspects in connection with an attack in Jerusalem early Friday that left a Palestinian citizen of Israel seriously injured, an Israeli police spokesman said Sunday. Spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told Ma'an that a special investigation team is looking into the incident and trying to work out the exact nature of the attack. Five suspects, including one female, aged between 13-19 have been arrested in connection with the assault, which took place in the early hours of Friday in West Jerusalem's Zion Square. » Read more

PM to Abbas: Israel will catch firebomb assailants ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Hassan Shaalan - August 18, 2012 - 12:00am Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday and offered his greetings for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr. Netanyahu promised that Israel will spare no effort in bringing those behind the firebomb assault against Palestinians to justice. » Read more

Hamas arrests terrorist behind June border attack ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Elior Levy - August 18, 2012 - 12:00am The Hamas government's security forces have arrested a terrorist who was responsible in part for the attack that killed an Israeli civilian working on Israel's southern border fence in June. » Read more

University heads ask court to overturn Ariel status ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post August 20, 2012 - 12:00am The heads of Israel's universities on Monday petitioned the High Court of Justice to overturn a decision granting Ariel University Center (AUC) official university status. The petition was filed against a number of organizations, including The Council for Higher Education in Judea and Samaria, the IDF OC Central Command, the Israeli government, Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz and Defense Minister Ehud Barak. » Read more

Israeli threats about Iran -- crying wolf or laying groundwork? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times by Carol J. Williams - (Opinion) August 17, 2012 - 12:00am They're passing out gas masks in Jerusalem and testing a new text-messaging system for alerting Israelis to incoming rockets. The civil defense preparations follow a week of renewed warnings by Israeli officials that airstrikes against Iranian nuclear facilities may be imminent, despite U.S. misgivings, to thwart Tehran's alleged pursuit of nuclear bomb-making capability. » Read more

Zone of Insanity ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Foreign Policy by James Traub - (Opinion) August 17, 2012 - 12:00am It must drive Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu crazy that scarcely anybody outside his immediate circle of advisors -- oh, and Mitt Romney -- understands the imperative for war against Iran. Israel's retired security chiefs uniformly consider a war unnecessary right now. Israel's president, Shimon Peres, agrees. A poll released this week found the Israeli public opposed to war by a solid 46 percent to 32 percent. As for the United States, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta insists that "the window is still open to try to work toward a diplomatic solution." » Read more

Why Israel shrugs at retaliation after attack on Iran ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor by Avi Nave, Daniel Nisman - (Opinion) August 17, 2012 - 12:00am Last week Iran sent a high-level envoy, Saeed Jalili, on a particularly controversial public-relations tour to Lebanon and Syria, the most explosive corner of the region. After ruffling feathers during a Beirut stopover, Mr. » Read more

Bibi's Iran Plan Rests on Shaky Ground ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward by Leonard Fein - (Opinion) August 19, 2012 - 12:00am Israel’s leading television news program, Channel 2 News, now informs us that Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Barak are “on the brink” of approving an Israeli military attack on Iran. » Read more

Israel Attack on Iran Runs Risk of Massive Missile Retaliation ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Monitor by Barbara Slavin - (Opinion) August 19, 2012 - 12:00am If Israel attacks Iran, the Israeli heartland could face retaliation from more than 10,000 missiles based in Iran, Syria, Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, according to Uzi Rubin, the founder and first director of Israel’s Missile Defense Organization. » Read more

A proper Zionist live fire zone ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Amira Hass - (Opinion) August 20, 2012 - 12:00am When police of the African National Congress are slaughtering platinum miners who demand that the mine owner (a private transnational company registered in London! ) pay them a wage that begins to befit the hardships of the job and value of the metal in operating rooms and on the fingers of plutocrats, there is no chance that one Palestinian tractor impounded by Israeli soldiers will attract the attention of a single foreign news editor anywhere on earth. » Read more

Reality Check: Peres and the voice of reason ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Jeff Barak - (Opinion) August 19, 2012 - 12:00am It’s a sad state of affairs when it takes an 89-year-old to provide the clearest perspective on Israel’s present-day reality. Admittedly, President Shimon Peres is no ordinary almost-nonagenarian, but he is to be applauded for both his courage in publicly demolishing the prime minister and defense minister’s arguments in favor of an Israeli strike on Iran and for his cogent analysis of the limits of Israel’s strength. » Read more

Intolerable behavior ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post (Editorial) August 19, 2012 - 12:00am Israeli Jews were reportedly responsible for two attacks perpetrated against Palestinians in recent days. Last Thursday, a Molotov cocktail was thrown at a taxi carrying six Palestinians outside the West Bank settlement of Bat Ayin. The ensuing explosion caused the taxi to flip over and resulted in the injury of several of the passengers. The assailants were aware that the victims were Palestinians since the attack took place during the day and the vehicle was yellow with green license plates, characteristic of Palestinian taxis. » Read more

Palestinian Statehood Returns (Ho-Hum) ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward by Ben Lynfield - (Opinion) August 19, 2012 - 12:00am A second bid by the Palestinian Authority to have the United Nations recognize Palestinian statehood appears to be a case of “once more, but with less feeling.” » Read more

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