April 23rd

Coalition may back PM on J'lem freeze
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Rebecca Anna Stoil - April 23, 2010 - 12:00am

Israel Beiteinu, however, threatens crisis over other demands. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s key coalition partners seemed to give a tacit nod Thursday to the possibility of a building freeze within Jerusalem itself, despite a reiteration by Netanyahu that no such freeze would be enacted. But while that potential source of coalition friction seemed to turn in the prime minister’s favor, other challenges to coalition unity arose during the day from Israel Beiteinu.

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Is Israel willing to freeze East Jerusalem construction?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Ilene Prusher - April 22, 2010 - 12:00am

US Middle East Peace Envoy George Mitchell arrived here late Thursday for talks with the Israeli and Palestinian leaders in an attempt to get the two to agree to terms for so-called proximity talks. Mr. Mitchell's trip comes despite recent indications from President Barack Obama that his administration is losing patience with the two parties in the conflict.

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Shutting the Doors
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
(Editorial) April 21, 2010 - 12:00am

Rabbi Louis Jacobs was well on his way to becoming chief rabbi of the United Kingdom in the 1960s, when his ascension was stopped cold because of a small, brilliant book he had published challenging the traditional view that the Torah was dictated by God from Mount Sinai. Banned from his own Orthodox synagogue, he inspired the birth of the Masorti movement in Britain, and went on to author more than 50 books, achieving worldwide fame for his scholarship, eloquence and aptitude for reconciling Orthodox practice and modern belief.

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Israel's messianic terrorists
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
by Patrick Seale - (Opinion) April 23, 2010 - 12:00am

Barely a week goes by without news of some act of violence by Jewish colonists against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. By any definition, what colonists and religious activists do to Palestinians is terrorism. But it goes unpunished. Time and again, Muslim graves and mosques are desecrated, harvests torched, sheep rustled, cars stoned and damaged, homes and shops forcibly occupied. Palestinians are chased off their own land by gun fire. Just last week, colonists cut down 300 olive trees.

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Netanyahu should listen to reason
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
by George S. Hishmeh - (Opinion) April 22, 2010 - 12:00am

Israel, like a child, always sees itself blameless. This is partly thanks to its supporters, who include some key members of the well-entrenched American Jewish community, who cannot see the light of day. It is as if they are blindfolded. Here is one prominent example (and there are many), in which the author of a full-page advertisement, costing tens of thousands of dollars, and which appeared in key US newspapers, made a fool of himself this week, even as some fellow Jews recognised.

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Hamas is accused of being moderate
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Edmund Sanders - April 22, 2010 - 12:00am

Hamas, the Palestinian faction viewed by many in the West as a nest of terrorists and Islamic hard-liners, is battling a curious new epithet: moderate. Fifteen months after a punishing Israeli offensive failed to dislodge Hamas from power in the Gaza Strip, rival resistance groups and some former supporters say the organization has become too political, too secular and too soft.

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Giving ground on Arab east Jerusalem?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by David Horovitz - April 23, 2010 - 12:00am

On the face of it, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s interview with Channel 2 last night represented a fairly banal outing. Israel wanted to avoid wars, he declared, and it sought peace. Not many headlines there. He may not have signaled the firmest of convictions in President Obama’s capacity to prevent Iran from attaining a nuclear weapons capability, but he didn’t give voice to any specific skepticism he may be feeling either.

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Israeli Unassailable Might and Unyielding Angst
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Roger Cohen - (Opinion) April 23, 2010 - 12:00am

JERUSALEM — For Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his people are not traumatized by some wild delusion. No, there are facts: the rise of Iran, the fierce projection of Iran’s proxies, Hamas and Hezbollah, and the rockets that have been fired by them. Netanyahu is firm in his core self-image as the guarantor of threatened Israeli security. Israeli withdrawals from southern Lebanon and Gaza, led only, in his view, to the insecurity of life beneath a rocket threat. The question he poses himself, contemplating the West Bank, is how to stop this happening a third time.

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April 22nd

Daniel Terris says personal attacks on Judge Goldstone don't help Israel. Israeli peace activists promote new flag. Palestinians deny Pres. Abbas' health is failing. The Israeli military will investigate reports of the use of human shields. The PA pledges to stop Palestinians working in settlement construction. Special Envoy Mitchell is returning to the region. Projectiles fired toward Israel land in Jordan. The Israeli military arrests 24 Palestinians in the West Bank, expels a former prisoner to Gaza. PM Fayyad vows to step up popular resistance. NSA Jones warns lack of peace is strengthening Iran. Akiva Eldar says Pres. Obama has offered PM Netanyahu a gentleman's agreement on Jerusalem, but Israel says settlement activity will continue anyway. Settlers promote tourism in the occupied territories. WJC President Ron Lauder again criticizes Pres. Obama, and Israeli extremists burn the President in effigy. Protesters condemn an attack on a Palestinian woman in Jaffa. Jewish Americans worry about accusations of "dual loyalty." Daoud Kuttab says the US has determined that Israel is primarily to blame for the Mideast peace impasse.

Trying to effect change in Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
by Daoud Kuttab - (Opinion) April 22, 2010 - 12:00am

An analysis of the most recent ABC TV interview with former US president Bill Clinton reveals a fascinating development in Washington, DC. The Obama administration has concluded who the culprit is in the Arab-Israeli conflict, and it is not the Arab side. When asked by reporter Jack Tapper about US plans for the Middle East conflict, the former US president stated that Washington plans to "do something to deprive both sides of any excuse not to engage in serious negotiations".

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