August 19th

Settlement rabbi arrested on suspicion of incitement to racism ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Chaim Levinson - August 19, 2010 - 12:00am Rabbi Yosef Elitzur, from the West Bank settlement of Yitzhar, was detained by police on Thursday and questioned by investigators from the international crimes unit on suspicions of incitement to racism. Elitzur and Rabbi Yitzhak Shapira wrote a book "The King's Torah" which condones the murder of non-Jews if they threaten the welfare of Jews, citing Jewish law to support the argument. » Read more

Israel, muscular and a perpetual victim ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star by Rami Khouri - August 18, 2010 - 12:00am The capacity of Zionism and the leaders of Israel to be both heroic to the Jewish people and compulsive liars to the rest of the world is one of the great tragedies of our time – and it is on display again these days in the ongoing media campaign to prepare American public opinion for a possible Israeli military strike against Iran. » Read more

Public Diplomat ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward by Gal Beckerman - August 19, 2010 - 12:00am A week after Israel’s fatal raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla, which left nine dead, Michael Oren, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, appeared on Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report.” It was not an easy assignment. Stephen Colbert plays a satirical version of a right-wing television host who regularly and mercilessly mocks his guests. In introducing Oren, he had already feigned sympathy for the raid by saying that it was tragic, but “you can’t make a challah without breaking a few eggs.” » Read more

UN releases Israeli, PA responses to Goldstone; no input from Hamas ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press August 19, 2010 - 12:00am United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday released the results of Israeli and Palestinian investigations into alleged war crimes during the conflict in Gaza in the winter of 2008-2009, which did not appear to include any input from Gaza's Hamas rulers. » Read more

New Israel Fund Considering Red Lines ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward by Nathan Guttman - August 18, 2010 - 12:00am The New Israel Fund, the target of attacks by right-wing organizations accusing it of supporting anti-Zionist groups, is discussing the possibility of specifying in its guidelines that grants will be given only to groups that accept the idea of Israel as a Jewish homeland. The discussions have been taking place in recent months in Israel and in the United States, where NIF’s headquarters are located and most of the group’s donors reside. » Read more

Settlers and Palestinians remember 2005 Gaza pullout ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News by Paul Wood - August 17, 2010 - 12:00am Neve Dekalim was once the largest Israeli settlement in the Gaza Strip. Now it is mostly sand and rubble. Palestinian trucks are taking away the last of what remains of the Jewish homes, to use as building material. The evictions from Neve Dekalim took place five years ago today under then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's unilateral disengagement plan. In all, some 9,000 Israelis were evacuated from 21 Jewish settlements. Celia Goldstein, a British-born settler, was one of the last to leave Neve Dekalim. » Read more

UN hails Lebanese step towards Palestinian refugees ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua August 19, 2010 - 12:00am The United Nations on Wednesday hailed a Lebanese decision to lift an employment ban on Palestinian refugees in the country. The UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA and the International Labor Office (ILO) said in a joint statement distributed to the press that the Lebanese move represents "an important step in the right direction." "This endorsement of the universal right to work by Lebanese legislators is an important breakthrough," added the statement. "It reaffirms Lebanon's commitment to social justice and decent work for all," it stressed. » Read more

Palestinians learn about the Holocaust in Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press by Aron Heller - August 19, 2010 - 12:00am Growing up in the West Bank, Mujahid Sarsur knew next to nothing about the Holocaust and saw little ground to sympathize with a people he saw as his occupier. But thanks to an Israeli roommate overseas, the 21-year-old Palestinian student learned about the Nazi murder of 6 million Jews during World War II and discovered a new understanding of his Israeli neighbors. Now he wants other Arabs to do the same. Sarsur heads one of a handful of Palestinian grass-roots groups seeking knowledge about the Holocaust. » Read more

UN official: Israel should extend freeze ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Jordana Horn - August 18, 2010 - 12:00am In a briefing to the Security Council at its meeting Tuesday morning on the Middle East, a senior United Nations official called on Israel to continue the partial moratorium on settlement construction beyond September 26 and to extend it to all settlement activity, as well as to construction in east Jerusalem. “We are nearing a turning point in the efforts to promote direct negotiations,” Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs Oscar Fernandez- Taranco told the Security Council, in his briefing on the situation in the Middle East. » Read more

Skip the lecture on Israel's 'risks for peace' ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post by George F. Will - August 19, 2010 - 12:00am In the intifada that began in 2000, Palestinian terrorism killed more than 1,000 Israelis. As a portion of U.S. population, that would be 42,000, approaching the toll of America's eight years in Vietnam. During the onslaught, which began 10 Septembers ago, Israeli parents sending two children to a school would put them on separate buses to decrease the chance that neither would return for dinner. Surely most Americans can imagine, even if their tone-deaf leaders cannot, how grating it is when those leaders lecture Israel on the need to take "risks for peace." » Read more