November 10th

Judge Goldstone’s offensive apology for apartheid ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Salon.com by Udi Aloni - (Opinion) November 10, 2011 - 1:00am I write as an Israeli Jew who was brought up and molded at the very center of secular, Zionist Israel. My parents, Reuven and Shulamit Aloni, exemplify everything that is good and just about Israel for humanistic Jews like Judge Richard Goldstone, the noted South African jurist, who in a recent New York Times Op-Ed, denied the practice of apartheid in Israel. » Read more

What the UNESCO vote on Palestine means for the U.N. ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star by Ziad Abu Zayyad - (Opinion) November 10, 2011 - 1:00am In a development that gave the Palestinian leadership a significant hand up, the United Nation’s Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) became the first international organization to admit Palestine as a full member last week despite strong opposition from several member countries. » Read more

Israel running out of American friends ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News by George S. Hishmeh - (Opinion) November 10, 2011 - 1:00am It was fortuitous that three prominent Americans spoke within days of each other to full-house audiences at three different think-tanks in Washington, blasting Israeli policies and the blatant favouritism of American administrations towards Israel and a failure to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, now in its 64th year. Shockingly, US media neglected the harsh criticism voiced within a mile’s radius of the White House. » Read more

Stalled bid for statehood is not end of the road ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National (Editorial) November 10, 2011 - 1:00am The Palestinian bid for full membership in the United Nations may be drowning in a procedural swamp. As The National reports today, the US appears to have wielded the tools of big-power diplomacy so effectively that the issue will not even come to a Security Council vote, sparing the US the embarrassing need to use its veto to protect its ally Israel. » Read more

Attack on Iran Unlikely — For Now ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward by Yossi Alpher - (Opinion) November 10, 2011 - 1:00am The recent intimations that Israel is planning a pre-emptive strike against Iran’s nuclear infrastructure are not likely to lead to any such action anytime soon. More likely, they reflect an attempt to generate stronger international sanctions, coming as they did just as Vienna’s International Atomic Energy Agency was about to release a report confirming Israel’s concerns about Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Right now, though, hype, pressure and deterrence appear to be the name of the game. » Read more

Brinkmanship could spark Middle East war ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Douglas Bloomfield - (Opinion) November 10, 2011 - 1:00am When it comes to attacking enemy nuclear installations, Israel has an excellent record for springing surprises and getting the job done. Just ask the Iraqis and Syrians. So why is everyone from the prime minister on down talking so much these days about paying a visit to Iran? Media in Israel and around the world have been filled with stories of how Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak want to hit the Iranian nuclear facilities and are trying to convince the rest of the cabinet, over the objections of the military and intelligence leadership, to go along. » Read more

‘Leftist law’ a bad joke ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Uri Misgav - (Opinion) November 10, 2011 - 1:00am Here are some projects run by Israeli non-profit organizations via foreign funding that will be gravely undermined should the despicable anti-funding law be implemented: An open clinic serving 8,000 refugees and work migrants in Tel Aviv, kindergartens in unrecognized Bedouin villages, democracy education in the Ethiopian community, legal aid to disadvantaged Israelis and community empowerment groups in development towns. No doubt, this leftist recklessness must be stopped. » Read more

Iran wins ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Bradley Burston - (Blog) November 10, 2011 - 1:00am The same question, wherever you turn. In a hundred accents, at the green grocer's, the dentist's, the college library, the gym. From garage to synagogue, the question doesn't change: Will we attack Iran? Which is to ask: Will Iran then reduce Tel Aviv, and all of Israel, to ashes? If a decision has, in fact, been taken, the dozen or so Israeli government and military officials who would know, are not telling. At the same time, it is fair to assume that those who are prepared publicly to hazard a prediction, do not, in fact, know. » Read more

Rabin's murderers are still free and happy ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Moshe Negbi - (Opinion) November 10, 2011 - 1:00am Yigal Amir is in jail but his senior partners to the murder of the prime minister are still free and happy. Amir himself testified about those partners already on the night of the assassination when he said in his investigation: "Without the rabbinical ruling or the 'din rodef' [the right to pursue and kill someone who has supposedly sinned] that applied to [Prime Minister Yitzhak] Rabin, issued by a number of rabbis that I know about, I would have had difficulty murdering. A murder of that kind must have backing. If I did not have backing ... I would not have acted." » Read more

Palestinians' UN blow reveals extent of Israel's influence on US ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National by Omar Karmi - November 10, 2011 - 1:00am With no consensus in the UN's Security Council over a Palestinian statehood application, US efforts to avoid having to cast a veto on the issue appear to have paid off. A draft report written by the membership committee looking into the Palestinian application said it had been unable to make a "unanimous recommendation" to the Security Council. It is now possible that a vote may not even go ahead. » Read more