NEWS: Israel expels a Hamas leader from occupied East Jerusalem. Settlers are accused of torching another West Bank mosque. Fatah officials say no elections can be held before a national unity government is formed. An Israeli NGO says it's almost impossible for Palestinians to successfully pursue claims against occupation forces. Israeli troops kill a Palestinian militant in Gaza, and arrest 21 Palestinians in the West Bank. Quartet representatives will meet in Jerusalem next week.Though he has strongly denied it, some reports suggest PM Fayyad may be mulling a run for president. The British advertising oversight board has censured the PLO mission over maps not including Israel. Tensions are running high at a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon after a violent incident.Politico looks at increasing criticism of Israel's policies among some Washington liberal groups. COMMENTARY: Ha'aretz says Israel must stop changing the landscape of occupied East Jerusalem. Bradley Burston says a recent vote in Berkeley shows Jewish Americans are increasingly intolerant of diverse views on Israel. Chemi Shalev says by today's standards, the late Prime Minister Rabin would've been considered a dangerous heretic. The Jerusalem Post denounces recent comments by American officials about Israel, but Michael Berenbaum says criticism of Amb. Gutman and Sec. Panetta is unfair. Jonathan Guyer says a deep chill is setting into US-Israeli relations. Hugh Naylor agrees Israel is becoming dangerously isolated. Tony Karon says Israel's bellicose rhetoric towards Iran makes no sense. Mohammed Najib says Israel's control of 80% of Palestinian income in terms of tax revenues makes life impossible for the PA. Newt Gingrich says the Obama administration is “devoted to criticizing Israel.”

Why Is the Obama Administration So Devoted to Criticizing Israel?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Human Events
by Newt Gingrich - (Opinion) December 7, 2011 - 1:00am


At a fundraiser in New York last week, President Obama said his administration “has done more in terms of the security of the state of Israel than any previous administration.” Is the President looking at the same record we are? Last week’s news abounded with evidence that his administration often coddles forces opposed to Israel’s very existence while his officials publicly brutalize Israel in the diplomatic arena.


Already having an impact
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Mohammed Najib - (Opinion) December 7, 2011 - 1:00am


The Palestinian Authority's latest financial crisis--which Palestinians widely believe was punishment for President Mahmoud Abbas' request for statehood at the United Nations in late September--has seriously impacted various sectors within the Palestinian community, including both civil sector employees and West Bank security personnel.


Israel's war drums over Iran drown out common sense
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Tony Karon - (Opinion) December 7, 2011 - 1:00am


It has become an article of faith among Israeli leaders and their neoconservative partners in Washington that the only way Iran can be persuaded to back down in the nuclear standoff is if Tehran believes it's in real danger of being bombed. Hence the relentless war drums pounded by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Ehud Barak, despite the obvious misgivings of the Obama administration.


Israel rift roils Democratic ranks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Politico
by Ben Smith - December 7, 2011 - 1:00am


Two of the Democratic Party’s core institutions are challenging a bipartisan consensus on Israel and Palestine that has dominated American foreign policy for more than a decade. The Center for American Progress, the party’s key hub of ideas and strategy, and Media Matters, a central messaging organization, have emerged as vocal critics of their party’s staunchly pro-Israel congressional leadership and have been at odds, at times, with Barack Obama’s White House, which has acted as a reluctant ally to Benjamin Netanyahu’s Israeli government.


A tin ear during a shifting political landscape leaves Israel in fearful isolation
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Hugh Naylor - (Opinion) December 7, 2011 - 1:00am


The public scolding of Israel by a top US defence official last week represented more than just frustration with the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for its refusal to resume peace talks with the Palestinians. Leon Panetta's demand that Israel "get to the damn" negotiating table, made during a speech at a Washington think tank on Friday, was the most overt sign yet of the Obama administration's impatience with what it views as Israel's refusal to adapt to the Middle East's shifting political landscape.


Israel's chilling relations with the US
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Jonathan Guyer - (Opinion) December 6, 2011 - 1:00am


The Israeli government has come under criticism from both the Obama administration and American Jewish communities over the past week – the latter focused on a bizarre advertisement campaign aimed at the US diaspora. The current Israeli government's insensitivity toward American Jews has gotten their attention, but whether forthcoming Knesset bills that are an affront to democratic values will cause similar alarm is yet to be seen.


Was Howard Gutman Right?: Israel and Antisemitism, What Do We Know
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Journal
by Michael Berenbaum - (Opinion) December 6, 2011 - 1:00am


We are hearing an awful lot of nonsense about the remarks of Howard Gutman, the US Ambassador to Belgium regarding whether Israel treatment of the Palestinians is to “blame” for the increase in antisemitism. A summary of Gutman’s remarks, not a direct quote appeared in an Israeli newspaper and American bloggers took them as gospel and Republican political candidates called for Howard Gutman’s ouster. Abraham Foxman himself condemned the remarks as an excuse for inaction on antisemitism and the headlines blared American Ambassador blamed Israel for antisemitism.


Scary US views
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
(Editorial) December 7, 2011 - 1:00am


In recent days, there has been a truly frightening articulation of the US administration’s perception of Israel vis-à-vis the Muslim world. On Friday, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta essentially blamed Israel for its own “increasing isolation,” urging the Jewish state to reach out to its neighbors.


By today’s standards, Rabin would have been considered a disgrace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Chemi Shalev - (Opinion) December 7, 2011 - 1:00am


On October 16, 1993, inside the Israeli Boeing jet that was idling on the tarmac of Jakarta Airport, I experienced one of the high points of my journalistic career. Together with my dear colleague, the late Dan Semama of Israel Television, I had been chosen to enter the Indonesian capital to cover the historic meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and President Suharto. Before the encounter, we were to be privately briefed by the head of the Mossad, Shabtai Shavit, and by Rabin himself.



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