December 6th

Ultimately crippling ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons by Ghassan Khatib - (Opinion) December 5, 2011 - 1:00am The Palestinian Authority has been plagued this year by various financial troubles that are affecting, in turn, its ability to fulfill some of its financial obligations. The most recent source of these problems has been a decline in PA revenues. The Palestinian budget is usually composed of two sources of income. One is external funding ($1.83 billion annually) from donors, and the other is made up of domestic revenues, direct ($812 million a year) and indirect ($1.442 billion annually collected by Israel). » Read more

Ultimately crippling ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons by Ghassan Khatib - (Opinion) December 5, 2011 - 1:00am The Palestinian Authority has been plagued this year by various financial troubles that are affecting, in turn, its ability to fulfill some of its financial obligations. The most recent source of these problems has been a decline in PA revenues. The Palestinian budget is usually composed of two sources of income. One is external funding ($1.83 billion annually) from donors, and the other is made up of domestic revenues, direct ($812 million a year) and indirect ($1.442 billion annually collected by Israel). » Read more

Not central to independence ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons by Yossi Alpher - (Opinion) December 5, 2011 - 1:00am Revelations concerning the Palestinian financial crisis of recent weeks touch upon three issues. The most obvious one is the seeming inability of the Palestinian Authority under Prime Minister Salam Fayyad to accumulate sufficient reserves to withstand a few weeks' shortfall in income. Put differently, it is the PA's huge reliance on donor-nation funds and on taxes collected for it by Israel. » Read more

US criticism will only benefit Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News by Linda Heard - (Opinion) December 6, 2011 - 1:00am It appears that the Obama administration is playing “good cop, bad cop” with the Israeli leadership. While the President Barack Obama goes out of his way to prostrate himself before the powerful pro-Israel lobby in the run-up to next January's election, his minions are sending a different message — a message Obama has no doubt blessed behind the scenes. Publicly, the president is muffled. » Read more

Secrets of Ben-Gurion's Leadership ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward by Gal Beckerman - (Opinion) December 5, 2011 - 1:00am The most revealing conversation that Shimon Peres ever had with his mentor, David Ben-Gurion, was perhaps his first. Peres was a young activist in Ha’Noar Ha’Oved, the Labor Zionist youth movement, when he asked the powerful and charismatic chairman of the Jewish Agency for a lift up the coast to Haifa from Tel Aviv. They spent most of the ride in silence, but then, just as they were approaching their destination, Ben-Gurion decided, out of nowhere, to tell the young man why he preferred Lenin to Trotsky. This was, for sure, a surprising admission. » Read more

Terror Out of Zion ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Ideas Daily by Elliot Jager - (Opinion) December 6, 2011 - 1:00am There is no love lost between the British Foreign Office and Israel. In a report to parliament last month, Foreign Minister William Hague condemned Israel for building in Jerusalem, being in the West Bank, and treating the present Gaza regime like the enemy it is. Hague's report mentioned Hamas only to blame Israel for the Islamist group's obduracy. » Read more

Our World: An ally no more ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Caroline Glick - (Analysis) December 5, 2011 - 1:00am With vote tallies in for Egypt’s first round of parliamentary elections in it is abundantly clear that Egypt is on the fast track to becoming a totalitarian Islamic state. The first round of voting took place in Egypt’s most liberal, cosmopolitan cities. And still the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafists received more than 60 percent of the vote. Run-off elections for 52 seats will by all estimates increase their representation. » Read more

The common cause of Netanyahu and Ahmadinejad ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Khaled Diab - (Opinion) December 6, 2011 - 1:00am Netanyahu and Ahmadinejad are gifts to each other but curses on their nations. Rather than attack Iran, Israel should commit to a nuclear-free Middle East. One may be the heir apparent of Israeli right-wing royalty and the other the son of a poor, provincial Iranian jack-of-all-trades, but Benjamin Netanyahu and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad behave like mutant clones when it comes to their international brinkmanship and their uncanny knack of furthering their peoples' international isolation. » Read more

Human rights in Israel are in jeopardy ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz (Editorial) December 6, 2011 - 1:00am Today, December 6, the Israeli legislature will mark Human Rights Day (scheduled for December 10 ) ahead of many parliaments in the world with a series of events, meetings and debates. On this date in 1948 the UN General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The declaration was drafted in the shadow of the Holocaust horrors and in view of millions of homeless refugees. » Read more

Come Home to Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Roger Cohen - (Opinion) December 5, 2011 - 1:00am When Israeli actions seem arrogant or insulting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is capable of rapid action to repair the damage — provided those offended are American Jews. That is the lesson of the brouhaha over a now-aborted Israeli advertising campaign intended to shame Israeli expatriates in the United States into returning home by suggesting that America is no place for real Jews and that Diaspora life leads to loss of Jewish identity. The Jewish Federations of North America called the ads “outrageous and insulting.” » Read more