Arabs yearn to move on
In Print by Hussein Ibish - Bitterlemons (Blog) - April 30, 2011 - 12:00am

Probably the most important clause in the Arab Peace Initiative, first adopted by the Arab League at the Beirut summit in 2002 and reaffirmed on several occasions including in 2007, is its commitment to "establish normal relations with Israel in the context of [a] comprehensive peace." This represented the culmination of decades of evolution of Arab thinking regarding relations with Israel, and the final repudiation of the Khartoum resolution of 1967, which insisted the Arabs would have "no peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, no negotiations with it".

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Israelis are concerned the UN may move to recognize Palestine this year. Hamas says it will seek revenge for the killing of three of its cadres in an Israeli airstrike. Judge Goldstone reconsiders his report on the Gaza war. Israel welcomes his statement, but Palestinians say he caved under pressure. An Israeli commander calls the death of Rachel Corrie “an accident.” The UN says the Israeli destruction of Palestinian homes continues to increase. The first woman leader of a Palestinian political party is elected. Israel tells its citizens to leave the Sinai. Israel launches a counter-cyber terrorism unit. Ha’aretz says another Gaza war is getting closer, and looks at PM Fayyad’s Land Day state-building activities. The Israeli government approves more West Bank settlement expansion. The Israeli military says it will have to do more real-time documenting of its activities. An Israeli university report says there is a danger of it turning into a religious state. Gaza militants declare their “truce” with Israel over. Aluf Benn says whatever his re-considerations, the Goldstone Report has changed Israel’s behavior. The National says Goldstone has not cleared Israel of civilian deaths. Tony Karon says Pres. Obama’s multilateral Libya policy has serious implications for Israel. Hussein Ibish says all parties stand to gain from normalization between the Arab states and Israel in the context of a two-state solution.

PM green lights West Bank settlement expansion
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Yair Altman - April 4, 2011 - 12:00am

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, it what seems to be a move inspired by right-wing pressures, agreed Sunday on a new zoning plan for the West Bank settlement of Nofim. The rare move effectively enables further developments of the settlement. Meanwhile, President Shimon Peres is expected to meet with US president Barack Obama later this week in Washington. So far the defense minister and other senior officials have abstained from altering the sensitive status-quo surrounding the settlements.

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PA: Goldstone caved under pressure
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Elior Levy - April 3, 2011 - 12:00am

While Israel is overjoyed with Richard Goldstone's change of heart vis-à-vis the report that blamed the Jewish State of committing war crimes during the Gaza war, the Palestinian Authority is furious at the South African judge. In a press release published on Sunday, Nabil Abu Rodeina, the spokesperson to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said that Goldstone's comments "do not change the fact that Israel committed a massacre and war crimes in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead, leaving more than 1,500 Palestinians dead."

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Fayyad's road to freedom runs over Israeli law
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Amira Hass - April 4, 2011 - 12:00am

If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? A bulldozer destroys a cistern, with only a shepherd nearby. Is the grinding sound of cement being crushed that is heard by the driver considered a sound? A bulldozer destroys another cistern, with only Palestinian residents of the South Hebron Hills nearby and few lefties from Ta'ayush, an Arab-Jewish anti-occupation group. cooperative Israeli-Palestinian association. Has there even been a demolition, if the sound hasn't reached The New York Times?

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'Goldstone retraction reduces chance of similar probe'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Yaakov Katz - April 4, 2011 - 12:00am

Judge Richard Goldstone’s retraction and new-found faith in the Israeli legal system will likely contribute to Israeli efforts to prevent the establishment of a new probe following military action in a future conflict with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, a senior IDF officer predicted on Sunday. On Friday, Goldstone published an op-ed in The Washington Post in which he said he that he no longer believed that Israel had intentionally targeted civilians during Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip in 2009.

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Next Gaza war is getting closer
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Amos Harel, Avi Issacharoff - April 4, 2011 - 12:00am

After a week-long lull in violence along the Gaza border, the southern front is heating up once again following an Israeli assassination on Saturday of three Hamas men in Khan Yunis, one of them a senior member of the organization's military wing. According to the IDF, the three men were planning to abduct Israeli tourists in Sinai over the Passover holiday. Hamas denies the allegation.

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'Israel faces threat of becoming a religious state'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Ben Hartman - April 3, 2011 - 12:00am

Israel is on its way to becoming a religious state – a reality that would pose a threat to its survival, according to a report released by the University of Haifa on Sunday. The report, entitled “Israel 2010-2030, on the Path to a Religious State,” examines the demographic factors set to change Israel in the coming years, through a comparison of the religious, haredi, secular and Arab birthrates in the country.

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Gaza Militants Declare Truce Over; Israel Says Deterrence Holding
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Media Line
by Omar Ghraieb, Arieh O'Sullivan - April 3, 2011 - 12:00am

Lashing out verbally following an Israeli air strike that killed three members of the armed wing of Hamas, Islamic militant groups in the Gaza Strip declared the de-facto two-year-old ceasefire with Israel null and void. But an Israel official said the threat was empty.

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Israel government unveils counter-cyberterrorism unit
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
April 3, 2011 - 12:00am

Israeli officials have said they are set to implement a new strategy aimed at foiling the growing wave of cyberterrorism and cybertheft attacks perpetrated against its government ministries, military agencies, and major banking and commercial entities.

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