August 5th

In Israel, raft of new laws shows rise of the right
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Joshua Mitnick - August 4, 2011 - 12:00am

Critics say Israel is forsaking its democratic ideals with a right-wing agenda. Avishai Amir, a former spokesman in the left-wing Labor government of the 1990s, begs to differ. Take the recent nakba law, for example, which bans public funding for groups that mark Israel's independence day as Palestinians do: by declaring the creation of the Jewish state to be a nakba, Arabic for "catastrophe."

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ISRAEL: Approval of 900 new homes in East Jerusalem draws ire
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Edmund Sanders - August 4, 2011 - 12:00am

Israel's Interior Ministry gave the final green light Thursday to the construction of more than 900 new homes in a Jewish development built on land seized during the 1967 Mideast war. Palestinians and anti-settlement groups said the Har Homa expansion, which has been working its way through Israeli regulatory agencies since last year, will occupy one of the last remaining undeveloped hillsides in the area and effectively cut off direct access between Palestinian neighborhoods in East Jerusalem and Bethlehem.

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August 4th

NEWS: A pending Knesset bill would drop the word “democratic” from Israel self-definition and eliminate Arabic as an official language. A gruesome “honor killing” shocks Palestinians and prompts harsher penalties. New US ambassador Dan Shapiro says Pres. Obama hopes to visit Israel soon. Analysts say new settlement construction would do nothing to offset Israel's cost-of-living crisis. An Israeli parliamentary report says Palestinian violence in September is “unlikely,” but its security forces are preparing for many contingencies. The Arab League says it's finalizing plans for a UN statehood initiative, and Palestinians say their "train is headed towards New York." Gazans show no sympathy for ex-president Mubarak, now on trial in Egypt. COMMENTARY: Nicholas Kristof says the US needs a more balanced policy towards Israel and the Palestinians. Dimi Reider and Aziz Abu Sarah say the cost of living crisis in Israel is strongly linked to the occupation. Michael Jansen says Israel's economic crisis is a classic guns versus butter dilemma. Ian Bremmer says Palestinian statehood is coming and Israel and the United States will find themselves isolated. Americans for Peace Now issues “principles” for Palestinian international recognition and the UN.

Egyptians unite behind Mubarak’s trail
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Media Line
by Joseph Mayton - August 4, 2011 - 12:00am

Cheers went up at the local café as the crowd applauded and watched on television former President Hosni Mubarak being wheeled into his courtroom cage, locked up like a dog. This trial of the man who ruled Egypt for nearly three decades was going to be as popular as a World Cup football final, with people tuning into to their radios or crowding around televisions as the streets wind down to a standstill.

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APN Principles on the Palestinians, International Recognition & the UN
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Americans For Peace Now
by Lara Friedman - (Opinion) July 28, 2011 - 12:00am

A great deal of attention is focused today on September 2011, when it is expected that the UN will take up some kind of initiative related to the Palestinians. Both the form and the content of such an initiative remain unknown and in all likelihood are in fact still undecided - realities that have not stopped pundits and organizations from rushing to judgment and staking out hard-line positions opposing the effort.

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The coming Palestinian statehood
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Ian Bremmer - (Opinion) August 3, 2011 - 12:00am

As violent protests rock the Arab world, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Israeli government has tried to keep a low profile. It has largely succeeded. That’s about to change.

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Israel’s guns, butter and colonies
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
by Michael Jansen - (Opinion) August 4, 2011 - 12:00am

Ongoing demonstrations in Israel are said to be the largest protests ever over social and economic issues. Criticism of the government began over the rising price of cottage cheese, a product on many Israelis’ breakfast table. Youths broadened their protest to encompass rising rents and the skyrocketing prices of food and set up Tahrir Square style camp-ins in Tel Aviv and other cities.

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In Israel, the Rent Is Too Damn High
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Dimi Reider and Aziz Abu Sarah - (Opinion) August 3, 2011 - 12:00am

THERE are profound and institutionalized economic disparities between Arabs and Jews in Israel. But when it comes to housing prices, an Israeli Arab who makes $1,000 a month and pays $500 in rent can still find common ground with an Israeli Jew making $2,000 and giving $1,000 to the landlord.

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Seeking Balance on the Mideast
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Nicholas D. Kristof - (Opinion) August 4, 2011 - 12:00am

Congress periodically showcases the warts of democracy, occasionally even the deformities and disfigurements, and it might seem difficult to top the latest debt ceiling horrors. But there’s one area where Congress has been even more obstructionist: the Middle East.

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Palestinians 'moving ahead' with UN bid: Erakat
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Agence France Presse (AFP)
August 4, 2011 - 12:00am

Palestinians are determined to go ahead with their UN membership bid as an Arab League follow-up committee endorsed a final draft of the request to be presented to the UN General Assembly, a top official said. Saeb Erakat brushed off as a public relations stunt Israeli attempts to lure the Palestinians back into peace talks based on the 1967 borders if they abandon the UN membership campaign. "The Palestinian train is now heading towards New York," Erakat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, told AFP during the committee's meeting in Doha, Qatar, late on Wednesday.

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