October 2nd

A conversation with British-Palestinian writer Selma Dabbagh ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by David Green - (Interview) October 1, 2012 - 12:00am Selma Dabbagh’s life story, like that of so many other Palestinians, has been an odyssey, with a simple question about the bare-bones trajectory of her biography eliciting a good 10-minute response. Though born in Scotland and today a resident of London, Dabbagh, 42, a lawyer who has in recent years become a full-time writer of fiction, has spent long stretches of her life in Kuwait, France, Cairo and Bahrain, even as her heart has largely been focused on Palestine. » Read more

The Jewish refugee equation: An obnoxious form of diplomacy ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Rachel Shabi - (Opinion) October 2, 2012 - 12:00am I didn’t want to get into this again, but then the Israeli government did. Again and again. The subject of equating Jewish and Palestinian refugees from 1948 onwards has recurred, periodically, since the 1980s. Then in 2010, the Israeli government gave the issue an oxygen pump, by passing a law that stated that negotiations over Palestinian refugees had also to factor in Jewish ‘refugees’ from Arab lands. The two groups are supposed to offset each other in a sort of exile spreadsheet, says the Israeli government. » Read more

Muffling the drums of war with Iran ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post by Richard Cohen - (Opinion) October 1, 2012 - 12:00am   If you want to read a cautionary tale about whether Israel will attack Iran, I suggest Kurt Eichenwald’s “500 Days,” which is not about that question at all. It describes how a determined George W. Bush took the United States to war in Iraq. “This confrontation is willed by God, who wants us to use this conflict to erase His people’s enemies before a new age begins,” Bush told a bewildered French President Jacques Chirac. For some reason, Chirac thought Bush sounded fanatical. » Read more

Western double standards and free speech ATFP World Press Roundup Article from NOW Lebanon by Hussein Ibish - (Opinion) October 2, 2012 - 12:00am In my recent columns I've been critical of calls for a global "blasphemy" ban from the Organization of Islamic Conference and other Muslim leaders. But free-speech protections, if they are to be meaningful, must be universal. The greatest threat to them is double standards that are the bedrock of advocacy for the slippery slope of restrictions. » Read more

Behind Henry Siegman's Turn on Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward by Nathan Guttman - October 2, 2012 - 12:00am At 82, Henry Siegman felt pessimism setting in as he thought of the future of Israel and its decades-long conflict with the Palestinians. “The two-state solution,” he recently wrote “is dead.” » Read more

Behind Henry Siegman's Turn on Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward by Nathan Guttman - October 2, 2012 - 12:00am At 82, Henry Siegman felt pessimism setting in as he thought of the future of Israel and its decades-long conflict with the Palestinians. “The two-state solution,” he recently wrote “is dead.” » Read more

Prime Minister Netanyahu’s Popularity on the Upswing ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Media Line by Linda Gradstein - October 1, 2012 - 12:00am As Israelis begin the observance of Sukkot, a week-long religious holiday celebrating the end of the harvest, talk on the streets is of travel plans and family visits. Many Israelis build a sukkah, an outdoor hut open to the stars, as commanded in the Bible, where they eat their meals – and where some even sleep -- for the week. » Read more

Arabs hold protest march to mark October riots ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Hassan Shaalan - October 1, 2012 - 12:00am Thousands demonstrated in Sakhnin on Monday marking 12 years since the October 2000 riots in which 12 Arab-Israelis, a Palestinian and a Jewish citizen were killed. They are protesting the State's failure to take legal action against members of the security forces who caused the victims' deaths. » Read more

PA releases Zakaria Zubeidi on bail ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency October 1, 2012 - 12:00am BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Former Fatah fighter Zakaria Zubeidi was released from Palestinian Authority jail on Monday evening, his lawyer said. Zubeidi has been charged with connection to the shooting on the late Jenin governor's house in May, attorney Farid Hawash said. Qaddura Musa died hours later of a heart attack. Hawash said Zubeidi would plead not guilty at the next hearing on Oct. 7. The Jenin court released him on bail of 5,000 Jordanian dinar, he added. » Read more

Israel scrambles Palestinian 'right of return' with Jewish refugee talk ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor by Christa Case Bryant - October 1, 2012 - 12:00am More than 60 years after the founding of Israel precipitated two tides of refugees in the Middle East, the Israeli government has launched a campaign to persuade the world that it’s not just Palestinians who suffered in Israel's early days. » Read more