What Edward Really Said
In Print by Hussein Ibish - NOW Lebanon (Opinion) - August 15, 2012 - 12:00am

Few contemporary thinkers have been more revered and reviled than the late Palestinian-American professor Edward Said. But even his most ardent critics can hardly deny that Said was one of the most significant public intellectuals of our time. And while he is probably best remembered for his political activism, it was as a major literary theorist that he produced his most important work. 

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NEWS: Individual “lone soldiers” from countries around the world are volunteering for Israeli military service. A Palestinian prisoner detained by Israel is refusing water after 2 months on hunger strike. An Israeli human rights group is asking a court to prevent the demolition of five Bedouin villages in the Negev desert to make way for new Jewish farms. Israel is training its diplomats in using Twitter and other social media. PM Netanyahu has reportedly decided to bury the Levy Committee Report rather than dealing in any way with its recommendations. Israel's ambassador to the US says Israel's clock on Iran is “ticking faster." Sec. Panetta says he doesn't think Israel has made any decision. A former Obama administration official says Israeli threats towards Iran should be taken “very seriously.” PA spokesman Khatib resigns. Despite Israeli restrictions, the PLO holds a Ramadan event in occupied East Jerusalem. Egypt is reportedly about to resume efforts to foster Palestinian national reconciliation. The South African government refutes Israel's claims that by boycotting settlement goods, it is boycotting Israel itself. Israel protests the inclusion of several localities on an EU list of Israeli settlements. The Lebanese Army is relocating in the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp. The PA grants 4.7 million NIS to West Bank universities. COMMENTARY: Hussein Ibish reviews a new book on key terms in the writings of Edward Said. Avi Issacharoff asks what's the point of Israel's psychological warfare against Iran. Carlo Strenger looks at a new film that refuses to portray Israeli soldiers as either monsters or heroes. Brandon Davis contrasts an Israeli settlement and a nearby Palestinian village in the occupied West Bank that share the same name, but little else. Emily Hauser says proposed new restrictions barring undocumented migrants and stateless Palestinians from filing suit in Israeli courts are part of a broader pattern of an Israeli siege mentality. Frida Ghitis says Israel may benefit from the “Arab Spring." Daniel Byman and Natan Sachs look at the rise of settler terrorism in the occupied West Bank.

The Rise of Settler Terrorism
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Foreign Affairs
by Daniel Byman, Natan Sachs - (Opinion) August 14, 2012 - 12:00am

Late this past June, a group of Israeli settlers in the West Bank defaced and burned a mosque in the small West Bank village of Jabaa. Graffiti sprayed by the vandals warned of a "war" over the planned evacuation, ordered by the Israeli Supreme Court, of a handful of houses illegally built on private Palestinian land near the Israeli settlement of Beit El.

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How the Arab Spring might help Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Miami Herald
by Frida Ghitis - (Opinion) August 15, 2012 - 12:00am

A few months ago, as I was speaking to a non-profit group about how developments in the Arab world would affect Israel, I noticed the faces in the crowd looking back at me with deep skepticism. I understood the reason. I was arguing that there is a possibility — not a certainty — that Israel will eventually emerge safer than before as a result of the Arab revolutions, also known as the Arab Spring. I have not changed my mind.

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On Laws and Walls
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast
by Emily L. Hauser - (Opinion) August 14, 2012 - 12:00am

This past week, Israel’s Justice Ministry issued new regulations that, if implemented, will make it impossible for many Palestinians and all undocumented immigrants to file suit in Israeli courts.

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Contesting history: A tale of two Tekoas
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
by Brandon Davis - (Opinion) August 15, 2012 - 12:00am

The Gush Herodion Development Corporation has big plans for Tekoa. Already boasting a pizza parlor, a swimming pool and a horse ranch, this idyllic "Jewish village" of approximately 1,600 will soon add six new buildings with eight "spacious" apartments each, designed by the architect Jacques Gabay.

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The Israeli film that refuses to portray IDF soldiers as monsters or heroes
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Carlo Strenger - (Film Review) August 15, 2012 - 12:00am

David Grossman, in the introduction to his collection of non-fiction essays Death as a Way of Life, writes that beyond the sound, the fury and the grand political rhetoric, there is a silent place buried inside the soul of every Israeli and every Palestinian, where each one knows that this terrible conflict, in the end, is futile. Politicians are required to give the impression that they know where they are taking the country. Political commentators are supposed to make sense of events, and potentially suggest ways of action.

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What's the point of Israel's psychological warfare against Iran?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Avi Issacharoff - (Opinion) August 15, 2012 - 12:00am

Full disclosure: Maj.-Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari, the commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, hasn’t spoken to me recently. Actually, he has never spoken to me at all. Nor has Iranian Defense Minister Gen. Ahmad Vahidi, or any other defense establishment officials in Tehran.

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What Edward Really Said
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from NOW Lebanon
by Hussein Ibish - (Opinion) August 15, 2012 - 12:00am

Few contemporary thinkers have been more revered and reviled than the late Palestinian-American professor Edward Said. But even his most ardent critics can hardly deny that Said was one of the most significant public intellectuals of our time. And while he is probably best remembered for his political activism, it was as a major literary theorist that he produced his most important work. 

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PA grants 4.7 million NIS to West Bank universities
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
August 15, 2012 - 12:00am

The Palestinian Authority Ministry of Finance on Wednesday transferred financial aid to seven universities, the PA education minister said. Ali al-Jarbawi said that Al-Najah University, Bethlehem University, Al-Istiqlal Academy, Bir Zeit, Hebron, the Open University and Palestinian polytechnic will all receive the funding, designed to alleviate the financial crisis affecting universities. The total amount of funding to be divided between the seven universities is 4.7 million shekels ($1.1 million).

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