July 20th, 2011

Peace: So far and yet so close
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Michael Felsen - (Opinion) July 19, 2011 - 12:00am

The Quartet – the US, Russia, the EU, and the U.N. – this week announced that it hasn’t yet found the way to bring Israelis and Palestinians back to the negotiating table. And according to Haaretz, Israeli and Palestinian sources concur that intensive US efforts to create an agreed outline for renewed negotiations have failed.

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The glue holding Netanyahu’s coalition: hatred for liberal values
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Carlo Strenger - (Blog) July 20, 2011 - 12:00am

The sound and the fury of Israel's anti-boycott law has not yet died down: Avigdor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beitenu party is reviving its push for a Knesset committee that will investigate ‘leftist organizations’; for the time being, the initiative to give the Knesset a veto right to reject candidates for the Supreme Court on the basis of their political views has been blocked, but it may well resurface.

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PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES: Financial crisis causing public concern
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Maher Abukhater - July 19, 2011 - 12:00am

The Palestinian Authority has until July 26 to come up with a plan on how it intends to pay salaries, without interruption, to more than 150,000 of its civil and military personnel. Otherwise, the employees may go on an open-ended general strike. This was the warning the Union of Public Employees conveyed to the Palestinian Authority on Monday following a meeting of its board members to discuss the authority's financial crisis and its claim that it may not be able to pay salaries anymore.

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July 19th

Once fertile valley dries up as Jerichoans face drought and demolition
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Irish Times
by Michael Jansen - July 19, 2011 - 12:00am

THE PALM trees of Jericho stand tall on the broad brown floor of the Jordan valley, their thick green fronds fluttering in the stiff breeze.

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NEWS: Israel drops leaflets warning Gazans not to approach the “buffer zone.” Israel’s Navy boards a French boat bound for Gaza, without incident. Pres. Abbas says he is ready to circumvent US opposition at the UN, but Deputy FM Ayalon says Palestinians are being defeated. Syria says it recognizes a Palestinian state in the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital. Israel plans hundreds of more settler housing units in the occupied territories. Settlers are increasingly lobbying in the United States. Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat is making a political comeback. Palestinians in Jericho face drought and home demolitions. A new House bill could limit US aid to several countries and the PA. COMMENTARY: Ha’aretz says Israel’s equality under the law doesn’t apply to Palestinians. Shlomo Gazit says he is determined to fight what he he says amounts to “apartheid” in Israel. Reuven Pedatzur says the PA has proven itself a worthy partner in peace. Gershon Baskin says face-to-face encounters are a key to Israeli-Palestinian peace. Asharq al-Awsat interviews Michael Weiss. Musa Keilani says Jordan needs a Palestinian state. Jeffrey Goldberg says support from Michele Bachmann and other right wing evangelicals is dangerous for Israel. Saliba Sarsar and Hussein Ibish say the international community must make an irreversible commitment to a Palestinian state. Hussein Ibish says antidemocratic tendencies are growing in Israel.

Michele Bachmann’s Hazardous Love for Israel: Jeffrey Goldberg
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bloomberg
by Jeffrey Goldberg - (Opinion) July 19, 2011 - 12:00am

Michele Bachmann, the Minnesota congresswoman and Republican candidate for president, is making a muscular showing in the polls. She is telegenic. She is clever. Some of her Republican opponents worry she may be unstoppable. But never fear, oh Republican opponents of Michele Bachmann: I’ve devised a fail-safe way to bring her to a state of cognitive paralysis. This method will require some travel on her part. Bachmann’s destination: the Tel Aviv gay-pride parade.

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The Long Overdue State of Palestine
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Huffington Post
by Hussein Ibish and Saliba Sarsar - (Opinion) July 18, 2011 - 12:00am

With the independence of the new Republic of South Sudan, the world is again reminded that states are created on the basis of local, regional and international necessity. At least two decades of international action, as well as a long, bitter and bloody conflict produced the independence of the south, a state that has been already welcomed by the international community, the African Union, the United Nations, and has been invited to join the Arab League.

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Israeli minister says Palestinians losing UN bid
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
by Daniel Estrin - July 18, 2011 - 12:00am

JERUSALEM — International support for a planned Palestinian declaration of independence at the U.N. in September is waning, in large part because of intense Israeli lobbying against the initiative, a senior Israeli diplomat claimed Monday.

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Israel’s anti-democratic impulses grow
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from NOW Lebanon
by Hussein Ibish - (Opinion) July 19, 2011 - 12:00am

A recently-passed anti-boycott law in Israel allows anyone advocating a boycott of the country or “areas under its control”—in other words the settlements—to be sued by private citizens and denied government benefits and contracts. This egregious attack on freedom of speech and conscience is a symptom of several deep-seated problems that are having a profoundly negative effect on Israel’s international standing and on prospects for peace with the Palestinians.

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Dr Musa A Keilani: Decision in the doldrums
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
by Musa Keilani - (Opinion) July 19, 2011 - 12:00am

The international Quartet has proved itself to be ineffective in its mandate to broker Israeli-Palestinian peace. The Quartet, made up of the US, the UN, the European Union and Russia, could not get out of its own trap when the group met in Washington this month.

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