'No need to remove any settlements' ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Herb Keinon - April 16, 2010 - 12:00am Israel should not have to remove any settlements in a peace agreement with the Palestinians, Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Ya’alon has told The Jerusalem Post, adding that just as Arabs live in Israel, so, too, should Jews be able to live in a future Palestinian entity. “If we are talking about coexistence and peace, why the [Palestinian] insistence that the territory they receive be ethnically cleansed of Jews?” Ya’alon asked during a wide-ranging interview that will appear in the Post’s Yom Ha’atzmaut supplement on Monday. » Read more

Multiple battlegrounds in fights over eastern Jerusalem ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) by Marcy Oster - April 13, 2010 - 12:00am The day that Zacharia Zigelman, 26, moved into a home in the Arab neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, in eastern Jerusalem, he got beaten up, he says. “You get used to it," Zigelman said of the incident, which occurred about six months ago. » Read more

Report: Goldstone banned from grandson's bar-mitzvah ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Aviel Magnezi - April 15, 2010 - 12:00am Justice Richard Goldstone, whose UN report on Operation Cast Lead accused Israel of committing war crimes in Gaza, has been prohibited from attending his grandson's bar-mitzvah by the South African Zionist Federation, the Writing Rights blog reported Thursday. It said recent negotiations between the federation, the Sandton synagogue at which the ceremony will take place, and the bar-mitzvah boy's family concluded that the judge will be banned from attending the event. » Read more

Wexler reaches out, and likes his Jewcy lifestyle ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) by Ron Kampeas - (Blog) April 16, 2010 - 12:00am Robert Wexler, the unstoppable congressman from Florida who stopped everyone in their tracks a few months ago when he, um, stopped being a congressman came out tonight in his new incarnation, as the president of the Center for Middle East Peace. » Read more

Pupils in east Jerusalem get half funding of those in west ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Ronen Medzini - April 16, 2010 - 12:00am Does the city of Jerusalem discriminate between educational institutions and students in the east of the city and the west? Absolutely yes, at least according to a professional opinion written by Jerusalem's municipal legal advisor Attorney Yossi Havilio. » Read more

At Berkeley, Students Fail to Overturn Veto of Bill Calling for Divestment From Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward by Josh Nathan-Kazis - April 15, 2010 - 12:00am An effort by members of U.C. Berkeley’s student senate to overturn the veto of a resolution calling for university divestment from some companies doing business with Israel failed earlier today, but the debate is far from over. In mid-March, the student senate passed a resolution that called for the University of California at Berkeley to divest from two companies with Israeli military contracts and create a committee to suggest additional companies for divestment. A week later, the president of the student government vetoed the bill, saying the decision was made too hastily. » Read more

Clinton: Israel must do more for peace ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters April 16, 2010 - 12:00am Israel must do more to pursue peace with the Palestinians and to strengthen their institutions or risk empowering militant groups such as Hamas, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Thursday. US President Barack Obama's efforts to revive peace talks have been stymied by a disagreement over Jewish settlement construction that has strained ties between Washington and its close ally Israel and by divisions among the Palestinians. » Read more

Gaza tunnel is cash cow for smugglers ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National by Omar Karmi - April 16, 2010 - 12:00am The last time Ibrahim Qishta did any business through the vast tunnel network under the Egypt-Gaza border it involved three sheep. Unusually, however, for the underground trade that constitutes Gaza’s lifeline to the outside world, the 60-year-old farmer was exporting. “It’s not a huge trade,” Mr Qishta said on Monday. “The Egyptians are not looking to import livestock for meat, but in order to breed them.” » Read more

Illegal outposts marked for destruction got millions in state funding ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Chaim Levinson - April 16, 2010 - 12:00am Residents of Hayovel, an illegal outpost whose homes are due to be razed, received NIS 77,000 per family from the state when they settled the site, according to documents Haaretz received. The status of Hayovel came before the Supreme Court on Wednesday. Defense Minister Ehud Barak asked the court to give the state another six months to respond to the question of when it plans to raze 12 illegal homes at Hayovel and six others in Horsha. For their part, the settlers and politicians on the right have began lobbying to legalize the outpost. » Read more

Israel envoy hosts J Street chief in bid to end rift ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Natasha Mozgovaya - April 16, 2010 - 12:00am J Street founder and executive director Jeremy Ben-Ami met Israel's U.S. Ambassador Michael Oren for the first time on Wednesday as as Israel sought to heal a high-profile rift with the Jewish lobby group. Oren invited Ben-Ami the Israeli embassy in Washington for talks that lasted around an hour and covered topics including the peace process, U.S.-Israel relations and Iran. Wednesday's meeting builds on months of discussions between the pro-Israel, pro-peace lobby and the embassy to clarify Israel's understanding of J Street's views. » Read more