April 4th

Reconsidering the Goldstone Report on Israel and war crimes ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post by Richard Goldstone - (Opinion) April 1, 2011 - 12:00am We know a lot more today about what happened in the Gaza war of 2008-09 than we did when I chaired the fact-finding mission appointed by the U.N. Human Rights Council that produced what has come to be known as the Goldstone Report. If I had known then what I know now, the Goldstone Report would have been a different document. » Read more

Reconsidering the Goldstone Report on Israel and war crimes ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post by Richard Goldstone - (Opinion) April 1, 2011 - 12:00am We know a lot more today about what happened in the Gaza war of 2008-09 than we did when I chaired the fact-finding mission appointed by the U.N. Human Rights Council that produced what has come to be known as the Goldstone Report. If I had known then what I know now, the Goldstone Report would have been a different document. » Read more

Strike Kills Gaza Fighters, Spurring Hamas Warning ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Fares Akram, Isabel Kershner - April 2, 2011 - 12:00am Thousands of Palestinians attended the funerals on Saturday of three senior Hamas militants killed by Israel in an overnight airstrike in southern Gaza, and Hamas leaders warned that Israel would bear the consequences. But the area remained calm on Saturday, and Hamas, the Islamic group that controls Gaza, seemed wary of fueling a new round of hostilities. » Read more

In Israel, Time for Peace Offer May Run Out ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Ethan Bronner - April 2, 2011 - 12:00am With revolutionary fervor sweeping the Middle East, Israel is under mounting pressure to make a far-reaching offer to the Palestinians or face a United Nations vote welcoming the State of Palestine as a member whose territory includes all of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem. » Read more

April 1st

'Digging his own grave' ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times by George S. Hishmeh - (Opinion) April 1, 2011 - 12:00am The wind of change that has been blowing in the Arab world, which saw the celebrated downfall of two autocratic Arab regimes, in Tunisia and Egypt, is still blowing hard in other Arab countries, especially Libya where the days of its ruler, Muammar Qadhafi, are believed numbered. » Read more

Citizenship laws in Israel cast its future in doubt ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National (Editorial) April 1, 2011 - 12:00am In recent weeks, Israel's Knesset has passed a series of laws that make it clear there is only one kind of Israeli. Human Rights Watch has gone so far as to term the legislation, driven mainly by the hardline foreign minister Avidgor Leiberman, "race laws". » Read more

This ‘Arab Spring,’ Only Uncertainty Blooms ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward by Yossi Alpher - (Opinion) March 30, 2011 - 12:00am Observers are increasingly using the term “Arab spring” to describe the tsunami of revolution, revolt, state collapse and armed intervention that is sweeping the Arab world. The term implies that a better reality, a rebirth, is about to burst forth from the Arab world. Yet it is not obvious or certain that we are actually on the cusp of a better reality. » Read more

Rumsfeld: No Clemency for Pollard ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward March 31, 2011 - 12:00am Former U.S. Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld said Jonathan Pollard should not be granted clemency. Rumsfeld, who served under Presidents Gerald Ford and George W. Bush, said during an interview on Israel’s Channel 10 that granting Pollard early release would send the wrong message. Rep. Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.) this week became the first Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives to back the latest push for clemency for Jonathan Pollard. Earlier in March, U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) became the first active Republican politician to join the recent calls for Pollard’s release. » Read more

Gaza journalists accuse Hamas of harassment ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian by Roy Greenslade - (Blog) April 1, 2011 - 12:00am Journalists covering protests in Gaza this week have complained that they were obstructed and harassed by Hamas security forces. Four reporters - Wissam Mohamed Yasin of Al-Hurra; Ayyad Talal Taha and Mohamad al-Hassoun of Radio Watan; and Al-Arabiya cameraman Mamdouh al-Sayyid - claim they were physically assaulted. A fifth, Wajih al-Najjar, a reporter for the Palestinian news agency WAFA, said he was beaten by police during his five-hour detention. The New York-based press freedom watchdog, the Committee to Protect Journalists, has condemned the actions. » Read more

We in Israel welcome the Arab spring ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian by Shimon Peres - (Opinion) April 1, 2011 - 12:00am The Middle East has to make a historic choice: to join the new global age of democratic peace and liberal economy, or to stay clinging to its history of closed societies and autocracy. A great revolt has been initiated by young people and women, to gain freedom, bread and hope. Israel is watching with great expectation. These events are both unprecedented and unplanned. » Read more