June 23rd

Israel surveys support for Palestinian state ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency June 23, 2011 - 12:00am Israel's foreign ministry estimates under two-thirds of UN member states will recognize a Palestinian state declared in September, and is launching a campaign to keep the number down, Israel Radio reported Thursday. Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman instructed his department to survey the 192 countries in the United Nations, and send Israeli parliamentarians to nations who are yet undecided, the broadcast noted. The study said 118 nations would support the bid. » Read more

Did a Jerusalem court really sentence a dog to death by stoning? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor by Eoin O'Carroll - (Analysis) June 21, 2011 - 12:00am Have you heard the one about the dog who walked into a rabbinical court? Here's how the BBC reported it: A pooch made its way into a beth din in Jerusalem's ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Mea Shearim. One of the judges, believing the dog to be the reincarnation of a now-deceased lawyer whom the court had cursed some two decades earlier, sentenced the dog to death by stoning, and ordered that the sentence be carried out by children. The dog escaped before the sentence could be carried out. Dog-lovers have filed a complaint against the court. » Read more

The historical truth behind the Israeli-Palestinian narratives ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Dmitry Shumsky - (Opinion) June 23, 2011 - 12:00am In his article "Truth, not narrative," (June 17 ), Prof. Shlomo Avineri calls to separate nationalist narratives from historical truth when presenting the events of the Nakba (the Palestinian "catastrophe" that occurred when Israel was founded ). He says that on the one hand, there is the Israeli-Zionist narrative regarding the Jewish people's connection to its historic homeland and the Jews' miserable situation, while on the other hand, there is the Palestinian narrative, which regards the Jews solely as a religious group and Zionism as an imperialist phenomenon. » Read more

Artists Investigate Identity and Boundaries in Extraterritorial Waters ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Alice Pfeiffer - June 22, 2011 - 12:00am The legal term “ex-territory” historically refers to being outside the physical borders of a country and beyond its laws. Today, a project by two Israeli artists has found life in extraterritorial waters off Israel using a floating gallery and conference space as a forum for questions of boundaries and identity. The project was conceived in 2009, when two artists in Tel Aviv — Maayan Amir, 33, and Ruti Sela, 36 — were looking for a neutral space to screen a compilation of films by various artists in the Middle East. » Read more

June 22nd

Israeli military begins to move West Bank barrier ATFP World Press Roundup Article from CNN by Kevin Flower, Kareem Khadder - June 22, 2011 - 12:00am Jerusalem (CNN) -- Four years after an Israeli high court initially ruled that the path of the barrier separating Israelis from Palestinians around the West Bank village of Bilin needed to be rerouted, the Israeli military Wednesday began to dismantle parts of the controversial fence. » Read more

Obama: U.S., Israel Must Assess Mideast With 'Fresh Eyes' Read more: http://forward.com/articles/138918/#ixzz1Q15JCYRh ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) June 21, 2011 - 12:00am President Obama told Jewish donors to his reelection campaign that Israel and the United States must assess the new Middle East with “fresh eyes.” “Both the United States and Israel are going to have to look at this new landscape with fresh eyes,” Obama said Monday night at an event in Washington that charged a minimum $25,000 a couple. “It’s not going to be sufficient for us just to keep on doing the same things we’ve been doing and expect somehow that things are going to work themselves out. We’re going to have to be creative and we’re going to have to be engaged.” » Read more

Palestinian theatre stages first play without director Juliano Mer Khamis ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian by Conal Urquhart - June 22, 2011 - 12:00am A pioneering community theatre that aimed to replace violence with drama in one of the most battle-scarred Palestinian towns has hosted its first performance since the murder of its director. Israeli and Palestinian police have not identified the gunman who shot and killed Juliano Mer Khamis in April, but on Tuesday students from Jenin's Freedom Theatre performed Shu Kamam, or What Else, as a defiant message that they will continue his work. » Read more

Ross: In changing ME, waiting things out is no option ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Herb Keinon - June 22, 2011 - 12:00am The greatest risk at a time of sweeping change in the Middle East is to think that this is the time to sit still and “do nothing," Dennis Ross, the White House's chief Middle East advisor said Wednesday. Ross, speaking at the Presidential Conference in Jerusalem, said that while he understands the impulse to “stand pat" and avoid taking risks, certain realities -- such as demographic trends that will present Israel with the dilemma of being either a Jewish or a democratic state - cannot be “wished away.” » Read more

Amos Oz slams West Bank 'occupation' ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Ronen Medzini - June 21, 2011 - 12:00am Author Amos Oz spoke Tuesday at the Presidential Conference in Jerusalem and criticized the peace process with the Palestinians. Oz said he believes the "ongoing occupation" of the Palestinian people in the West Bank and the construction in settlements is in general immoral, as well as bad for Israel's interests. The author, who received intermittent applause as well as a good deal of booing, added that the "expulsion of Palestinians" from their homes in Jerusalem and their "replacement" with settlers is also bad for Israel. "I am saying this as a man who loves the state," he added. » Read more

News Analysis: What's behind the delay in implementing reconciliation pact? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua by Osama Radi - June 21, 2011 - 12:00am GAZA, June 21 (Xinhua) -- Although it has been already three weeks for signing the Egyptian-brokered reconciliation pact, rival Islamic Hamas movement and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party are still unable to overcome their differences and start the implementation of the deal. One of the significant events that showed the large gap between the two rival groups was the postponement of Tuesday's meeting between Abbas and Hamas politburo Khaled Meshaal, which was scheduled to be held in Cairo to agree on the formation of the unity technocrat government they agreed to form. » Read more