April 26th

Israel army chief: Other nations could strike Iran
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
by Diaa Hadid - April 26, 2012 - 12:00am


JERUSALEM — Israel's military chief said Thursday that other countries have readied their armed forces for a potential strike against Iran's nuclear sites to keep Tehran from acquiring atomic weapons. Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz did not specify which nations might be willing to support or take direct action against Iran. Still, his comments were one of the strongest hints yet that Israel may have the backing of other countries to strike the Islamic Republic to prevent it from developing nuclear arms. "The military force is ready," Gantz said. "Not only our forces, but other forces as well."


Israel’s Big Day, Under Sun and Cloud
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ethan Bronner - April 25, 2012 - 12:00am


JERUSALEM — The paradox that is Israel — wealthy, dynamic and safe, yet mistrusted, condemned and nervous — was on full display on Wednesday as the country mourned its fallen soldiers and began celebrating its 64th Independence Day. Commentators on the left and the right stuck to their scripts, with the left asserting that the country’s treatment of the Palestinians and its regional saber rattling have made it isolated and stagnant, and the right glorifying Israel’s accomplishments: high-tech innovations, long life expectancies and democracy.


April 25th

Palestinians’ situation declining
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
April 25, 2012 - 12:00am


BEIRUT: The Palestinian Association for Human Rights (Shahed) announced in its annual report Tuesday that the situation of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon is getting worse by the year, as their rights diminish in number and value daily. According to the report, “the [poor] housing conditions in camps have not been addressed, and there is no local or international initiative on the horizon to improve them.” It described the camps as “a breeding ground for disease, home collapses, and a well of social problems.”


Airports in Scandinavia Ban Israeli Screening Methods
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Ravit Naor - April 24, 2012 - 12:00am


Israeli airlines cannot operate in Scandinavia due to the countries' refusal to allow profiling to be employed in security checks.


'Now's the time for peace with the Palestinians'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Steve Linde - (Opinion) April 25, 2012 - 12:00am


Israel has never faced a better opportunity to reach a peace deal with the Palestinians than it has today under the leadership of PA President Mahmoud Abbas, President Shimon Peres told The Jerusalem Post in a pre-Independence Day interview on Tuesday. “I think the Palestinian window is still open,” Peres said. “Everybody makes mistakes in his sayings and doings, but President Abbas is constant in his announced position – for peace, against terror, and for a two-state solution. I think we have never had a wider basis to conclude peace than under his leadership.”


Israel Detains Gaza Fishermen
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
April 25, 2012 - 12:00am


GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Israeli forces on Tuesday detained fishermen working off the coast of the Gaza Strip. Local official Mahfouth al-Kabareeti told Ma'an that Israeli naval forces detained Nader Yousef Abu Simaan, 22, and his brother Hasan at sea and confiscated their equipment. The brothers, from al-Shati refugee camp, were fishing within the area designated by Israel, he added. An Israeli military spokeswoman said forces detained fishermen from Gaza because they deviated from the designated fishing area.


Portraying Inner Conflict of Israeli-Arabs
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Ranen Omer-Sherman - (Opinion) April 24, 2012 - 12:00am


Sayed Kashua has built an impressive career exposing the porous and impenetrable, farcical and tragic demarcations between Israel’s Jews and Arabs. Readers of his weekend column for Haaretz may recall a caustic fable titled “Cinderella (Herzl Disappears at Midnight)” in which the hapless protagonist bears the burden of the answered prayer of a hitherto childless woman who “begged God for a son, even if he was born half Arab.” As an adult, Herzl Haliwa’s nocturnal metamorphosis causes endless angst.


OutFront exclusive: Erin Burnett interviews Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Erin Burnett - (Interview) April 23, 2012 - 12:00am


In an exclusive interview Tuesday night on CNN's Erin Burnett OutFront, Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu sat down with Erin Burnett to talk about Israel, the United States and the threat of terror around the world. Netanyahu insisted on Monday that Egypt's decision to cancel a natural gas deal with Israel did not indicate any sort of diplomatic tensions between the two countries, but rather a business disagreement between companies.


UN Chief “Deeply Troubled” by new West Bank Outposts
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Michelle Goldberg - April 24, 2012 - 12:00am


UNITED NATIONS, April 24 (Reuters) - U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon said on Tuesday that he was "deeply troubled" by Israel's decision to grant legal status to three settlement outposts in the occupied West Bank, describing the activity as illegal under international law. The three outposts - Bruchin, Sansana and Rechelim - were built on land Israel declared "state-owned" in the West Bank, an area it captured in the 1967 Middle East war and which Palestinians want as part of a future state.


Boycotting Israel and My Olive Tapenade
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Leah Koenig - (Opinion) April 24, 2012 - 12:00am


n March, the Park Slope Food Coop in Brooklyn made history, or at least the national media, when its members voted down a proposal to ban Israeli-made products in political protest of the Israeli government’s treatment of Palestinians. Park Slope’s is not the first food cooperative to discuss such a boycott, nor the first to vote it down. But because it is among the oldest and largest member-run co-ops in the country (founded in 1973, the membership now tops 16,000 people), news outlets from The New York Times to The Associated Press covered the story.



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