April 24th

Israel has options to overcome loss of Egyptian gas ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters by Ari Rabinovitch - April 23, 2012 - 12:00am JERUSALEM, April 23 (Reuters) - Israel's energy sector will be hurt in the short term by Egypt's decision to stop selling it natural gas, but the country has been weaning itself off the once-crucial supplies and has a number of contingency plans that will lessen the impact. Sunday's announcement that Egyptian state-owned oil and gas companies would stop the gas sales, which were part of a 20-year deal, was the dramatic conclusion to a year of sabotage and pipeline attacks that had already disrupted supplies. » Read more

Gaza's Hamas rulers to introduce Hebrew ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press April 23, 2012 - 12:00am GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — A senior Hamas official in Gaza says the territory's militant rulers intend to begin teaching Hebrew for high school students beginning next year. Ziad Thabet, the education ministry undersecretary, said Monday the government is trying to find and train teachers. He says students should be introduced to as many languages as possible. Hebrew, the chief language of Israelis, is now only offered as a university course. Thabet says the Gaza government still needs to approve the decision, but it is likely to go ahead. » Read more

Israel to seek deferral of settler evictions ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press April 23, 2012 - 12:00am JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday he would ask Israel's Supreme Court to defer next week's deadline for demolishing five apartment buildings erected illegally for settlers in the West Bank. The court has ruled that the buildings, which house 30 families in the unauthorized Ulpana outpost on the fringes of the Beit El settlement, must be razed by May 1 because they were built on privately owned Palestinian land. Netanyahu said his government is looking for "legal" ways to prevent the buildings from being demolished. » Read more

Israel legalizes West Bank settler outposts ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press by Amy Teibel - April 24, 2012 - 12:00am JERUSALEM — Israel legalized three unsanctioned West Bank settler outposts and was trying to save another on Tuesday, infuriating the Palestinians as the chief American Mideast envoy was in the region laboring to revive peace efforts. The decision fueled suspicions that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's hardline coalition would try to legalize as many rogue settlement sites as possible to cement Israel's hold on occupied land the Palestinians claim for a state. » Read more

Hamas holds secret elections, picks Haniyeh as head of Gaza politburo ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Avi Issacharoff - April 24, 2012 - 12:00am Hamas recently held secret elections for the leadership of the organization's Gaza political bureau, officials in the militant group told Haaretz. According to the officials, Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh won the race by a significant margin. The win in effect makes Haniyeh the Strip's first recognized Hamas political leader since Israel's assassination of Hamas' former Gaza political chief Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi in 2004. » Read more

April 23rd

When Michael Oren irked Bob Simon ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Natasha Mozgovaya - (Opinion) April 23, 2012 - 12:00am Israeli Knesset members and diplomats have a long-term grudge against the CBS flagship program, "60 Minutes", over several critical reports that deal with the issues of Jewish settlements, the City of David and the Stuxnet computer worm. But Suday's segment of the program, dedicated to the exodus of the Palestinian Christians from cities like Bethlehem and Jerusalem, seemed to bring about record tensions. » Read more

The failings of Israel's mainstream ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons by Ghassan Khatib - (Opinion) April 23, 2012 - 12:00am The election of Shaul Mofaz, former Israeli minister of defense, as head of Israel's Kadima party is not surprising news, at least for Palestinians. Polls continue to show right-wing trends in Israeli public opinion, and despite differences between Mofaz and the Israeli mainstream, there remains a rift between his politics and the international consensus over the basic requirements of a peaceful solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. » Read more

In the right direction ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons by Yossi Alpher - (Opinion) April 23, 2012 - 12:00am Judging by accepted standards for Israeli election or party-primary candidates, Shaul Mofaz of Kadima did something fairly unique. He actually presented a detailed platform to back up his candidacy to lead Kadima in that party's leadership primary in late March. Mofaz, a former Israel Defense Forces chief of staff and minister of defense under Ariel Sharon, defeated incumbent party leader Tzipi Livni by a landslide. » Read more

Rashid Khalidi Responds to Avra Shapiro and Gil Troy ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast by Rashid Khalidi - (Opinion) April 20, 2012 - 12:00am It was disappointing to read Avra Shapiro’s letter on behalf of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. Sadly, it was full of red herrings, distortions and falsehoods. Firstly, Ms. Shapiro claims, “the campaign to stop construction of the Museum of Tolerance Jerusalem was…intended to undermine the sovereignty and authority of Israel and its juridical institutions.” She cites as evidence the role of “a declared Muslim extremist,” in initiating “the petition to Israel’s Supreme Court.” » Read more

For Israel, Assad's Regime Lesser of Two Evils ATFP World Press Roundup Article from An-Nahar by Randa Haidar - (Opinion) April 20, 2012 - 12:00am It seems that Israel would prefer that Bashar al-Assad’s regime survive rather than see Syria turn into another “failed state” like its neighbors Lebanon, the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. These states suffer from a weak central authority and the collapse of state institutions as a result of internal fighting, chaos and competition among armed groups over control of political life. » Read more