Not social justice, peace!
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Gershon Baskin - (Opinion) May 7, 2012 - 12:00am


Everyone is in agreement; this election season will be about social justice. Shaul Mofaz has suddenly discovered the economy and wants to be the hero of the under classes in Israel. Shelly Yacimovich had propelled into the public eye and has doubled the support for the Labor Party by being the champion of the working class. Yair Lapid wants to parade in front of the middle class camp. Shas always claims to represent the Israeli poor. Binyamin Netanyahu wants to convince us how much better off we are economically now than three years ago with him at the helm.


It’s time for civil disobedience
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Meir Margalit - (Opinion) May 8, 2012 - 12:00am


I was questioned under caution! Not in a gloomy cellar, without blinding projectors like in the movies, and without Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) interrogators who shouted and caressed alternately. The questioning was conducted by officials from the Interior Ministry’s Construction Inspection Unit in Jerusalem. The suspicion – “illegal construction” that I allegedly carried out in east Jerusalem, and on more than one occasion.


Iron Dome: Israeli necessity, American priority, strategic imperative
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Howard Berman - (Opinion) May 8, 2012 - 12:00am


For years, Sderot was a city under siege, the target of non-stop rocket attacks launched by Palestinian terrorists from Gaza. School was halted, synagogues were silenced and in a community defined by courage, the fragments of rockets and mortars – the vehicles of attempted murder aimed at innocent Israelis – were plain for all to see. Sderot became a living museum of terror.


Netanyahu's next Israel: Bad for the Right, good for the Jews
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Bradley Burston - (Opinion) May 8, 2012 - 12:00am


Israelis don't change, unless someone or something creeps up on them from a direction they never look, and slips the comfort zone rug out from under them. The rug may be frayed to the floor, faintly gummy to the touch, it may be mined with thorns and shards of shattered glass. But they'll hang onto it for what passes for dear life. Unless …


Mofaz-Netanyahu cabinet may pave the way for an Israeli strike on Iran
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Amir Oren - May 8, 2012 - 12:00am


A "prime ministers' forum" was held as part of the unity government of 1984-1990: Shimon Peres, first as prime minister, later as vice-prime minister and foreign (or finance minister); Yitzhak Shamir, first as former and future prime minister and then as incumbent; and Yitzhak Rabin, as former prime minister and incumbent defense minister.


We Need to Talk
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast
by Hussein Ibish - (Opinion) May 7, 2012 - 12:00am


It's a simple dictum, but one that many still have trouble accepting: Israelis and Palestinians have to talk to each other if they're going to get anywhere.


Abbas, Fayyad agree on new PA cabinet
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Khaled Abu Toameh - May 7, 2012 - 12:00am


A new Palestinian Authority cabinet is expected to be announced within the next 48 hours, sources in Ramallah said Monday evening. They said that the new cabinet will be headed by current Prime Minister Salam Fayyad. The sources said that Nabil Qassis, the former president of Bir Zeit University in the West Bank, will replace Fayyad as finance minister. The new cabinet will be formed in accordance with an agreement recently reached between Fayyad and PA President Mahmoud Abbas.


EU: Israel must allow medical, family visits to hunger-strikers
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
May 8, 2012 - 12:00am


BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- The European Union offices in the Palestinian territory on Tuesday expressed concern about the deteriorating health condition of Palestinian prisoners on hunger-strike for over two months. Israel's Supreme Court on Monday rejected the appeals of administrative detainees Bilal Diab, 27, from Jenin, and Thaer Halahla, 33, from Hebron -- who have refused food since Feb. 29.


Israel raids office of Palestinian anti-settlement organization
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
May 8, 2012 - 12:00am


RAMALLAH, May 8 (Xinhua) -- Israeli forces on Tuesday seized computers and cameras from the office of a Palestinian organization that organizes public activities against Jewish settlement activities, Palestinian witnesses said. The soldiers smashed the doors of the Public Campaign against Settlements and Wall's headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah, seized the equipment and left. The incident took place before the workday started.


Israeli Supreme Court orders outpost demolished
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
May 7, 2012 - 12:00am


JERUSALEM — Israel's Supreme Court has set a new deadline for the demolition of an unauthorized Jewish outpost in the West Bank. The court on Monday ruled that the Ulpana outpost must be dismantled by July 1. A May 1 deadline for its removal was postponed so that the court could hear an appeal by the government, which asked for a 90-day delay. About 30 Jewish families live in Ulpana. The court has ruled that the outpost was illegally built on private Palestinian land.



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