Israeli premier to address UN to condemn Iran ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press August 30, 2012 - 12:00am JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he will address the United Nations General Assembly next month in order to condemn Iran. In a statement from his office Thursday, Netanyahu said he has decided to attend the assembly to tell world nations that Iran is a "terrorist regime" which poses the greatest threat to world peace. Netanyahu said he decided to address the U.N. because diplomats currently in in Tehran for a gathering were silent to what he described as Iran's hateful speech against Israel. » Read more

Rocket from Gaza hits house in Israel, no injuries ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press August 31, 2012 - 12:00am JERUSALEM — A rocket fired by Palestinian militants in Gaza has struck a house in Israel. The Israeli military says no one was hurt in the attack before dawn Friday on the border town of Sderot, less than a mile (2 kilometers) from Gaza. The town of 24,000 has been a favored target for rocket squads in Gaza, whose activity has been curtailed sharply but not halted since Israel's offensive against them in 2009.

Palestinians chip away at male divorce monopoly ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press by Diaa Hadid - August 31, 2012 - 12:00am RAMALLAH, West Bank — For decades, Palestinian women seeking to divorce their husbands risked years of miserable, expensive litigation or lengthy domestic battles as they begged their spouses for permission to leave. Now Palestinian religious authorities announced sweeping reforms of divorce laws that will make it easier for a woman to end her marriage. The changes make a huge step forward in a society where many still believe that a woman should have no right to separate from her husband. » Read more

August 30th

Three Reasons Israel Is Issuing More Permits for Palestinians ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Ayyam by Hani al-Masri - (Opinion) August 30, 2012 - 12:00am The Israeli government has been growing more extremist and stubborn, to the point of sabotaging all efforts and initiatives aimed at resuming negotiations and reviving the so-called “peace process.” Furthermore, it is waging a continuous campaign — headed by Foreign Minister Lieberman — against President Abbas, demanding that he be replaced because of the diplomatic and legal campaign he has undertaken against Israel and his plan to resort to the United Natio » Read more

Palestine central to Israel-Turkey relations ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Common Ground News Service by Faik Tunay - (Opinion) August 30, 2012 - 12:00am Approximately two years have passed since a flotilla of six ships, including the Turkish Mavi Marmara, set sail carrying hundreds of activists protesting the Israeli blockade of Gaza. Before reaching their destination the ship was boarded by Israeli naval commandos and nine Turkish activists were killed in a confrontation on board. » Read more

Was Yasser Arafat murdered? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent by Donald MacIntyre - (Opinion) August 30, 2012 - 12:00am Barber Mohammed Hamad was in no doubt about the reasons for Yasser Arafat's death just under eight years ago. As he trimmed a customer's hair in his shop in the Amari refugee camp yesterday, he welcomed the news that French prosecutors have opened a murder investigation. » Read more

Realities about racism ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Jonathan Rosen - (Opinion) August 30, 2012 - 12:00am One adult and eight minors were indicted on Tuesday for their alleged role in the brutal attack two weeks ago on a 17- year-old Palestinian boy in downtown Jerusalem. That attack, which came on the heels of the firebombing of a Palestinian taxi in the southern West Bank the week before, which had injured six people, produced a debate in the Israeli media, public and political arena. To their credit, politicians from across the spectrum all but uniformly decried the attacks and called for the perpetrators to be prosecuted and punished. » Read more

Israeli colonialism in West Bank ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Oren Yiftachel - (Opinion) August 30, 2012 - 12:00am Netanyahu recently decided to shelve the report submitted by Justice Edmond Levy, and security forces are preparing for the imminent evacuation of the Migron outpost. But don't let this fool you – the Levy Report may have been officially dismissed and Migron may be moved to an alternate location a few meters away, but the report's conclusions continue to guide Jewish colonization in the territories. » Read more

Requiem for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Carlo Strenger - (Opinion) August 30, 2012 - 12:00am Nachum Barnea is considered to be one of Israel’s most influential journalists, independent in his judgment, fair and balanced in his reporting and analysis. A few days ago he wrote an outspoken column in which he comes to the conclusion that the settlement project has reached its goal: the situation on the ground is irreversible, and the two-state solution is no longer possible. » Read more

Behold, Rachel, behold ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Gideon Levy - (Opinion) August 30, 2012 - 12:00am The spring of 2003 was an atrocious spring. An intifada was raging in the streets of Israel; explosives were going off next to the Gaza-Egyptian border, along the Philadelphi Route, and in Rafah, bulldozers mowed down hundreds of Palestinian homes, many of them belonging to innocent people. A few months earlier, a young American woman had arrived in Rafah from Olympia, Washington. » Read more