August 30th

Israeli official: Government to round up Sudanese ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press August 30, 2012 - 12:00am JERUSALEM — A senior official says Israel will start rounding up thousands of unauthorized Sudanese migrants and put them in a detention center if they don't leave the country voluntarily. Interior Minister Eli Yishai says the detentions will begin in mid-October. Yishai told Army Radio on Thursday that once migrants can't work, "they will get sick of being here and will want to leave voluntarily." » Read more

French probe deepens confusion over Arafat death ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press by Josef Federman - August 29, 2012 - 12:00am JERUSALEM — A French murder probe into the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat prompted an Israeli denial of responsibility on Wednesday and renewed doubts that Palestinians would stick to a halfhearted pledge to exhume Arafat's body. Arafat's death eight years ago in a French hospital has remained a long-running mystery for many, driven by murky but persistent conspiracy theories that he had cancer, AIDS or was poisoned. » Read more

Israel: Settlers’ Appeal Rejected ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters August 29, 2012 - 12:00am Israel’s high court ruled Wednesday that the largest unauthorized outpost of Jewish settlers in the West Bank must be evacuated by Tuesday. » Read more

Palestinians backtrack on fresh bid for UN upgrade ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Middle East Online by Nasser Abu Bakr - August 30, 2012 - 12:00am Palestinian officials on Thursday appeared to backtrack on a pledge to make a fresh bid for upgraded UN membership on September 27. Nabil Abu Rudeina, spokesman for Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, said the date would be decided next week when Abbas meets the Arab League in Cairo. "The president will have Palestinian, Arab and international consultations to set a date for the UN bid to present the request for non-member state status for Palestine," he said. » Read more

August 29th

The most fateful decision of all ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Times of Israel by David Horovitz - (Analysis) August 28, 2012 - 12:00am Hear that frantic whispering noise beneath the hum of the air-conditioners in this sweltering Israeli summer? That’s the sound of many Israeli insiders repeating over and over and over: Don’t do it. Don’t do it. Don’t do it. » Read more

Auschwitz and Palestinians: what the media missed ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star by Natalia Simanovsky - (Opinion) August 29, 2012 - 12:00am In late July, Ziad al-Bandak, an adviser to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas made an official visit to the Auschwitz Holocaust memorial to pay respect to the million-and-a-half victims of the camp, most of whom were Jewish. » Read more

Corrie verdict exposes Israel's false narrative ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National (Editorial) August 29, 2012 - 12:00am After nine years of injustice, the Israeli court's decision did not come as much of a surprise. For the parents of the 23-year-old American activist crushed by an Israeli bulldozer as she tried to stop it from demolishing a Palestinian home, there will be no justice from an Israeli court. But today, perhaps more than at any time since her death, Rachel Corrie continues to fight the injustice that Palestinians face under occupation. » Read more

Bulldozing the Special Relationship ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Foreign Policy by Hussein Ibish - (Opinion) August 28, 2012 - 12:00am Only the most naive observers would be surprised by the verdict from an Israeli court on the civil case brought by the parents of Rachel Corrie, the American activist killed in 2003 at the hands of the Israeli military. The court ruled this week that Israel was not responsible for the death of the 23-year-old student, referring to it as a "regrettable accident" that Corrie herself could have prevented by staying out of the area. » Read more

The Corrie verdict ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post (Editorial) August 28, 2012 - 12:00am The death of 23-year-old American rights activist Rachel Corrie was a “regrettable accident,” not an intentional war crime, Haifa District Court Judge Oded Gershon ruled on Tuesday. For those following the trial who are unbiased by a perennial desire to bash Israel and search tirelessly for its faults, the verdict was no surprise. » Read more

Why did Hamas cancel participation in Iran's Non-Aligned Movement summit? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Avi Issacharoff - (Opinion) August 29, 2012 - 12:00am A fierce storm briefly raged in the Palestinian political arena over the weekend. A few hours after the Hamas government spokesman announced in Gaza on Saturday that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had invited Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh to attend the Non-Aligned Movement conference and that Haniyeh intended to go, officials close to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said that if Haniyeh goes to Tehran, Abbas would not. » Read more