The Palestinian Implosion ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Huffington Post by Ziad Asali - (Opinion) January 11, 2013 - 1:00am   Three years ago, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad launched an ambitious plan to build effective, responsive, and clean government institutions. The results were impressive, and Fayyad was hailed as a figure who was making true progress toward a two-state solution even as formal negotiations faltered. » Read more

A different Israel after January 22 ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Times of Israel by David Horovitz - (Opinion) January 9, 2013 - 1:00am   You may wish to celebrate. You may be plunged into despair. But signs are the country to which you will wake up on January 23 will be a different Israel. » Read more

Netanyahu and Israel's Crisis of Democracy ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Monitor by Ben Caspit - (Opinion) January 10, 2013 - 1:00am   Ron Prosor is one of the most distinguished ambassadors in the history of the Israeli Foreign Service. He was the No. 3 man at the embassy in Washington. He was director general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs under Silvan Shalom; he was a highly respected ambassador to the United Kingdom, and he is now in charge of Israel's public diplomacy efforts as Israel's permanent representative to the United Nations. » Read more

Enduring Failures of Israel's 'Decision Makers' ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward by J.J. Goldberg - (Opinion) January 10, 2013 - 1:00am   One of Israel’s worst-kept military secrets is the simmering tension between the country’s top security professionals and their civilian bosses, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak. The headlines surface regularly and tend to look the same, so it’s easy to miss the big picture. » Read more

An Israeli Ballot With No Good Options ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward by Hillel Halkin - (Opinion) January 10, 2013 - 1:00am   Israel doesn’t need to hold elections. It only needs to ask for whom I’d vote, because I’ve never voted for anyone but winners. I was for Golda in 1974, for Begin in 1977, for Rabin in 1992, for Netanyahu in ’96, for Barak in ’98, for the Sharon of the Likud in 2000 and the Sharon of Kadima in 2005, for Ehud Olmert in 2006, for Netanyahu again in 2009. You can’t be more infallible than that. » Read more

A Palestinian-Jordanian confederation ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Uri Savir - (Opinion) January 10, 2013 - 1:00am Prominent Israeli Knesset candidates, many of them most probably part of the next coalition, are in these days of vigorous campaigning attempting to highjack us into their fata morganas (mirages) regarding the future of the West Bank; be it Naftali Bennett with his ridiculous proposal to annex 60 percent of the West Bank to Israel; or » Read more

Israeli extremists' victory ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Randa Haidar - (Opinion) January 10, 2013 - 1:00am Winds of rightist political extremism are blowing through the election campaign in Israel these days. Some two weeks before the elections, it appears that the Israeli arena is becoming more extreme and divided. » Read more

Bibi, ask not what you can do for you ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz (Opinion) January 10, 2013 - 1:00am   In another country, in a place that is normal, the in-depth interview with former Shin Bet security service director Yuval Diskin, published in Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper last weekend, would have cost a sitting prime minister the election. » Read more

Politics and the English language: What we can learn from Naftali Bennett’s international interviews ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Anshel Pfeffer - (Opinion) January 10, 2013 - 1:00am Each of the senior politicians called up to the stage at Tuesday's foreign policy debate conducted by the Israel Project at the Hebrew University, scurried up to the podium as their name was called. Only Habayit Hayehudi leader, Naftali Bennett, paused for a moment, turned around, and waved to the audience before stepping up. "It was a short gesture, but there was something about it that distinguished him," a friend who was there told me. » Read more

Netanyahu government is Israel's most anti-Zionist ever, says Amoz Oz ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Yossi Verter - (Opinion) January 11, 2013 - 1:00am   The writer and Israel Prize laureate Amoz Oz harshly attacked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as Labor chairwoman MK Shelly Yacimovich. » Read more