January 29th

Palestinian villagers take IDF to High Court over military drills ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Amira Hass - January 29, 2013 - 1:00am The army has been carrying out training exercises for about a week near three Palestinian villages in south Hebron, in violation of a High Court of Justice order that also forbids the villagers' eviction from their homes, said local farmers backed by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel. The farmers of a-Tabban, Mirkez and Jinba reported that military drills in a "firing zone" adjacent to their villages started last Monday with no warning, damaging their fields, pasture areas and wells. » Read more

Murdoch apologizes for ‘offensive’ cartoon of Netanyahu using blood-red mortar to build wall ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press January 29, 2013 - 1:00am Media baron Rupert Murdoch has apologized for a Sunday Times cartoon depicting Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu building a wall using blood-red mortar, an image Jewish leaders said was reminiscent of anti-Semitic propaganda. The political cartoon, which was published on Holocaust Memorial Day, shows Netanyahu wielding a long, sharp trowel and depicts agonized Palestinians bricked into the wall’s structure. It was meant as a comment on recent elections in which Netanyahu’s ticket narrowly won the most seats in the Israeli parliament. » Read more

Israeli PM meets with Mideast Quartet envoy Blair ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua January 29, 2013 - 1:00am Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with the international Quartet's envoy to the Middle East Tony Blair on Monday evening. Netanyahu told Blair, who represents the United Nations, the United States, Russia and the European Union, that he looks forward to continuing working with Blair regarding the challenges Israel is facing. » Read more

Hamas says next inter-Palestinian talks in Egypt ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press by Jamal Halaby - January 28, 2013 - 1:00am AMMAN, Jordan — Reconciliation talks between Palestinian militant group Hamas and its rival Fatah are on track and will resume in Egypt on Feb. 9, Hamas' political leader said Monday. Khalid Mashaal said that "obstacles" over crucial issues such as elections and a future government remain, but that he expected progress in talks with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas. » Read more

Israeli Secularlists Appear to Find Their Voice ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Jodi Rudoren - January 28, 2013 - 1:00am JERUSALEM — Speaking to a group of ultra-Orthodox men shortly before he officially entered politics, Yair Lapid, a proudly secular talk-show host, declared that in a century-long competition to define Israel’s character, “we lost and you won.” » Read more

January 28th

Hamas Maintains Ties With Iran Despite Difference Over Syria ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Monitor by Abeer Ayyoub - January 25, 2013 - 1:00am The positive outcomes of the Arab uprisings far outweighed the negatives for Gaza’s ruling Islamists, Hamas. The revolts led to the rise of fellow Islamists in Egypt and Tunisia, allowing Hamas to open up to the regional environment. But the ongoing uprising in Syria did not fit well for Hamas, which found itself caught between two hard options: siding with President Bashar al-Assad and thus losing popular support in other Arab countries, or showing solidarity with the Syrian people and losing Iran, Hamas' main financial backer. » Read more

Hezbollah Satisfied With Israeli Election Results ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Monitor by Nasser Chararah - (Opinion) January 25, 2013 - 1:00am Hezbollah has several departments that specialize in monitoring events in Israel. They monitor everything that happens in Israel, then analyze that information by cross-checking it with privately-collected information. Inside these departments is a unit whose roots in monitoring Israeli events go back the 1975-1981 era, when the Palestinian Fatah movement was a state within a state and had its various institutions stationed in Lebanon. » Read more

A shift to Israel’s center? Think again ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star by Rami Khouri - (Opinion) January 26, 2013 - 1:00am All that can be said with certainty now about the Israeli election results is that the deck of political cards in the Knesset has been dramatically reshuffled: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition with Avigdor Lieberman won 31 seats (much less than expected, and down from the 41 seats it held before) and remains the single largest group; the extreme right Bayit Yehudi party of Naftali Bennett took 11 seats; and Yair Lapid’s new Yesh Atid party made the biggest splash with its 19 seats (m » Read more

No, Israel Did Not Just Vote for the Center ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Foreign Affairs by Michael Koplow - (Opinion) January 23, 2013 - 1:00am By the time Israeli voters went to the polls on Tuesday, the nearly universally accepted wisdom held that the right was ascendant. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's faction -- which comprises his own conservative Likud Party and Avigdor Lieberman's even-more-conservative Yisrael Beiteinu Party -- was poised to win almost twice as many seats as its closest challenger. » Read more

Israel Closes Its Eyes ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Hayat by Elias Harfoush - (Opinion) January 25, 2013 - 1:00am "Live in Israel as if you are living in Europe or the United States." This was the slogan that Yair Lapid used to lure Israeli voters, leading him to second place in the country's recent elections, becoming the kingmaker who will determine the rules of the game in Israel in the coming future. » Read more