July 21st, 2011

The Forgotten Incentive of Settlement Businesses ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Huffington Post by Hagit Ofran - (Opinion) July 19, 2011 - 12:00am There is a sense of outrage within the Israeli public following the passing of "the boycott law" in the Knesset last week. The law allows any individual or institution who faces possible damage as a result of any person's call for boycott settlement products to sue that person. Evidence of actual damage will not be required. Organizations calling for such boycott could lose their legal standing as non profit organization. » Read more

Washington Watch: Threatening Israeli democracy ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Douglas Bloomfield - (Opinion) July 21, 2011 - 12:00am If Bibi Netanyahu had been a young, white Jew growing up in Mississippi in the 1960s instead of the suburbs of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he might take a different view of boycotts. He would understand that political protests strengthen democracy, and that laws restricting free speech and association weaken the fiber of a nation. » Read more

MK Danny Danon is the new McCarthy ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Gideon Levy - (Opinion) July 21, 2011 - 12:00am A bit less of a Kahanist than National Union MK Michael Ben Ari, a bit less of a garbler than Likud MK Yariv Levin and a bit less pompous than Likud MK Ofir Akunis, Likud MK Danny Danon will go far. He's a member of the ruling party and is definitely going to show all those leftists and Arabs. He has already threatened them once: The party is over. Yesterday he acted once again to implement his threat. » Read more

IDF must fight its growing religious extremism ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz (Editorial) July 21, 2011 - 12:00am Maj. Gen. Avi Zamir, the outgoing head of the Israel Defense Forces' Personnel Directorate, is urging that the IDF's drift toward religious extremism be stopped. In a document he sent to the chief of staff and all the major generals, whose content was reported by Amos Harel in yesterday's Haaretz, Zamir called for a reorganization of secular-religious relations in the army. » Read more

July 20th

King's Torah splits Israel's religious and secular Jews ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News by Yolande Knell - July 19, 2011 - 12:00am Recent protests in Israel highlight the differences between the country's religious and secular Jewish communities. Hundreds of right-wing Jews have taken part in demonstrations outside Israel's Supreme Court over the brief detention of two prominent rabbis in the last few weeks. There were clashes with police on horseback on the nearby Jerusalem streets and several arrests were made. » Read more

PA should delay UN statehood bid, says PLO official ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Khaled Abu Toameh, Herb Keinon - July 20, 2011 - 12:00am Nabil Amr calls on Palestinian leadership to delay statehood plan by a year out of fear it will harm relations with US and EU. The Palestinian Authority leadership has climbed a very high tree with its plan to ask the UN to recognize a Palestinian state along the pre-1967 lines in September, Nabil Amr, member of the PLO Central Council and a former PA minister, said on Tuesday. “The leadership does not have any guarantees that it would be able to climb down safely from the tree,” he cautioned, advising the PA to delay the statehood by another year. » Read more

Amid Murdoch scandal, Israel backers worry about muting of pro-Israel media voice ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) by Ron Kampeas - July 19, 2011 - 12:00am WASHINGTON (JTA) -- Pro-Israel leaders in the United States, Britain and Australia are warily watching the unfolding of the phone-hacking scandal that is threatening to engulf the media empire of Rupert Murdoch, founder of News Corp. » Read more

EU 'disappointed' in settlement construction ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews July 20, 2011 - 12:00am The European Union on Tuesday expressed "great disappointment" in a tender issued by the Construction and Housing Ministry this week for the construction of 6,900 housing units, including some 300 units in the settlements of Beitar Illit and Karnei Shomron. Maja Kocijancic, spokeswoman for the EU's foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton, said that such acts go against the international community's ongoing efforts to form a peaceful solution which will maintain Israel's safety and the Palestinians' right for an independent state. » Read more

Israeli and Palestinian Activists Gloomy Over Peace ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward by Nathan Guttman - July 17, 2011 - 12:00am Budapest — On the boat sailing along the Danube River, Israeli and Palestinian peace activists seemed closer than ever. Sipping Hungarian wine on deck and sharing laughs, diplomats, prominent activists and journalists from both sides formed a close pact, joking over their own roles in what is widely known as the peace industry. But while the industry remains vibrant, peace has never seemed further away. » Read more

News Analysis: Gaza Strip may witness more violence between Israel, militant groups: analysts ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua by Emad Drimly, Osama Radi - July 20, 2011 - 12:00am GAZA, July 19 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian observers believe that the Gaza Strip may witness more escalation of violence soon between Israel and Gaza militant groups following around one week of tit-for-tat escalation that the coastal enclave had witnessed between the two sides. During this week, Israeli F-16 war jets carried out a series of intensive airstrikes on the Gaza Strip, which targeted smuggling tunnels underneath the borders between the enclave and Egypt, where three Palestinians were killed and 25 others, most of them civilians, were wounded. » Read more