U.N. hits at Israel and Palestinian authorities
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
September 10, 2012 - 12:00am

GENEVA, Sept 10 (Reuters) - United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon warned Israel on Monday that keeping its long-standing blockade of Gaza would only condemn the area's people to lasting poverty and play into the hands of extremists in the Middle East. In a speech to the world body's Human Rights Council, Ban also blamed what he called "indiscriminate rocket fire" into Israel from Hamas-controlled Gaza and serious rights violations there for "the immense human suffering" of its population.

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Israeli Oil Firm Seeks to Extend Drilling Beyond Green Line
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Yedioth Ahronoth
by Amir Ben-David - September 5, 2012 - 12:00am

The controversial permits for further exploratory oil drilling in Israel that the Givot Olam Oil Exploration Limited Partnership is currently seeking may be another cause for headache for the State of Israel. The Israeli daily newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth's financial supplement Mammon has learned that the partnership intends to apply to the Palestinian Authority and ask for a permit for drilling on the Palestinian side of the oil field — that is, on the other side of the Green Line.

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To Calm Israel, U.S. Offers Ways to Restrain Iran
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by David E. Sanger, Eric Schmitt - September 2, 2012 - 12:00am

Israel openly debating whether to strike at Iran’s nuclear facilities in the coming months, the Obama administration is moving ahead with a range of steps short of war that it hopes will forestall an Israeli attack, while forcing the Iranians to take more seriously negotiations that are all but stalemated.

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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.

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Israel, U.S. divided over latest IAEA report on Iran
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Barak Ravid - August 26, 2012 - 12:00am

Israel and the United States are split over the significance of a new International Atomic Energy Agency report expected to accuse Iran of installing hundreds of new centrifuges at its underground enrichment facility near Qom. Israel believes that the IAEA report, due to be published this week, backs up claims that Tehran has accelerated its nuclear project. The White House, however, insists that the findings do nothing to alter the working assumption that there is still time to resolve the crisis diplomatically.

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PNA urges world to bar goods made in Jewish settlements
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
August 23, 2012 - 12:00am

The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) on Thursday urged the world to bar goods made in Jewish settlements from entering the markets. "Blocking the settlements' goods emphasizes the international resolution about the illegitimacy and illegality of the settlements that were built on occupied Palestinian land," said a statement by the PNA's ministry of economy. The statement, meanwhile, welcomed South Africa's decision to label the settlements' products as being from the occupied Palestinian territories. The South African move has angered Israel.

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EU, UN call on Israel to stop Har Homa construction
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Tovah Lazaroff - August 23, 2012 - 12:00am

The EU and the UN on Wednesday called on Israel to stop Jewish building in east Jerusalem in response to the publication last week of tenders for 130 new units in the Har Homa neighborhood. “The EU has repeatedly urged the government of Israel to immediately end all settlement activities in the West Bank, including in east Jerusalem,” the office of EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said in a statement it released to the media. It noted that their office had already spoken out against plans for these units last summer.

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South Africa is right. Labeling Israeli settler products is truth in advertising
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Bradley Burston - (Opinion) August 23, 2012 - 12:00am

South Africa has taken a decision that may one day prove to have been a significant step toward peace in the Middle East. Whether this ultimately comes to pass or not, the step has already notched a kink in the juggernaut called occupation. The South African cabinet approved a proposal “requiring the labeling of goods or products emanating from Israeli occupied territories, to prevent consumers being led to believe that such goods come from Israel,” cabinet spokesperson Jimmy Manyi said on Wednesday.

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Israel protests South African labeling law
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
August 22, 2012 - 12:00am

Israel is condemning a new South African regulation requiring that products made in West Bank settlements must be labeled as coming from "occupied Palestinian territory." Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor calls the requirement "totally unacceptable." In a statement late Wednesday, Palmor said such measures have not been imposed, "and rightly so, in any other case of national, territorial or ethnic conflict."

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The price of settlements
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
(Editorial) August 16, 2012 - 12:00am

On Sunday Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a request by Defense Minister Ehud Barak to hold a cabinet meeting on the political stalemate with the Palestinians, to discuss ways of advancing peace negotiations for a final agreement. On Monday Haaretz reported Barak as saying in private talks that a thaw in relations is in Israel's strategic interest and that the country is "living on borrowed time." On Tuesday the European Union demonstrated the price of neglecting this political channel, combined with the race to expand settlements.

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