UN vote to endorse Goldstone report increases pressure on Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Joshua Mitnick - October 16, 2009 - 12:00am


The United Nations Human Rights Council's decision Friday to adopt the controversial Goldstone report on the Gaza war increases the pressure on Israel to conduct its own investigation into alleged war crimes. The council voted 25-to-6, with 11 abstentions, to endorse the report, which calls for both Israel and Hamas to investigate its allegations within the next few months. If either side fails to comply – and Israel has so far refused to do so – the report calls for the UN Security Council to take up the matter and consider referring it to the UN's International Criminal Court.


American Jews Rethink Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Nation
by Philip Weiss - October 14, 2009 - 12:00am


This year has seen a dramatic shift in American Jews' attitudes toward Israel. In January many liberal Jews were shocked by the Gaza war, in which Israel used overwhelming force against a mostly defenseless civilian population unable to flee. Then came the rise to power of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, whose explicitly anti-Arab platform was at odds with an American Jewish electorate that had just voted 4 to 1 for a minority president.


Students refuse to enlist due to 'occupation'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Daniel Edelson - October 12, 2009 - 12:00am


Dozens of students signed this year's high school seniors' letter, which has traditionally attempted to challenge Israel's mandatory army service policy. Similar letters have circulated every few years since 1979, all calling on teens to object to IDF service.


Resistance denied
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Ahram
by Stephen Lendman - October 6, 2009 - 12:00am


Established in 1992, the Addameer (Arabic for conscience) Prisoners Support and Human Rights Association helps Palestinian prisoners, and works to end torture, arbitrary arrests and detentions, other forms of abuse, and unjust, unequal treatment in Israel's criminal justice system, which handles Jews in one way and Palestinians in another.


Vice Premier and ex-IDF chief cancels U.K. visit over arrest fears
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Uri Blau - October 5, 2009 - 12:00am


Vice Prime Minister Moshe Ya'alon recently canceled a planned trip to Britain for fear of being arrested there. Ya'alon was invited to London to attend a fund-raising dinner for Benji's Home, a group home for soldiers with no family in Israel. The project is the initiative of the parents of Maj. Benji Hillman, who was killed in the Second Lebanon War. Ya'alon was asked to attend the dinner by the British branch of the Jewish National Fund, which is helping the Hillmans raise money for the project, and said he would if the Foreign Ministry's legal department okayed it.


Israel After Iran
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Asharq Alawsat
by Tariq Alhomayed - (Opinion) October 5, 2009 - 12:00am


If the agreement that Iran reached with Western states on its nuclear file is real- whereby nuclear enrichment will now take place outside of Iran thus preventing a major crisis- then now it must be Israel’s turn.


EXCLUSIVE: Obama agrees to keep Israel's nukes secret
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Times
by Eli Lake - October 2, 2009 - 12:00am


President Obama has reaffirmed a 4-decade-old secret understanding that has allowed Israel to keep a nuclear arsenal without opening it to international inspections, three officials familiar with the understanding said. The officials, who spoke on the condition that they not be named because they were discussing private conversations, said Mr. Obama pledged to maintain the agreement when he first hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House in May.


Goldstone's Gaza probe did Israel a favor
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Gideon Levy - (Opinion) October 1, 2009 - 12:00am


Israel should thank Judge Richard Goldstone and his commission's important report. After subjecting him to useless, automatic mudslinging, Israel suddenly realized that it should finally investigate the events of Operation Cast Lead. Why? What happened? The ground has started to tremble under the feet of a number of Israeli statesmen and officers.


Israel to Free 20 Palestinians in Return for Proof Soldier Is Alive
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Isabel Kershner - September 30, 2009 - 12:00am


JERUSALEM — Israel said Wednesday that it would release 20 Palestinian women from its jails in exchange for a videotape of a captured Israeli soldier that would prove that he was alive. The soldier, Gilad Shalit, was seized by the Islamic group Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups in 2006 in a cross-border raid and taken into Gaza. The prisoner release offer, announced Wednesday by the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was the first significant sign of progress in negotiations about him since Mr. Netanyahu took office in March.


Kidnapped Israeli Soldier Shown Alive in Traded Videotape
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Howard Schneider - September 30, 2009 - 12:00am


JERUSALEM, Sept. 30 -- Kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit is alive, according to a newly recorded videotape that will be provided to Israel by the Islamist Hamas movement in return for Israel's release of 20 Palestinian women prisoners, government officials said. The videotape already has been turned over to German mediators and will be given to Israel on Friday, when the prisoners are due to be set free, according to government officials and a statement from Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's office.



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