Christian community divided by Israeli separation barrier
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Hugh Naylor - (Analysis) November 18, 2011 - 1:00am

Even though its concrete pillars and barbed wire have yet to be pieced together through these terraced olive orchards, Israel's separation barrier has already divided this small Christian community. Israeli authorities are expected to build a segment of its 760-kilometre fence through Cremisan, an area of verdant hills wedged between occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

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Divided on Jerusalem
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Nicholas Goldberg - (Opinion) November 9, 2011 - 1:00am

When our youngest son was born in Jerusalem in 1995, a number of questions faced us. First was whether we should accept Israeli citizenship for him, which would grant him a second passport and the ability to work (and take refuge, if necessary) in a foreign land — but which would come with a military service requirement in a country that wouldn't really be his home. We opted against it.

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Netanyahu's ongoing acquisition of lands by force
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Akiva Eldar - (Opinion) November 1, 2011 - 12:00am

And now for the million-shekel question on the game show, "1 vs. 100:" Which of the three leaders said, "Most of the UN member-states originate from conflicts, but I don't believe in acquiring lands by force"? Was it Shimon Peres, Yitzhak Rabin or Benjamin Netanyahu?

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Israeli settlers attack Palestinian school amid fears for more violence
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
October 13, 2011 - 12:00am

Jewish settlers attacked on Thursday a Palestinian school, raising fears that conflicts between Israelis and Palestinians may increase when the U.N. Security Council was debating on a Palestinian bid for statehood, witnesses and security sources said. The witnesses said that several Jewish settlers threw stones and empty bottles at Kortoba females school in the southern West Bank city of Hebron.

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Border Control / Mideast peace can provide all the security Israel needs
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Akiva Eldar - (Opinion) September 27, 2011 - 12:00am

The main, if not the only, innovation in the prime minister's address at the UN General Assembly was the demand that the Palestinians house military bases inside their new state. This, of course, in addition to the need for "defensible borders," that is a result of Israel's narrow middle. In order to illustrate the sensitivity of this shape, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "disclosed" to the world that a fighter jet could cross the width of the country in just three seconds.

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Clinton: Israeli settlement move counter-productive
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Alertnet
September 27, 2011 - 12:00am

Israel's decision to build 1,100 settlement homes on West Bank land is counter-productive to reviving peace talks with the Palestinians, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Tuesday. The decision appears to make it even less likely that the two sides will answer a call on Friday by the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States, collectively known as the Quartet, to resume peace talks within a month.

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Elusive Line Defines Lives in Israel and the West Bank
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Isabel Kershner - September 6, 2011 - 12:00am

BARTAA, West Bank — For decades Israel has tried to erase from public consciousness the Green Line, the pre-1967 boundary with the West Bank at the heart of stalled negotiations for a Palestinian state. Israel has built on either side of the Green Line and deleted it from textbooks and weather maps. Israeli drivers plying the main Tel Aviv-Jerusalem highway crisscross the unmarked line at the Latrun Interchange every second of the day, slicing through half a mile of West Bank territory and several more miles of no man’s land, oblivious to the area’s fraught history.

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Netanyahu examining possible future borders of a Palestinian state
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Barak Ravid - August 30, 2011 - 12:00am

Colonel Danny Terza, who outlined the map for an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank for former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, has spent the past few months advising Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the possible future borders of a Palestinian state. The talks between Netanyahu and Terza represent the first time that the prime minister has dedicated official groundwork to the subject of future borders.

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The Mideast blame game
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Aaron David Miller - (Opinion) August 19, 2011 - 12:00am

When Secretary of State James Baker was organizing the Madrid peace conference in 1991, he resorted to a device he called the dead cat on the doorstep. Simply put, Baker threatened to publicly blame Israeli, Palestinian and Syrian leaders if they didn’t accept the terms and attend the conference. It worked. Ironically, the dead-cat routine also explains the current state of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process — but in reverse.

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Washington Watch: Is Bibi bluffing on borders?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Douglas Bloomfield - (Opinion) August 18, 2011 - 12:00am

Leaks from unnamed aides to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu claim he has shifted positions on another critical peace process issue – borders – but so far there’s no official confirmation. It appears to be a tactical move to derail the Palestinian strategy for a UN statehood resolution next month, and it could work if the Israeli leader can convince Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas that he is serious.

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