Following Avigdor Lieberman’s recent controversial statements, President Obama reaffirms the importance of the Annapolis meeting in his speech before the Turkish parliament (1), while the Jewish Telegraphic Agency discusses potential clashes between the Netanyahu and Obama governments (2). A planned exhibit of the Dead Sea Scrolls in Toronto inflames tensions over ownership of the historic documents (4). According to negotiators, Palestinian accord government talks have hit a deadlock (6) (9). A recently released report shows that record numbers of Israeli Arab students are leaving Israel to complete their higher education in Jordan (10). Hamas calls on the Palestinian Authority to cut security ties with Israel (13).

Popular Palestinian PM "not running for anything"
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Douglas Hamilton - April 7, 2009 - 12:00am

West Bank villagers killed a fatted calf Tuesday to welcome Salam Fayyad, the affable, and supposedly outgoing, prime minister who may currently be the most popular leader among the Palestinians. They added boiled mutton from two sheep to dozens of trays piled high with spiced rice and drenched with yoghurt, for the traditional welcoming dish of mansaf. There was also 30 kg of honey-dripping sweets from Nazareth as dessert.

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Israel Cries Wolf
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Roger Cohen - (Opinion) April 8, 2009 - 12:00am

“Iran is the center of terrorism, fundamentalism and subversion and is in my view more dangerous than Nazism, because Hitler did not possess a nuclear bomb, whereas the Iranians are trying to perfect a nuclear option.” Benjamin Netanyahu 2009? Try again. These words were in fact uttered by another Israeli prime minister (and now Israeli president), Shimon Peres, in 1996. Four years earlier, in 1992, he’d predicted that Iran would have a nuclear bomb by 1999.

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Mapping the possible Netanyahu-Obama fault lines
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
by Ron Kampeas - (Analysis) April 7, 2009 - 12:00am

There are no fissures yet between the young Obama and Netanyahu administrations, but political geologists are mapping the fault lines. So far, two major potentials for quakes have emerged, both having to do with timing: One concerns the pace of negotiating Palestinian statehood; the other has to do with projections about when Iran's alleged nuclear program becomes irrevocably dangerous.

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Netanyahu's 2nd Chance
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Alon Ben-meir - (Analysis) April 9, 2009 - 12:00am

ew Israeli government led by Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu has raised many conflicting feelings among those concerned about the fate of the Arab-Israeli peace process. Will Netanyahu scuttle the little progress that was made under his predecessor Olmert, or will he engage the Palestinians anew?

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Hamas Calls on PA to Cut Security Ties with Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Ali Waked - April 8, 2009 - 12:00am

Hamas urged the Palestinian Authority to halt all security coordination with Israel following Wednesday's clash between settlers and residents of the West Bank village of Khirbat Safa, near the Bat Ayin settlement. The violent riot saw 16 Palestinian suffer various injuries with one of the wounded said to be in critical condition.

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Palestinian lightly wounded after trying to snatch IDF soldier's gun
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Amos Harel - April 8, 2009 - 12:00am

An Israel Defense Forces soldier shot and lightly wounded a Palestinian in the West Bank Wednesday after he tried to snatch a soldier's weapon at a checkpoint near Ramallah. Ambulances arrived on the scene and evacuated the Palestinian to a hospital in Ramallah. No soldiers were wounded in the incident. Earlier on Wednesday, at least 17 people were wounded during clashes between dozens of settlers from a settlement where a terrorist killed an Israeli teenager last week and Palestinians in a nearby West Bank village.

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Let's cooperate in the interest of Palestine
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
(Editorial) April 8, 2009 - 12:00am

The recent call by the US government urging Israel to honour the principle of the two-state solution to the Middle East conflict is encouraging. It is difficult, however, to see how the Obama administration can impose this position on Israel's newly-elected right-wing government.

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Israel’s Arab students are crossing to Jordan
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Jonathan Cook - April 9, 2009 - 12:00am

Obstacles to Israel’s Arab minority participating in higher education have resulted in a record number of Arab students taking up places at universities in neighbouring Jordan, a new report reveals. Figures compiled by Dirasat, a Nazareth-based organisation monitoring education issues, show 5,400 Arab students from Israel are at Jordanian universities – half the number of Arabs studying in Israel itself.

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Hope fades for accord between rival Palestinian factions
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Omar Karmi - April 8, 2009 - 12:00am

The Egyptian-mediated Palestinian reconciliation efforts are stuck and prospects for agreement appear distant, even if factions are scheduled to resume their negotiations in Cairo this month, according to sources close to the negotiations.

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