Palestine Investment Conference Promotes Private Entrepreneurialism ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Media Line by Felice Friedson, Arieh O'Sullivan - June 9, 2010 - 12:00am A conference of Arab investors, foreign officials and Palestinian businesspeople garnered nearly a billion dollars in pledges to the Palestinian economy, with special focus on boosting small and medium businesses. Meeting in Bethlehem, the second Palestine Investment Conference (PIC) focused on investment opportunities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip where small and medium operations account for some 90 percent of Palestinian businesses. » Read more

'We'll be Back - With Bigger Flotillas' ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Inter Press Service (IPS) by Mel Frykberg - (Interview) June 9, 2010 - 12:00am Controversy surrounds the events following the deadly commando raid with survivors from among the 700 activists on board the flotilla giving a very different version of events from that of the Israeli government. Q: Critics have accused FG of deliberately provoking a confrontation with the Israelis and argued that the attempt to break the siege was political and not just a humanitarian relief operation. » Read more

Anxious Gazans trying to leave blockaded territory ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Statesman by Karin Laub - June 9, 2010 - 12:00am A Palestinian who had to delay graduate school in Malaysia and an elderly man forced to put off eye surgery in Egypt are among thousands anxiously trying to get out of Gaza now that the blockaded territory's gateway to the world has opened just a little. A Hamas-run passenger terminal on the Gaza side of the border was packed on Tuesday with hundreds of Gazans trying to get clearance just to approach the crossing into Egypt. It was a chaotic scene, with stressed passengers arguing with overwhelmed Hamas border officials. » Read more

Gaza tops agenda as Abbas arrives in US ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency June 9, 2010 - 12:00am President Mahmoud Abbas arrived in the United States on Tuesday with two goals, ending the siege on Gaza and moving the peace process forward, PLO Secretary-General Yasser Abed Rabbo said. Abed Rabbo told Palestine TV that the president and his delegation would meet Senator John Kerry and leaders of the American Jewish and pro-Israel lobby in the US in addition to the main meeting with US President Barack Obama. » Read more

Israel faces a dilemma as the Brits once faced ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Chicago Tribune by Ron Grossman - (Opinion) June 9, 2010 - 12:00am Last month's bloody encounter on a ship off Gaza offered deadly proof of the adage: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Israelis above all others should have recalled that aphorism, which was coined by the philosopher George Santayana. Six decades ago, Zionist freedom fighters attempted to run a blockade of the Holy Land's coast maintained by the British, setting off a lethal confrontation that turned world opinion in favor of the establishment of a Jewish homeland. » Read more

Never mind the 'Freedom Flotilla.' Is Israel's Gaza blockade legal? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor by Robert Marquand - June 9, 2010 - 12:00am Israel’s raid of a “Freedom Flotilla” of activists that ended with nine deaths brought a global firestorm of protest, dimmed the chances for a peace deal, and threatened Israel’s relations with Turkey, its closest ally in the region. » Read more

Obama to meet with Palestinian Authority leader ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post by Scott Wilson - June 9, 2010 - 12:00am President Obama is scheduled to meet Wednesday with the head of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, in a White House session whose mission has changed in the past week. Once viewed primarily as a presidential push to turn indirect Israeli-Palestinian talks into direct peace negotiations, the meeting will now focus on how best to contain the fallout from Israel's deadly raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla last week. » Read more

Two Activists Describe Raid and Deny Israeli Claim They Are ‘Terrorist Operatives ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Robert Mackey - (Blog) June 9, 2010 - 12:00am Two pro-Palestinian activists who were raised in the United States, and who were on board the main ship in the flotilla challenging Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza last week when it was raided by Israeli commandos, have denied a claim by Israel’s military that they are “involved in terrorist activity.” » Read more

Palestinian Takes a Road Less Traveled ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Dan Williams - June 9, 2010 - 12:00am Palestinian inspectors were on the hunt for goods in West Bank stores made in Israeli settlements, and metal scouring pads with no labeled place of origin caught their attention. “You better find out where these came from,” said one man, who slapped a “No settlement products” sticker on the door of the Riviera Palace Mall Grocery Store in Ramallah. “They might be from them.” The inspectors were conducting a campaign organized by Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, known until a few months ago for trying to prepare Palestinians for statehood through gradual political and economic change. » Read more

Abbas Arrives ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Politico by Laura Rozen - June 9, 2010 - 12:00am Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and his delegation have arrived in Washington, ahead of a meeting with President Barack Obama at the White House Wednesday. “The whole entourage is here,” the American Task Force for Palestine’s Hussein Ibish said. “The real ask they have is really for the U.S. to tell Israel to simply be more serious about peace negotiations, to talk about the substantive issues, in a more permanent, serious way, and not kind of dance around the problem – to focus on a well in Nablus or a procedural question.” » Read more