Hamas says not to recognize Israel as state ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua May 24, 2011 - 12:00am Hamas will not recognize Israel as a state, Hamas Deputy Political Director Mousa Abu-Marzouk said here on Tuesday, according to Interfax news agency. Slashing the Palestine Liberation Organization's recognition of Israel, Abu-Marzouk said the move was a "historic mistake." Abu-Marzouk said Hamas was not going to participate in the transitional Palestinian government of national unity, but will help other Palestinian movements to form such a government. He said the transitional government would be technocratic, but not based on a parliamentary majority. » Read more

Abbas defends unity deal against US criticism ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press by Dale Gavlak - May 23, 2011 - 12:00am Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas sought Monday to defend his new unity government with the militant Hamas movement, saying criticism by U.S. President Barack Obama represented a "wrong understanding" of the deal. Abbas' comments followed talks with Jordan's King Abdullah II in the Jordanian capital and were noted in a royal palace statement. They were his first remarks on major speeches the U.S. president delivered in recent days. » Read more

Palestinian UN bid enters unknown territory ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press by Karin Laub - May 23, 2011 - 12:00am President Barack Obama threw down a gauntlet this weekend: no vote at the United Nations, he asserted, would ever create a Palestinian state. The Palestinians hope to prove him wrong. But their planned bid for U.N. recognition this fall of a state in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem — territories occupied by Israel since the 1967 Mideast war — enters largely unknown legal ground, and the Palestinians are still trying to work out how best to work the U.N. labyrinth. » Read more

Army arrests Israeli activists in West Bank ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press May 24, 2011 - 12:00am Israel's army says it has arrested several Israeli activists who broke into a disputed West Bank building to protest speeches by President Barack Obama and the Israeli prime minister in Washington. A military spokeswoman says the troops arrested about eight activists early on Tuesday after they holed themselves up in Beit Shapira, a building in the contentious city of Hebron. Israel sealed the building in 2006. Army radio broadcast one activist at the site yelling: "Tell Obama and (Netanyahu) that Israel won't give up its land." » Read more

Netanyahu repeats Israel cannot return to '67 borders ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters May 23, 2011 - 12:00am Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday again rejected U.S. President Barack Obama's vision of a Middle East peace deal based on the country's "indefensible" 1967 borders. Netanyahu, speaking to Washington's most powerful pro-Israel lobbying group, said he planned to outline in a speech to Congress on Tuesday his own vision for an eventual peace between Israel and the Palestinians. "It must leave Israel with security, and therefore Israel cannot return to the indefensible 1967 lines," Netanyahu said.

Russia announces unequivocal support for unity deal ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency May 24, 2011 - 12:00am Russia supports Palestinian unity efforts as a step toward regional stability, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavarov told Palestinian factional representatives in Moscow on Monday evening. The statement came at a meeting with seven faction leaders, many of whom recently refused to appoint members to a new technocrat government saying they were being left out of the reconciliation process and would prefer not to lend it legitimacy. » Read more

Palestinian unity arose from ruins of peace talks ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency May 23, 2011 - 12:00am A Palestinian unity deal, slammed by Barack Obama as an "enormous obstacle to peace," emerged after Hamas and Fatah agreed on the shared goal of a state on the 1967 lines and the failure of talks with Israel. "The recent agreement between Fatah and Hamas poses an enormous obstacle to peace," the US president told delegates at the US-Israel lobby group AIPAC in Washington on Sunday, demanding the Islamist movement recognize Israel, reject violence and respect all existing agreements with Israel. » Read more

Cairo: Some names for new govt selected ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency May 24, 2011 - 12:00am Several names have been agreed on for the new technocrat government being compiled by Fatah and Hamas officials in Cairo, a party member told Ma'an on Tuesday. From Gaza City, Fatah national relations official Diab Al-Loh assured that progress was being made in the now nearly three-week long wait for the announcement of a new government, following the signing of a unity deal on 4 May. Al-Loh said none of the names would be announced until the government was set, and meetings between all factions were concluded. » Read more

Time for Netanyahu to ditch his do-nothing policy ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post by Richard Cohen - (Opinion) May 23, 2011 - 12:00am Every man has a father, and Binyamin Netanyahu’s is worth knowing. He is Benzion Netanyahu, born 101 years ago in what was soon to become Poland and living now in what has become Israel. He is a historian by profession, the author of a mammoth and well-respected book on the Spanish Inquisition and, most pertinent to today’s events, the former secretary to Ze’ev Jabotinsky, a militant Zionist leader whose credo, when it came to the Arabs, could be summarized as: Do nothing. Binyamin Netanyahu is doing precisely that. » Read more

West Bank: Palestinian Premier Has a Heart Attack in Texas ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press May 23, 2011 - 12:00am The Palestinian prime minister, Salam Fayyad, suffered a heart attack on Sunday at a hospital in Austin, Tex., where he was attending his son’s college graduation, a spokesman said. Mr. Fayyad, a heavy smoker, underwent tests showing a blockage in a coronary artery, and doctors performed a catheterization to open the artery, the spokesman said. He is expected to leave the hospital in two days. Mr. Fayyad has been prime minister since 2007 and has developed close ties with Western leaders.