Three militants are killed in an explosion at a Gaza training camp. PM Fayyad says the Palestinian state will be in the 1967 borders. Pres. Abbas visits Egypt. Hamas is challenged by more extreme Jihadists. A holy site near Nablus becomes a new flashpoint in the occupied territories. Aaron David Miller says now is not the time for diplomatic action by the US. Activists in Gaza warn Israel not to block an upcoming flotilla, but Israel says its navy is ready to board ships again. A Palestinian artist develops passport stamps. Turkey's foreign minister is highly critical of Israel in an interview with Reuters. Israeli commandos get special training for the flotilla. Hamas' founder is memorialized in a new museum. Controversial archeology continues in Jerusalem. Palestinians are planning their approach to the UN in September. Akiva Eldar says Jerusalem is already divided. FM Lieberman may be charged with corruption. Tensions are rising between Palestinian residents and occupation forces in East Jerusalem. A Knesset bill seeks to change the names of Jerusalem neighborhoods. Israel arrests 12 alleged Palestinian extremists in the West Bank. Gershon Baskin says it's crucial to salvage the two-state solution. Greg Philo says Israel successfully spins images of conflict. A majority of both Israelis and Palestinians expect a third intifada. Israeli towns want to the screen residents for "social suitability," which Palestinians say will be code for ethnic discrimination. Egypt says the opening of the Gaza border doesn't lessen Israel's responsibilities. Egyptian analysts say major changes to the relationship with Israel are unlikely under any new government. Yossi Alpher says PM Netanyahu's strategy is all about popular opinion and Ghassan Khatib says he offered no new ideas in his Washington trip.

No new ideas
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Ghassan Khatib - (Opinion) May 30, 2011 - 12:00am

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's speech delivered to the US Congress on May 24 held no new ideas or initiatives. Rather, it was a reiteration of the same well-known right-wing positions held by this Israeli government.

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"Other places of critical strategic and national importance"
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Yossi Alpher - (Opinion) May 30, 2011 - 12:00am

In his speech to the United States Congress last week, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was addressing three target audiences. The least important for him was the Palestinians.

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Israel nervous, but major change in Egypt relations unlikely
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Masry Al-Youm
(Analysis) May 31, 2011 - 12:00am

Before Egyptian President Anwar Sadat signed the 1979 peace treaty with Israel, bringing the Sinai Peninsula back into Egypt’s possession, Moshe Dayan, Israel’s eye patch-wearing foreign minister, had no doubt about what the deal would mean for his nation’s security. “If a wheel is removed,” he reportedly said, “the car will not run again.” In other words, if Egypt was taken away from the field of battle, the Arab world could never again pose a threat to the Jewish state.

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Egyptian diplomat: Rafah opening not excuse for less Israeli responsibility
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Masry Al-Youm
May 31, 2011 - 12:00am

Egypt's decision to open the Rafah border crossing does not absolve Israel of its obligations to the Gaza Strip, Egypt's ambassador to the Palestinian National Authority said on Tuesday. Yasser Othman told Al-Ayam, a Palestinian Newspaper, that the decision "does not in any way absolve Israel of its responsibility and obligations toward the Gaza Strip, as it remains the occupying power." Egypt opened the Rafah border crossing on 28 May, easing access for Palestinians for the first time since Hamas took control of the area in 2007.

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Misgav Residents Say They Want To Combat Urban Sprawl, Not Exclude Arabs as Neighbors
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Nathan Jeffay - (Analysis) May 30, 2011 - 12:00am

This rural, laidback municipality, spread over 44,000 acres in the Galilee hills, is home to 29 Jewish villages, six Arab Bedouin villages and one of the few mixed Jewish-Arab schools in Israel. Because of this, its residents resent being called racists. But that is just how they have been portrayed frequently in the Israeli press. Ever since the Knesset passed a law in March that gave villages such as these the right to screen who may live in them for “social suitability,” the residents of Misgav have been cited as prime examples of the law’s alleged discriminatory intent.

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Majority of both Palestinians and Israeli expect new intifada
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Harriet Sherwood - (Blog) May 31, 2011 - 12:00am

Two polls earlier this month gave strikingly similar results on one question: do you think a third intifada (Palestinian uprising) is looming? An Israeli poll for The Peace Index found that 70% of Jews in Israel expect a popular uprising following the expected declaration of a Palestinian state in September and its possible recognition by the UN. (62% of Israeli-Arabs also think an intifada is likely.)

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Israel's PR victory shames news broadcasters
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
(Opinion) May 31, 2011 - 12:00am

The propaganda battle over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has reached a new level of intensity. In 2004 the Glasgow University Media Group published a major study on TV coverage of the Second Intifada and its impact on public understanding. We analysed about 200 programmes and questioned more than 800 people. Our conclusion: reporting was dominated by Israeli accounts. Since then we have been contacted by many journalists, especially from the BBC, and told of the intense pressures they are under that limit criticism of Israel. They asked us to raise the issue in public because they can't.

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Encountering Peace: Off to the UN we go
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Gershon Baskin - (Opinion) May 30, 2011 - 12:00am

It is now quite evident that there can be no end to our conflict with the Palestinians, and no peace without a negotiated agreement. Yet without a fundamental change in relations between the parties, the option of a two-state solution will soon be off the table. That is my assessment with regard to the Palestinian side. Once the current Palestinian leaders in Palestine come to believe that they can no longer advance the cause of peace and end the occupation, they will resign and turn the issue over to the next generation.

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IDF arrests 12 Palestinian Islamic Jihad members in Jenin
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
May 31, 2011 - 12:00am

IDF forces in coordination with the Civil Administration on Monday overnight arrested 12 wanted Palestinians in the Jenin area. The IDF Spokesman said that the detainees were senior Palestinians Islamic Jihad (PIJ) members who are suspected of "providing guidance in planning terror activities as well as transferring finances and taking an active part in the rebuilding of terror networks in the region."

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