Egypt Lifts Blockade, Along With the Gazans’ Hopes
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by David Kirkpatrick - (Analysis) May 28, 2011 - 12:00am

RAFAH BORDER CROSSING, Egypt — Hundreds of Palestinian residents of the Gaza Strip arrived here by the busload on Saturday to pass through the reopened border into Egypt, taking the first tangible steps out of a four-year Israeli blockade. “I feel this is the start of freedom,” said Hasna el-Ryes, 45, a Gaza resident waiting to cross into Egypt so she could travel to visit sons studying in Britain. “You can’t imagine how much we have suffered.”

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NEWS: Fatah says it wants PM Fayyad to continue in office but Hamas refuses. Analysts say this bodes poorly for national reconciliation. PM Netanyahu is mobilizing Europe against Palestinian statehood efforts at the UN. The White House discusses new peace ideas with leading Jewish Americans. Muhammad Dahlan is expelled from Fatah. A new arbitration agreement facilitates Palestinian-Israeli business links. Fayyad supports Stanley Fischer for IMF managing director. Women’s groups say the PA isn’t doing enough to combat “honor killings.” Egypt accuses an American man of being an Israeli spy. Living conditions in Gaza are slowly improving. COMMENTARY:Turki al-Faisal says US favoritism towards Israel is a failed policy. The LA Times hosts a debate between Mousa Abu Marzook and John Bolton on the UN role in Palestinian statehood. Akiva Eldar says Netanyahu ensures the world is against Israel. Merav Michaeli says the Israeli public is oblivious to the repression of Palestinian protesters. Jeff Barak says Israeli society has a long way to go before it becomes truly tolerant. The President of the European Parliament says there must be a peace agreement. Uri Avnery says Israel must make peace with all the Palestinians. Tony Karon says Palestinians doubts are Israel’s best weapon in September. Ha’aretz interviews French ambassador Valerie Hoffenberg on her government’s peace conference proposal.

Palestinians march, Israelis repress
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Merav Michaeli - (Opinion) June 13, 2011 - 12:00am

Sources in the Israel Defense Forces are of the opinion that the scenes of Nakba Day and Naksa Day are unlikely to repeat themselves. The marches undertaken on those two days by Palestinian refugees to the border with Israel, they say, were not an act of solidarity with the Palestinians and a demand to realize the Right of Return, but rather an attempt to divert attention away from what is happening in Syria.

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Bright spots and dark horizons
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Jeff Barak - (Opinion) June 12, 2011 - 12:00am

The story was shocking enough, but what really shocked me was the radio host’s line of questioning.

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With Netanyahu, the world is always against us
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Akiva Eldar - (Opinion) June 13, 2011 - 12:00am

Benjamin Netanyahu really is no man's fool. Why should he miss a rare opportunity to remind the people of Israel that the world is against us and that we have to "join hands" in the struggle against delegitimization?

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Under no illusions
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Jerzy Buzek - (Opinion) June 12, 2011 - 12:00am

I am a friend of Israel. These are not cheap words. As a Pole growing up in the shadow of Auschwitz, and as a European, I am all too aware that the fates of Europe and Israel hang together. Europeans have a special responsibility toward Israel: to remember what has gone before, and to act on these memories – to secure the right of existence for Israel at a time of tumultuous change. We take this moral duty very seriously. The European Union – whose citizens are represented in the parliament of which I am president – was created to prevent the recurrence of the nightmare of war.

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Palestinian statehood: What is the U.N.'s role?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
(Editorial) June 12, 2011 - 12:00am

Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzook insists that a vote this fall in the General Assembly cannot be stopped. The Israeli prime minister's recent trip to the United States was a blatant effort to stop the march of history.

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A brown-haired young man
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
by Uri Avnery - (Opinion) June 13, 2011 - 12:00am

My hero of the year (for now) is a young brown-haired Palestinian refugee living in Syria called Hassan Hijazi.

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Failed favoritism toward Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Turki al-Faisal - (Opinion) June 10, 2011 - 12:00am

President Obama gave a rousing call to action in his controversial speech last month, admonishing Arab governments to embrace democracy and provide freedom to their populations. We in Saudi Arabia, although not cited, took his call seriously. We noted, however, that he conspicuously failed to demand the same rights to self-determination for Palestinians — despite the occupation of their territory by the region’s strongest military power.

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Israel's Best Hope to Thwart Palestinian U.N. Plan May Be Palestinians' Own Strategic Doubts
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Time
by Tony Karon - (Blog) June 13, 2011 - 12:00am

Israel's government currently lacks a credible plan for getting it out of a diplomatic tight spot if the Palestinians go ahead with a plan to seek U.N. recognition of a state in September. But don't bet against the Palestinian leadership letting the Israelis off the hook as a result of their own divisions over whether to go the U.N. route.

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