NEWS: The Palestinian national unity deal is threatened by the dispute over the future of PM Fayyad, as Hamas and Fatah leaders meet in Cairo. Israel is cracking down on Palestinian nonviolent protests. The UN says the Gaza blockade has strengthened Hamas. Deputy FM Ayalon visits Egypt. Israeli teachers are using unofficial curricula to teach about the Nakba. The UN says almost half of Gazans are unemployed. Occupation forces and Palestinians clash at a Jerusalem holy site. The vacancy at a key position for refugees leaves Palestinians in Lebanon without recourse. A US professor is trying to promote business startups as a vehicle for Israeli-Palestinian reconciliation. COMMENTARY: Richard Cohen says Turki al-Faisal’s warning about US favoritism towards Israel should be heeded. Akiva Eldar says even if Palestinians win UN recognition, that won’t mean much in practice. Gershon Baskin says nobody seems particularly interested in challenging the status quo in Israel and Palestine. Colette Avital says Israel’s only hope for remaining a Jewish, democratic state is to have a Palestinian state alongside it. Ilan Peleg and Dov Waxman look at what Israel needs to do for its Arab minority. The National says Fayyad has been a great Prime Minister but national unity is more important than any individual. Yossi Alpher says Israel should defend its borders but make gestures towards refugees. Ghassan Khatib says justice for the refugees is a crucial part of peace. Carlo Strenger says by going to the UN, Palestinians are seizing control of the situation.

Search for justice continues
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Ghassan Khatib - June 13, 2011 - 12:00am

Several important dates have been observed in recent weeks. In one, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians became refugees when Israel was created, their lives and futures altered in a way that was catastrophic for the Palestinian nation. The second date that recently passed was the occasion of Israel's occupation of the rest of historic Palestine, comprised of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip.

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Defend our borders, but make a gesture
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Yossi Alpher - (Editorial) June 13, 2011 - 12:00am

The Arab revolutionary wave has already touched the Palestinian issue in more ways than one. The transitional military regime in Egypt has granted Hamas in Gaza greater legitimacy, opened the Rafah crossing and pressed for a Palestinian unity government. Fairly modest demonstrations and exploitation of social media by youth in Ramallah and Gaza clearly exerted additional pressure on the Palestinian leadership to reconcile.

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Fatah, Hamas meet in Cairo to settle dispute on leadership
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
June 14, 2011 - 12:00am

Representatives of Fatah and Hamas, the Palestinian rivals, are to meet Tuesday in Cairo to discuss forming a unity government among increasing differences on the candidate of the prime minister. The meeting is the second one since the two movements signed an Egyptian-brokered agreement to end political division between the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip and the Fatah-ruled West Bank. When the two movements met on May 14, they discussed the independent candidates who may lead the technocratic government that will administer Gaza and the West Bank according to the agreement.

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Palestine’s White September
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Foreign Policy
by Carlo Strenger - (Opinion) June 13, 2011 - 12:00am

Historical dates often emerge by sheer coincidence. In 2009, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad formulated an operational goal for his tenure: by 2011 he wanted to build institutions that would justify the proclamation of a Palestinian state. This would not just have symbolic value, as PLO Chairman Yasir Arafat's statement in 1988, but would carry practical implications. Fayyad's efforts have commanded international admiration. The West Bank is indeed run in a way that meets many criteria for successful statehood.

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Take away Hamas excuses on unity
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
(Editorial) June 14, 2011 - 12:00am

Salam Fayyad probably saw it coming. Four years ago, the Palestinian prime minister told The New York Times that he had every intention of de-legitimising the Islamist movement of Hamas. Violence is "not who we are", he said in 2007. "I want to disappoint them." On Sunday, it was Hamas that did the disappointing.

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Israel’s Real Arab Problem
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Ilan Peleg, Dov Waxman - (Opinion) June 14, 2011 - 12:00am

“Of the 300 million Arabs in the Middle East and North Africa, only Israel’s Arab citizens enjoy real democratic rights,” Prime Minister Netanyahu boasted in his recent speech to the United States Congress. Lest the point be lost on his audience, Netanyahu emphatically reiterated it: “Of those 300 million Arabs, less than one-half of 1% are truly free, and they are all citizens of Israel!”

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Report: Deputy Israeli FM visits Egypt
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
June 14, 2011 - 12:00am

Deputy Israeli Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon visited Egypt two weeks ago and met with top officials, Israeli daily Ma'ariv reported Tuesday. It is the first time since the country's former leader Hosni Mubarak was toppled that such a high-ranking Israeli political official visited Egypt, the daily reported, although the Israeli foreign ministry has denied the visit took place. Ma'ariv said that Ayalon met with Hussein Tantawi, head of Egypt’s higher military council, and Egyptian foreign minister Nabil Al-Arabi.

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Unofficial Nakba study kit a hit with teachers
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Asaf Shtull-Trauring - June 14, 2011 - 12:00am

When Shira (not her real name ), a history teacher at a junior high school in the center of the country, mentioned "nakba" in a class three years ago, none of her students had any idea what it referred to. Today, she says, the word just surfaces naturally among the students. They know about it and talk about it. According to her, the reason is clear - Amendment 40 to the Budget Foundations Law, more commonly known as the "Nakba Law."

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Gaza unemployment levels 'among worst in world'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
by Jon Donnison - June 14, 2011 - 12:00am

Gaza's unemployment rate was among the world's highest, at 45.2% in late 2010, the UN has found, as Israel's blockade of the territory enters its fifth year. Real wages meanwhile fell by more than a third, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said. Its report says that private businesses have been hardest hit by the continuing ban on virtually all exports. Israel tightened sanctions on Gaza in 2006 after militants captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

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