June 15th

Israel Navy rehearses raid ahead of new Gaza-bound flotilla ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua June 15, 2011 - 12:00am JERUSALEM, June 15 (Xinhua) -- The Israel Navy on Wednesday held an exercise incorporating several special forces units as part of ongoing preparations to prevent an international aid flotilla from reaching the Gaza Strip in the coming weeks. The organizers of "Freedom Flotilla 2," to include 15 ships and some 1,500 pro-Palestinian activists, plan to set sail from European ports later this month and are expected to approach Gaza coast in the first week of July. » Read more

Myth of indefensible borders ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Daniel Nisman, Avi Yesawich - (Opinion) June 14, 2011 - 12:00am Individuals who claim the 1967 borders are indefensible ignore the overarching paradigm shift of the Israeli-Arab conflict that has taken place over the last decade. The political outcry in Israel following Obama’s Mideast policy speech was palpable. The president stated what many Israeli hawks found to be unacceptable, if not outright dangerous: Any future Israeli-Palestinian agreement should be based on the 1967 borders with mutually agreed upon land swaps. Hysteria followed, with Netanyahu issuing a clear rebuke to Obama’s statement during his speech at the US Congress. » Read more

'UN says Syria allowed Naksa Day border crossings' ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post June 15, 2011 - 12:00am Report on Naksa, Nakba clashes on northern border says Syria didn't organize the demonstrations but Syrian armed forces were always nearby. Syrian armed forces allowed Palestinian demonstrators to cross the Israel-Syrian border in the Golan Heights during Nakba and Naksa Day protests, a United Nations report released on Wednesday said, AFP reported. » Read more

Israel expects new Lebanese Cabinet to keep truce ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Statesman June 15, 2011 - 12:00am Israel says it expects Lebanon's new government to honor the truce that ended the 2006 summer war between Israeli troops and the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group. Lebanon this week formed a Cabinet dominated by Hezbollah and its allies. The move capped Hezbollah's steady rise over decades from a guerrilla group fighting Israel to Lebanon's most powerful military and political force. In Israel's first official comment on the new Cabinet on Wednesday, the Foreign Ministry said Israel expects the Lebanese government to honor the U.N. Security Council resolution that ended the 2006 war. » Read more

PM: Palestinians won't compromise if all demands are met ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Gil Hoffman, Hilary Leila Krieger, Tovah Lazaroff - June 15, 2011 - 12:00am Netanyahu tells Jerzy Buzek 30 UN states should oppose Palestinian statehood bid; US, EU officials in Israel work to stop UN move. If the Palestinians obtain all of their requests and the UN General Assembly recognizes a Palestinian state, it will be difficult to get the Palestinian leadership to accept necessary compromises in peace negotiations, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Tuesday night. Netanyahu made the comments during a meeting with President of the European Parliament Jerzy Buzek in Jerusalem. » Read more

US envoys try to renew Israeli-Palestinian talks ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Statesman by Tia Goldenberg - June 15, 2011 - 12:00am Senior U.S. diplomats have returned to the Middle East for an unannounced visit to try to find a way to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks that collapsed last year and now face new challenges. Dennis Ross and David Hale's visit, confirmed by an Israeli official Wednesday, is their first to the region since special Mideast envoy George Mitchell resigned last month after failing to break the negotiations deadlock. » Read more

The reason for our water crisis ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Shaddad Attili - (Opinion) June 15, 2011 - 12:00am Earlier this month, I took part in a panel discussion on the water crisis affecting the Middle East. Along with representatives from Jordan and France, Gilad Erdan, Israel’s Minister for Environmental Protection, was on the panel. The theme was “equitable sharing and reasonable use of cross-border watercourses,” which goes to the very heart of the water dispute between Palestinians and Israelis. » Read more

Fatah and Hamas call their top leaders to the rescue ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times by Maher Abukhater - (Blog) June 14, 2011 - 12:00am Unable to agree on who will run the new Palestinian national unity government, the secular Fatah movement and the Islamist Hamas, two bitter rivals for years, decided Tuesday to call their top leaders to the rescue. After a meeting in Cairo to discuss government formation, the two main Palestinian political factions decided that it was time to have the Fatah leader, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, and the Hamas leader, Khaled Mishal, to join the next “final and decisive” meeting planned for next Tuesday in Cairo. » Read more

PM: Israel aims to offset PA's UN bid ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Attila Somfalvi - June 15, 2011 - 12:00am Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met Tuesday with European Parliament President Prof Jerzy Buzek in Jerusalem. The two discussed various regional issues, including the unilateral Palestinian bid for statehood in the UN, planned for September. Netanyahu told Buzek the he aims to push a diplomatic initiative that would see 30 UN-member nations block the PA's bid. "It will not create an opposing majority, but it will balance out the bid's potential support," he said. » Read more

Learning to trust our neighbors ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Leon Wieseltier - (Opinion) June 15, 2011 - 12:00am The stability that Hosni Mubarak conferred upon Israeli-Egyptian relations could not last forever, and Israel's security policy cannot be premised on an eternity of Arab tyranny; but still it is not hard to understand the anxiety that the turbulence in Egypt, and elsewhere in the Arab world, has provoked in Israel. What seems to rattle Israel is not only the prospect of Arab instability, but also the prospect of Arab democracy. The only democracy in the Middle East looks as if it wishes to remain the only democracy in the Middle East. This is not altogether attractive. » Read more