Hamas: Abbas obstructing reconciliation deal over PM ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency July 12, 2011 - 12:00am Hamas official Mohammed Nasr said Tuesday that President Mahmoud Abbas was responsible for obstructing the completion of a Palestinian national unity government. "Abbas clings to Salam Fayyad as prime minister during the interim government but we refuse this nomination and we affirmed to Fatah that we have a veto against Fayyad," Nasr told the London based Al-Hayat newspaper. » Read more

Palestinians have to pin hopes on patience ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News by Linda S. Heard - (Opinion) July 12, 2011 - 12:00am If I were a Palestinian living on the West Bank or Gaza I would wake up every morning wondering why the international community champions the self-determination of Arabs in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen and Syria while actively abetting Israel in its oppression of my own people when they have international law on their side. » Read more

Quartet finds slow progress in Mideast peace process ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency by Agence France Press (AFP) - July 12, 2011 - 12:00am The Middle East diplomatic Quartet found out in Washington how massively bogged down the Israeli-Palestinian peace process is, despite efforts at bringing the parties closer. Representatives of the Quartet UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, declined to issue a statement about their evening dinner. » Read more

The Father, Son and Holy Jerusalem ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Asharq Alawsat by Hussein Shobokshi - (Opinion) July 12, 2011 - 12:00am In the modern world of business, the element of marketing is considered a key factor in the success of the commodity. You can't buy toothpaste if it does not contain the "Fluoride" ingredient. You can't purchase a detergent if it does not contain bleach, and you can't buy a bar of soap if it doesn't contain moisturizer and anti-bacterial products. Marketing experts convinced us that we cannot do without those ingredients in the products we buy. Thus they became a necessity and we "bought" the idea. The same applies to the world of politics. » Read more

Virtual Bridge Allows Strangers in Mideast to Seem Less Strange ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Ethan Bronner - July 9, 2011 - 12:00am Moad Arqoub, a Palestinian graduate student, was bouncing around the Internet the other day and came across a site that surprised and attracted him. It was a Facebook page where Israelis and Palestinians and other Arabs were talking about everything at once: the prospects of peace, of course, but also soccer, photography and music. “I joined immediately because right now, without a peace process and with Israelis and Palestinians physically separated, it is really important for us to be interacting without barriers,” Mr. Arqoub said as he sat at an outdoor cafe in this Palestinian city. » Read more

Israel's boycott ban is down to siege mentality ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian by Carlo Strenger - (Opinion) July 12, 2011 - 12:00am The flood of anti-democratic laws that were proposed, and partially implemented, by the current Knesset, elected in February 2009, constitute one of the darkest chapters in Israeli history. The opening salvo was provided by foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman's Yisrael Beitenu party with its Nakba law, that forbids the public commemoration of the expulsion of approximately 750000 Palestinians during the 1948 war. » Read more

Israel Bans Boycotts Against the State ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Isabel Kershner - July 11, 2011 - 12:00am The Israeli Parliament on Monday passed contentious legislation that effectively bans any public call for a boycott against the state of Israel or its West Bank settlements, making such action a punishable offense. Critics and civil rights groups denounced the new law as antidemocratic and a flagrant assault on the freedom of expression and protest. The law’s defenders said it was a necessary tool in Israel’s fight against what they called its global delegitimization. » Read more

Time is on whose side? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Doron S. Ben-Atar - (Opinion) July 12, 2011 - 12:00am The secular Palestinian national movement is at a crossroad. Since 2000, it has rejected three proposals of territorial compromise, thinking that a better offer will be forthcoming. The Palestinians believe time is on their side; that demographic trends, western strategic considerations, and the collective economic power of the Arab world will force Israel to yield to their demands. Recent developments prove the folly of these assumptions. » Read more

Reform! The end is at hand! ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Gershon Baskin - (Opinion) July 11, 2011 - 12:00am There is a well-documented phenomenon in societies as they reach the final stages of a deeply rooted, bloody conflict. I call it “digging in the heels against the current.” During this final phase, some societies show their ugliest face. I am talking about the stronger side, the one required to make truly hard concessions on real assets such as land. Such societies face a growing sense that the world fails to see the justice on their side. Indeed, the world usually supports the side perceived as the “underdog,” even when that side uses terrorism to support its cause. » Read more

An extremist minority is paralyzing Israel's leadership ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Amir Oren - (Opinion) July 12, 2011 - 12:00am Of all the countries in the world, only two have not yet reconciled themselves to Israel's existence in the 1967 borders, with minor, mutually agreed adjustments: Iran and Israel. » Read more