NEWS: The PA’s financial crisis is causing controversy in the West Bank. Spain reportedly says it backs Palestinian statehood initiatives. PM Fayyad praises Palestinians in Hebron for defying segregation and siege. Jailed Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti calls on Palestinians to march in support of UN statehood initiatives. Violence may increase between Israel and Gaza-based militants. The EU says it’s disappointed by new settlement construction. A senior PLO official says Palestinians should delay their proposed UN statehood initiative. An extremist religious book divides Jews in Israel. Pro-Israel groups worry the Murdoch scandal may weaken a strong pro-Israel voice. There is little optimism at a UN-sponsored meeting between Israelis and Palestinians. Gaza smuggling spurs a construction boom. COMMENTARY: Carlo Strenger says PM Netanyahu’s cabinet is united by hatred of liberal values. Michael Felson says if the refugee issue can be resolved, other issues will fall into place quickly. Ray Hanania says Christians must be encouraged by governments to stay in Israel, Palestine and the Arab states. Americans for Peace Now says it’s responding to the boycott law by boycotting settlement goods. Tariq Alhomayed asks why the Syrian regime would choose this moment to recognize a Palestinian state. The Gulf News says the suspension of MK Zoabi is further evidence of Israeli racism. Rami Khouri says Israel’s policies look and smell like apartheid. Henry Siegman says Elliott Abrams is wrong to oppose a letter on peace by prominent Americans. Akiva Eldar says responsibility for says the failure of the peace process will lie with the Quartet.

King's Torah splits Israel's religious and secular Jews
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
by Yolande Knell - July 19, 2011 - 12:00am

Recent protests in Israel highlight the differences between the country's religious and secular Jewish communities. Hundreds of right-wing Jews have taken part in demonstrations outside Israel's Supreme Court over the brief detention of two prominent rabbis in the last few weeks. There were clashes with police on horseback on the nearby Jerusalem streets and several arrests were made.

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PA should delay UN statehood bid, says PLO official
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Khaled Abu Toameh, Herb Keinon - July 20, 2011 - 12:00am

Nabil Amr calls on Palestinian leadership to delay statehood plan by a year out of fear it will harm relations with US and EU. The Palestinian Authority leadership has climbed a very high tree with its plan to ask the UN to recognize a Palestinian state along the pre-1967 lines in September, Nabil Amr, member of the PLO Central Council and a former PA minister, said on Tuesday. “The leadership does not have any guarantees that it would be able to climb down safely from the tree,” he cautioned, advising the PA to delay the statehood by another year.

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Amid Murdoch scandal, Israel backers worry about muting of pro-Israel media voice
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
by Ron Kampeas - July 19, 2011 - 12:00am

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- Pro-Israel leaders in the United States, Britain and Australia are warily watching the unfolding of the phone-hacking scandal that is threatening to engulf the media empire of Rupert Murdoch, founder of News Corp.

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EU 'disappointed' in settlement construction
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
July 20, 2011 - 12:00am

The European Union on Tuesday expressed "great disappointment" in a tender issued by the Construction and Housing Ministry this week for the construction of 6,900 housing units, including some 300 units in the settlements of Beitar Illit and Karnei Shomron. Maja Kocijancic, spokeswoman for the EU's foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton, said that such acts go against the international community's ongoing efforts to form a peaceful solution which will maintain Israel's safety and the Palestinians' right for an independent state.

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Israeli and Palestinian Activists Gloomy Over Peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Nathan Guttman - July 17, 2011 - 12:00am

Budapest — On the boat sailing along the Danube River, Israeli and Palestinian peace activists seemed closer than ever. Sipping Hungarian wine on deck and sharing laughs, diplomats, prominent activists and journalists from both sides formed a close pact, joking over their own roles in what is widely known as the peace industry. But while the industry remains vibrant, peace has never seemed further away.

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News Analysis: Gaza Strip may witness more violence between Israel, militant groups: analysts
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
by Emad Drimly, Osama Radi - July 20, 2011 - 12:00am

GAZA, July 19 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian observers believe that the Gaza Strip may witness more escalation of violence soon between Israel and Gaza militant groups following around one week of tit-for-tat escalation that the coastal enclave had witnessed between the two sides. During this week, Israeli F-16 war jets carried out a series of intensive airstrikes on the Gaza Strip, which targeted smuggling tunnels underneath the borders between the enclave and Egypt, where three Palestinians were killed and 25 others, most of them civilians, were wounded.

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Special from Gaza: Building material smuggling triggers construction boom
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Masry Al-Youm
by Abeer Ayyoub - July 20, 2011 - 12:00am

GAZA CITY, Gaza - After marking its inaugural opening on Tuesday, the three-story mall in Gaza City now offers products running the gamut. The supermarket has nearly all possible commodities. Shoe stores with popular brand names, such as Nike, Adidas and Fox, sit next to clothing shops displaying window mannequins with hot miniskirts and vibrantly colored t-shirts.

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AN ISRAELI VIEW Responsibility will rest with the Quartet
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Akiva Eldar - (Opinion) July 18, 2011 - 12:00am

The creation of the Quartet by US President George W. Bush was a unique and interesting attempt to develop an effective international mechanism that is not subject to the problematic rules of the game of the United Nations. The new forum was supposed to expand America's wingspan without the burden of the Security Council and the nearly-200 members of the General Assembly.

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Elliott Abrams' Complaint
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Huffington Post
by Henry Siegman - (Editorial) July 19, 2011 - 12:00am

Following President Barack Obama's May 19 speech on the Middle East at the Department of State, The New York Review of Books (NYRB) published a letter that had been presented to the president this past January by a number of prominent, former, senior, U.S. government officials. The signatories to the letter urged the president to present to the parties in the Israel-Palestine conflict clear parameters to frame negotiations for a two-state peace agreement, and it suggested six key components for such a framework.

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