Ha'aretz reports that Ismail Haniyeh has been secretly elected by a “significant margin” to head Hamas' Political Bureau in Gaza, while several noted "moderates" were not elected to the committee. Israel recognizes three “unauthorized” settlement outposts in the occupied West Bank. PM Netanyahu is asking Israel Supreme Court to defer eviction orders against more "unauthorized" outposts. Hamas says it will start teaching Hebrew in Gaza high schools next year. Israel has options for dealing with the cut off of natural gas from Egypt. Israel is punishing hunger-striking Palestinian prisoners. UNRWA inaugurates a Dutch-funded housing project for 1,300 Palestinians in Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip. Israel bans a textbook that encourages respect for the rights of Palestinian citizens. Palestinian officials say they will ask the UN Security Council to censure Israel on settlement expansion. Several websites are reportedly being blocked by the PA, many reportedly “loyal to Muhammad Dahlan.” Yasser Abed Rabbo has reportedly been dismissed as the PA media supervisor because he declined to join an official Palestinian delegation to deliver a letter to PM Netanyahu. Israeli officials reportedly describe a 60 Minutes report on the plight of Palestinian Christians as a “strategic terror attack." COMMENTARY: Ami Ayalon, Orni Petruschka and Gilead Sher say Israel should begin to unilaterally establish new de facto borders along the security barrier lines in the occupied West Bank. AP interviews PLO official Qureia, who expresses growing Palestinian doubts about the plausibility of a two-state solution. Ha'aretz says the natural gas dispute with Egyptian should not become a political issue, but Gershon Baskin says it is another sign of Israel's deteriorating relations with all its neighbors. Sefi Rachlevsky says that by attempting to bypass the High Court, the Knesset is, in effect, planning to end Israel's democracy. Zalman Shoval says there are many possible scenarios that could unfold, but a single Israeli-Palestinian state is not one of them. Joseph Dana says it's obvious that Israel is trying to seize all of occupied East Jerusalem permanently. Ben Caspit says FM Lieberman told him he's more "worried about Egypt than Iran." Efraim Inbar says the problem with Kadima leader Mofaz's peace ideas is that neither side would accept them. Hussein Ibish says in a recent interview with The Forward Hamas leader Abu Marzook demonstrated yet again that the group is not capable of leading the Palestinian national movement.

Hamas Still Not Ready for Prime Time
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast
by Hussein Ibish - (Blog) April 23, 2012 - 12:00am

In a wide-ranging interview with the Jewish Daily Forward, Hamas leader Mousa Abu Marzook again demonstrated the difficult position in which his organization finds itself. Due to the Arab uprisings, the region’s strategic landscape is now primarily defined by sectarian allegiances. As a result, Hamas's external leadership is trying to reintegrate the organization into the mainstream Sunni Arab fold, cultivating closer ties with states like Qatar, Jordan and Egypt, while distancing itself from Iran and abandoning Syria altogether.

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Both sides will reject it
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Efraim Inbar - (Opinion) April 23, 2012 - 12:00am

Having recently won the struggle for the Kadima party leadership, Shaul Mofaz now plans to position himself as a serious alternative to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. While the polls so far do not show any significant increase in Kadima's appeal to voters, Mofaz is a focused, hardworking politician who cannot easily be dismissed as a mere irritant to the Likud and Netanyahu, which seem to have a hold on the Israeli electorate. He has the necessary national security experience--as former Israel Defense Forces chief of staff and minister of defense--to take on the prime ministerial quest.

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Israeli Foreign Minister: I Worry More About Egypt Than Iran
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'ariv
by Ben Caspit - (Analysis) April 23, 2012 - 12:00am

Israel is worried that the Egyptian revolution may turn against Israel. Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman sent a warning document to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, recommending that three or four special divisions be designated to protect the southern border with Egypt. In his view, the situation in Egypt is worsening and may create pressure on the leadership to unite the nation around an external enemy — Israel.

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Israel's strategy to seize Jerusalem on display for all to see
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Joseph Dana - (Opinion) April 25, 2012 - 12:00am

By now, news of Palestinian being evicted from their homes in East Jerusalem is routine. Last week, two more Palestinian families were thrown into the street to make way for Jewish settlers in the neighbourhood of Beit Hanina. The mechanism of land confiscation in East Jerusalem and the West Bank has become a near science for Israeli authorities, ensuring that the exact borders of Israel remain unclear and constantly shifting.

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‘One state’ means no state
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Zalman Shoval - (Opinion) April 23, 2012 - 12:00am

The next round of Israeli-Palestinian talks is in the offing, but it will probably turn out to be as futile as the last one. At least as long as the Palestinian leadership persists in its unrealistic preconditions, i.e. Israel to accept a priori the 1967 armistice line as the border of the proposed Palestinian state, and stopping all construction beyond that line, including in Jerusalem.

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Bill seeking to bypass Supreme Court aims to end democracy
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Sefi Rachlevsky - (Opinion) April 24, 2012 - 12:00am

If you spent time as a child in a crowded chicken coop, you will have had difficulty forgetting the scene. When one of the hens is injured, her "sister" hens immediately begin forming a cloud overhead. The entire coop is engulfed in a whirlwind of dust. Within half a minute, all that is left of the injured hen is the dust of its bones. A few seconds later, it is business as usual in the coop. (In nature, where chickens are not locked up, there are no scenes like that.)

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The sunshine over the horizon
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Gershon Baskin - (Opinion) April 23, 2012 - 12:00am

The unilateral Egyptian decision to cancel the gas deal with Israel is another sad benchmark in the deterioration of relations between Israel and its neighbors. This cancelation is a clear violation of the agreement between the two countries, which beyond its economic importance to both sides is a blow to status of the peace between Israel and Egypt.

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Israel must keep gas dispute with Egypt apolitical
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
(Editorial) April 24, 2012 - 12:00am

The suspension (or cancellation) of Egypt's natural gas agreement with Israel has prompted extensive fear about bilateral relations, to the point that some see it as the first step toward scrapping the Camp David Accords.

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AP Interview: Palestinian doubts 2-state solution
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
by Dan Perry - (Analysis) April 23, 2012 - 12:00am

ABU DIS, West Bank — With gloom deepening over prospects for peace, a leading Palestinian is suggesting they might drop the "two-state solution" that has underpinned two decades of negotiations, aiming for Israel and a Palestinian state next to each other. Instead, Palestinians might seek a multi-ethnic state covering all of historic Palestine — including today's Israel, said former Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia in an interview at his office in this West Bank town.

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