NEWS: An agreement is reached between Israel and hunger striking Palestinian prisoners. Hamas again calls for capturing more Israeli soldiers to bargain for Palestinian prisoners. Palestinians commemorate Nakba Day, and doctors say over 80 were injured in clashes with Israeli occupation forces near Ramallah. MK Tibi says Israelis must show empathy on Nakba Day. Iran executes a man accused of being an Israeli spy. Israel allows the export of clothes from Gaza after a five-year ban. New documents suggest that settlers in the controversial Ulpana outpost may have been duped into thinking they were not building on privately owned Palestinian land. The EU says Israeli settlement expansions are threatening the prospects for a two-state solution. Israel displays its security technologies to international visitors. Palestinians are increasingly turning to the Gulf for trade and aid. COMMENTARY: Hanan Ashrawi says Israeli recognition of the Nakba is vital for peace. Ha'aretz says the Nakba is part of Israel's history. Noam Neusner says Israel might be ready for a peace agreement, but the Palestinians are not. The chief of the PLO's Washington mission Areikat says Congress should be more constructive regarding aid to the Palestinians. Tony Karon says Israel's settlement policy depends on tactical deceptions. The National says a letter from a US member of Congress demonstrates widespread ignorance at senior American levels about the Middle East. Alon Ben-Meir asks if the new Israeli coalition deal is an ingenious political coup or an insidious political scheme. Samuel Segev says the political climate in Jordan is “boiling,” including on issues related to the Palestinians and Israel.

Political climate in Jordan boiling
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Winnipeg Free Press
by Samuel Segev - (Opinion) May 15, 2012 - 12:00am

What is going on in Jordan? For some time, the political climate in the kingdom has been boiling. In the last six months, King Abdullah has been forced to change his government three times, but demonstrations against the monarch continue. Luckily for him, there is no immediate danger of his overthrow. The reasons for the constant tension in the kingdom are abundant: unemployment, high cost of living, a rise in the power of the Islamists and the struggle between the Bedouins and the Palestinians, who constitute a majority in the country.

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Ingenious Political Coup Or Insidious Political Scheme
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Huffington Post
by Alon Ben-Meir - (Blog) May 14, 2012 - 12:00am

Prime Minister Netanyahu's move to expand his coalition to include Kadima with 28 Knesset members provides him with a majority of 94 out of 120 parliamentarians and represents nothing short of an ingenious political coup or an insidious political scheme, depending on what he does with his historic mandate. Reaching a peace agreement with the Palestinians and bridging the social gap must be first and foremost on his national agenda.

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Arafat-Sharon talks?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
(Editorial) May 16, 2012 - 12:00am

So you write a letter to a congressman expressing concern over House Resolution 268, a resolution that reaffirms US commitment "to a negotiated settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict". And then you wait. A year later, you receive a response dated April 20, 2012. But it might as well have been dated 2002.

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Settler policy rests on history of Israel's tactical deceptions
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Tony Karon - (Opinion) May 16, 2012 - 12:00am

The US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week, urging him to use his new unity government to advance the peace process with the Palestinians. In particular, she looked forward to Mr Netanyahu's reply to a letter from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, so that the two could resume negotiations as soon as possible.

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Ambassador Maen Rashid Areikat: For a more constructive Congress on Palestine
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Hill
by Maen Areikat - (Opinion) May 14, 2012 - 12:00am

The past few weeks have seen interesting statements by several former and current Israeli officials criticizing the policies of their government. They particularly focused on Israel’s failure to engage in talks with the Palestinians to end the conflict.

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Presidential Questions on Peace Process
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Noam Neusner - (Opinion) May 15, 2012 - 12:00am

The battle for the philo-Israel vote is taking familiar shape as both major candidates and major parties do their best to pledge fealty to Israel at this hour of maximum peril. President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney are outdoing each other when it comes to their rhetoric. Obama says he’s got Israel’s back. Romney says that a White House led by him would not have “one inch of difference” with Jerusalem.

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Nakba and freedom
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
(Editorial) May 14, 2012 - 12:00am

Israel’s vibrant – though embattled – democracy was on display Monday at Tel Aviv University in all its glory. Dozens of students – Palestinian and Jewish – articulated their belief that the events surrounding the creation of the State of Israel were a “Nakba,” Arabic for catastrophe, after receiving authorization from Tel Aviv University President Joseph Klafter.

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Nakba is part of Israel's history
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
(Editorial) May 15, 2012 - 12:00am

"I don't expect an Arab national to sing 'A Jewish soul still yearns,' Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said two months ago, after Supreme Court Justice Salim Joubran refrained from singing the national anthem. Although the message was conveyed to Joubran indirectly, it reflected Netanyahu's understanding of the fundamental contradiction underlying an anthem that addresses only one people, the Jewish one.

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Recognizing Nakba, Reaching Peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Hanan Ashrawi - (Opinion) May 15, 2012 - 12:00am

May is the cruelest month despite the promise of spring. It carries the bitter memories of ongoing loss and injustice for a nation, my nation. Every year, Palestinians mark Al-Nakba, or the Catastrophe, of 1948, to remember how our vibrant society was physically and politically crushed by violence and forced expulsion.

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