NEWS: Palestinian officials say PM Fayyad will reshuffle his cabinet today, while Hamas condemns it as “illegal.” Palestinian “green” projects and environmentalist activists face numerous hurdles in the occupied territories. Palestine's chief corruption commissioner says Mohammed Rashid, a former financial adviser to the late Pres. Arafat, may have embezzled millions. Many Palestinians say the prisoners' hunger strike shows the potential for nonviolence to be effective against abusive Israeli policies. Israel says it has created mechanisms to get aid to Palestinians in the event of an earthquake. Israel's Interior Minister Yishai says all African migrants should be jailed. The Knesset approves another $12 million for settlement funding. Calls to abandon the two-state solution and the peace process in favor of imaginative alternatives are gaining ground. Jerusalem’s Al-Makassed hospital faces an acute cash crisis. ATFP Senior Research Fellow Hussein Ibish debates Reza Aslan at UCLA on the future of Israel and the Palestinians. COMMENTARY: Bradley Burston says Israelis should pay careful attention to the Nakba Day commentary by ATFP Pres. Ziad Asali. Benedetta Berti says, through hunger striking, Palestinians may have discovered the power of nonviolent protest. Zvi Bar'el says Israel isn't annexing settlements, it's the settlers who are annexing Israel. Chemi Shalev describes a lively debate between J Street's Jeremy Ben-Ami and William Kristol of the Emergency Committee for Israel. The Independent looks at a new play by A B Yehoshua on Ben-Gurion and Jabotinsky. Osama Al Sharif says the "Arab Spring" has not been helpful to the Palestinians. Rami Khouri says, as the Palestinian struggle continues, we should expect more innovative measures such as international BDS and hunger striking. Hanan Ashrawi agrees that the hunger strikers have set an example that will probably be emulated in other nonviolent ways. Alex Fishman says the situation between Israel and the Palestinians is becoming explosive.

Arab Spring and the Nakbeh
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
by Osama Al-Sharif - (Opinion) May 15, 2012 - 12:00am


The Arab Spring has not been good to the Palestinian cause. It has deflected attention from Israel’s nefarious scheme to bypass the two-state solution by enforcing a unilateral settlement on the Palestinians.


A tale of two Zionists: Ze'ev Jabotinsky, David Ben Gurion and the dramatic origins of Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent
by Donald MacIntyre - (Opinion) May 16, 2012 - 12:00am


Two charismatic men born in Eastern Europe meet in 1934, first in a London hotel room and then in a Golders Green flat, to resolve their political differences in the shadow of the rise of Nazism. Within 15 years, one of them, who more than once interrupts the argument by reciting his own Hebrew translation of Edgar Allen Poe's darkly mysterious poem The Raven, will have died in exile.


J Street's Ben-Ami: 'U.S. Congressmen live in fear of pro-Israeli intimidation'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Chemi Shalev - (Opinion) May 16, 2012 - 12:00am


Many American senators and congressmen “keep quiet” and refrain from criticizing Israeli policies because they “live in fear” and are “intimidated” by pro-Israeli groups such as the Emergency Committee for Israel (ECI), according to J Street founder and President Jeremy Ben-Ami.


Annexing Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Zvi Barel - (Opinion) May 16, 2012 - 12:00am


You could, of course, be horrified at the bill to annex the West Bank settlements to the State of Israel, sponsored by MK Miri Regev (Likud ). But it's not mandatory. You could also welcome the miracle - the finger of God Himself - that caused Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman to come to his senses at the very last moment and oppose it (by abstaining only ), but that too is superfluous. Even the chilling thought of what would have happened had the bill been passed, what kind of world war it would have brought upon Israel, is of no consequence now.


The Palestinian struggle persists
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
by Rami Khouri - (Opinion) May 16, 2012 - 12:00am


Yesterday marked the 64th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba of May 1948, when Israel was established and Palestinians experienced the combination of exile and occupation that still defines them today.


Palestinian hunger strikes: the power of peaceful protest
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Benedetta Berti - (Opinion) May 15, 2012 - 12:00am


It may not have received much international attention, but Palestinian hunger strikes, which ended on May 14, have the potential to shake the status quo of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. That potential lies in the nonviolent nature of the strikes, which were carried out by Palestinians in Israeli detention, backed by grass-roots organizers, and concluded with Israel agreeing to improve prison conditions.


Prisoners of Process
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast
by Hanan Ashrawi - (Opinion) May 15, 2012 - 12:00am


Two days ago the news of an agreement between Israel and the Palestinian prisoners to end the hunger-strike broke. The prisoners, most of whom have been without food for a month, won the right to have Gazan family visit them in prison (such visits have been denied for the past seven years) and the release of roughly 20 prisoners from solitary confinement into the general prison population (one prisoner has been in solitary confinement for almost a decade).


Thank you, Russian immigrant to Israel, for Nakba Day
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Bradley Burston - (Opinion) May 15, 2012 - 12:00am


It is customary for our people to honor fast days, memorial days and festivals by studying commentaries on their origins, the symbols and rituals of their observance, and the ways in which they connect to our own lives.


'The Palestinians Can Wait'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Monitor
by Alex Fishman - (Opinion) May 7, 2012 - 12:00am


The coordinator of government activities in the Palestinian territories, Brigadier-General Eitan Dangot, has asked that the government approve an additional 5,000 permits for Palestinian laborers to enter Israel. That’s good for everyone. Politically, it’s good for Israel. Economically, it’s good for the Palestinian Authority. From a security perspective, it’s not a problem.



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