NEWS: PM Netanyahu reportedly vows that if the settlement housing units at the “Ulpana" outpost are dismantled, they will "be rebuilt tenfold elsewhere,” and says “our policy is to bolster the settlements.” The US says Israel is supportive of its policy of pursuing more sanctions against Iran. Israel enacts a new law allowing for the detention of migrants for up to 3 years, with Int. Min. Yishai saying many migrants “think the country doesn't belong to us, the white man." Two more Palestinians are injured in another Israeli airstrike on Gaza, as another dies of wounds sustained in a previous attack on Friday. PM Fayyad meets with the South African envoy and encourages a global boycott of settlement products. Arab states reportedly pledge $100 million per month in aid to the PA if Israel withholds Palestinian tax revenues. Israel's Navy continues to harass Gaza fishermen, even within the 3-mile limit in which they are supposedly allowed to operate. Der Spiegel reports that Dolphin submarines being purchased by Israel from Germany will be equipped with Popeye missiles that can carry nuclear warheads. An Israeli military investigation finds that settlers tied up and beat a captured Palestinian. Khaled Mishaal reportedly withdraws his pledge not to run and will stand for another term as head of Hamas' politburo. Palestinians in the notorious Lebanese Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp are optimistic for a better future. COMMENTARY: Ha'aretz says Netanyahu's approach to the Ulpana outpost is "adding insult to injury." Yossi Verter says Netanyahu seems to be on a collision course with extremists in his coalition over some settlements. Nirit Anderman contrasts films made about water by Israelis and Palestinians. Nahum Barnea says with Netanyahu's newfound power, Israel is becoming a monarchy in the Middle Eastern tradition, not a democracy. Barry Rubin asks why it seems that large amounts of international aid to the Palestinians is missing. Susan Hattis Rolef says Israelis only seem interested in those aspects of history that affected the Jewish people. Jonathan Owen says Israel is becoming the new South Africa as calls for cultural boycotts increase. Leonard Fein says, since Israel is already a Jewish state it doesn't matter if Palestinians formally acknowledge that. Adel Safty says the biggest problem facing the peace process is that there is no Palestinian leverage or international enforcement mechanism over Israel. Alan Dershowitz says Israel should offer Palestinians a settlement freeze conditional on the resumption of negotiations focusing on borders.

Where did the PA’s money go?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Barry Rubin - (Opinion) June 3, 2012 - 12:00am


Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad says that his regime is short of funds. And meanwhile a reader asks me: “Can you please explain to me why 20 years after Oslo and billions in dollars in foreign aid, the Palestinian Authority still has not built modern hospitals? Or rather, why do the donor countries pour money down the PA drain without expecting even some face-saving results?” Good question. Short answer: Swiss bank accounts.


A Settlement Freeze Can Advance Israeli-Palestinian Peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Wall Street Journal
by Alan Dershowitz - (Opinion) June 3, 2012 - 12:00am


Now that Israel has a broad and secure national unity government, the time is ripe for that government to make a bold peace offer to the Palestinian Authority.


The peace process comes to an end
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
by Adel Safty - (Opinion) June 4, 2012 - 12:00am


One of the most remarkable talents of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel is his ability to “influence” American public opinion as he once bragged to a family of colonists, unaware that he was being filmed.


Isn’t Israel Already a ‘Jewish State’?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Forward
by Leonard Fein - (Opinion) June 3, 2012 - 12:00am


A leading Palestinian negotiator says that for the Palestinians to recognize Israel as a Jewish state would “adversely impact the rights of Palestinian citizens of Israel.” Not at all, say Yosef Kuperwasser, director general of Israel’s ministry of strategic affairs and Shalom Lipner, special coordinator for public diplomacy in the Prime Minister’s Office. This, they insist, “is a baseless argument, since Israel will continue to guarantee the full and equal civil rights of all its citizens.”


Israel is new South Africa as boycott calls increase
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent
by Jonathan Owen - (Opinion) June 3, 2012 - 12:00am


Some of the world's biggest stars – from Madonna to the Red Hot Chili Peppers – are being accused of putting profit before principle in a growing backlash against artists performing in Israel.


The importance of history
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Susan Hattis Rolef - (Opinion) June 3, 2012 - 12:00am


Last Tuesday Channel 10’s investigative TV program Hamakor (The Source) broadcast a report on the syllabi being taught in the national school system, with a special emphasis on history.


King Bibi the First
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
(Opinion) May 21, 2012 - 12:00am


Kings, an American journalist who recently returned from a tour of several Middle Eastern states told me. Kings, this is what survives in the Arab world. The republican regimes fall, one after another. Look at what happened in Tunisia, in Egypt, in Libya. Look at what’s happening in Syria. At the oil emirates. On the other hand, the royal regimes are hanging in there. In Saudi Arabia too. In Morocco, the king adapted himself to the new winds and is surviving. Even in Jordan. The present belongs to the kings.


Israelis and Palestinians make very different movies about water
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Nirit Anderman - (Film Review) June 3, 2012 - 12:00am


Nine jointly made films show the eyes of beholders can see very different things.


The fight over West Bank neighborhood: Who's minding the store, Bibi or Feiglin?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Yossi Verter - (Opinion) June 4, 2012 - 12:00am


On January 31 Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu trounced Moshe Feiglin in the Likud primary. The rematch could take place this week in the Knesset plenum, if the dangerous and scandalous bill to legitimize settlements built on private Palestinian land is put to a vote, against Netanyahu's wishes. Then we'll know who's really minding this store, a.k.a. Likud: the PM, or Feiglin & Co.



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