May 17th

Israel's unity government: How big was the shift to the center?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Joshua Mitnick - May 15, 2012 - 12:00am


When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu joined forces last week with the centrist Kadima party to form one of Israel's largest-ever coalition governments, it appeared to give him maneuvering room to pursue Palestinian peace talks over the objections of his hardline political base.


US envoy to Israel: US ready to strike Iran
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
May 17, 2012 - 12:00am


JERUSALEM — Washington's envoy to Israel says the U.S. has plans in place to attack Tehran if necessary to prevent it from becoming an atomic military power. In remarks before the Israel Bar Association, Dan Shapiro said the U.S. hopes diplomacy and economic sanctions will pressure Iran to abandon its suspect nuclear program.


Palestinian PM reshuffles Cabinet in West Bank
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
by Dalia Nammari - May 16, 2012 - 12:00am


RAMALLAH, West Bank — Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad replaced almost half of his West Bank-based Cabinet on Wednesday, a clear sign that efforts to end the Palestinian political split are stuck. A unity deal reached in February was to have ended five years of separate Palestinian governments, one run by Fayyad in the West Bank and the other by the Islamic militant Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Under its terms, President Mahmoud Abbas was to head an interim unity government ahead of presidential and parliamentary elections.


May 16th

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.



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