No new ideas ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons by Ghassan Khatib - (Opinion) May 30, 2011 - 12:00am Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's speech delivered to the US Congress on May 24 held no new ideas or initiatives. Rather, it was a reiteration of the same well-known right-wing positions held by this Israeli government. » Read more

"Other places of critical strategic and national importance" ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons by Yossi Alpher - (Opinion) May 30, 2011 - 12:00am In his speech to the United States Congress last week, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was addressing three target audiences. The least important for him was the Palestinians. » Read more

Israel nervous, but major change in Egypt relations unlikely ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Masry Al-Youm (Analysis) May 31, 2011 - 12:00am Before Egyptian President Anwar Sadat signed the 1979 peace treaty with Israel, bringing the Sinai Peninsula back into Egypt’s possession, Moshe Dayan, Israel’s eye patch-wearing foreign minister, had no doubt about what the deal would mean for his nation’s security. “If a wheel is removed,” he reportedly said, “the car will not run again.” In other words, if Egypt was taken away from the field of battle, the Arab world could never again pose a threat to the Jewish state. » Read more

Egyptian diplomat: Rafah opening not excuse for less Israeli responsibility ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Masry Al-Youm May 31, 2011 - 12:00am Egypt's decision to open the Rafah border crossing does not absolve Israel of its obligations to the Gaza Strip, Egypt's ambassador to the Palestinian National Authority said on Tuesday. Yasser Othman told Al-Ayam, a Palestinian Newspaper, that the decision "does not in any way absolve Israel of its responsibility and obligations toward the Gaza Strip, as it remains the occupying power." Egypt opened the Rafah border crossing on 28 May, easing access for Palestinians for the first time since Hamas took control of the area in 2007. » Read more

Misgav Residents Say They Want To Combat Urban Sprawl, Not Exclude Arabs as Neighbors ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward by Nathan Jeffay - (Analysis) May 30, 2011 - 12:00am This rural, laidback municipality, spread over 44,000 acres in the Galilee hills, is home to 29 Jewish villages, six Arab Bedouin villages and one of the few mixed Jewish-Arab schools in Israel. Because of this, its residents resent being called racists. But that is just how they have been portrayed frequently in the Israeli press. Ever since the Knesset passed a law in March that gave villages such as these the right to screen who may live in them for “social suitability,” the residents of Misgav have been cited as prime examples of the law’s alleged discriminatory intent. » Read more

Majority of both Palestinians and Israeli expect new intifada ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian by Harriet Sherwood - (Blog) May 31, 2011 - 12:00am Two polls earlier this month gave strikingly similar results on one question: do you think a third intifada (Palestinian uprising) is looming? An Israeli poll for The Peace Index found that 70% of Jews in Israel expect a popular uprising following the expected declaration of a Palestinian state in September and its possible recognition by the UN. (62% of Israeli-Arabs also think an intifada is likely.) » Read more

Israel's PR victory shames news broadcasters ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian (Opinion) May 31, 2011 - 12:00am The propaganda battle over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has reached a new level of intensity. In 2004 the Glasgow University Media Group published a major study on TV coverage of the Second Intifada and its impact on public understanding. We analysed about 200 programmes and questioned more than 800 people. Our conclusion: reporting was dominated by Israeli accounts. Since then we have been contacted by many journalists, especially from the BBC, and told of the intense pressures they are under that limit criticism of Israel. They asked us to raise the issue in public because they can't. » Read more

Encountering Peace: Off to the UN we go ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Gershon Baskin - (Opinion) May 30, 2011 - 12:00am It is now quite evident that there can be no end to our conflict with the Palestinians, and no peace without a negotiated agreement. Yet without a fundamental change in relations between the parties, the option of a two-state solution will soon be off the table. That is my assessment with regard to the Palestinian side. Once the current Palestinian leaders in Palestine come to believe that they can no longer advance the cause of peace and end the occupation, they will resign and turn the issue over to the next generation. » Read more

IDF arrests 12 Palestinian Islamic Jihad members in Jenin ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post May 31, 2011 - 12:00am IDF forces in coordination with the Civil Administration on Monday overnight arrested 12 wanted Palestinians in the Jenin area. The IDF Spokesman said that the detainees were senior Palestinians Islamic Jihad (PIJ) members who are suspected of "providing guidance in planning terror activities as well as transferring finances and taking an active part in the rebuilding of terror networks in the region." » Read more

'Navy prepared to board flotilla ships if they don't stop' ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Yaakov Katz - May 31, 2011 - 12:00am The Israel Navy is prepared to intercept and take control of the ships participating in the new flotilla to the Gaza Strip, a senior Navy officer said Tuesday on the anniversary of the IDF operation to stop the Mavi Marmara that ended in the death of nine Turkish nationals. "We will order the ship to stop, but if they don't, we are prepared to intercept and board the ship," a senior officer told reporters. » Read more