Israel 'exploiting Jordan Valley resources' ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Agence France Presse (AFP) May 12, 2011 - 12:00am Israel has systematically exploited the resources of the Jordan Valley in the occupied West Bank, favoring settlers over Palestinians, an Israeli rights group said on Thursday. A report by B'Tselem said Israel dominated the land, water resources and even tourist sites along the strip of land which runs along the eastern flank of the West Bank, in what appeared to be a prelude to a de facto annexation of territory. » Read more

Nablus checkpoint closed as settler stone cars ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency May 12, 2011 - 12:00am Israeli forces closed the Nablus-area Huwwara military checkpoint Thursday afternoon, following incidents of rock-throwing that hit Palestinian cars, that local officials said was done by local settlers. Ghassan Doughlas, the Fatah official charged with monitoring settlement activity in the northern West Bank, said dozens of settlers from the nearby Yitzhar settlement threw rocks at Palestinian cars causing damages, but no injuries. » Read more

Source: Abbas new PM, Fayyad, Haniyeh deputies ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency May 12, 2011 - 12:00am President Mahmoud Abbas will hold the post of prime minister in the coming technocrat transitional government, sources close to the matter have told Ma'an. Current caretaker Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, and Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh - or an alternate Hamas figure chosen by the party - will both act as deputies to Abbas, the source revealed Wednesday night, adding that Fayyad will also assume the role of Minister of Finance. » Read more

Acknowledging Abbas’ consistency ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times by Daoud Kuttab - (Opinion) May 12, 2011 - 12:00am Say what you may about the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, but supporters and opponents agree on one thing: he is consistent. Abbas might lack of charisma and the ability to drastically change public opinion or the direction of world leaders, but everyone today can attest to the man’s consistency. He is consistently against violence, in favour of the two-state solution and generally a democrat at heart. His word is his honour. What he says he fulfills and his political philosophy and methodology do not include the typical game politicians play: saying one thing and meaning another. » Read more

Can Obama convince Netanyahu? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News by George S. Hishmeh - (Opinion) May 12, 2011 - 12:00am Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad announced last Monday that Palestinian civil servants, numbering about 150,000, were not paid their salaries "on time". The reason: Israel has failed to transfer some $100 million (Dh367 million) it collects in customs and other taxes on behalf of the Palestinian National Authority, led by President Mahmoud Abbas. » Read more

In Fatah-Hamas Deal, What Role for Salam Fayyad? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward by Nathan Jeffay - (Opinion) May 11, 2011 - 12:00am It may turn out to be one of the strangest political revivals on record — a comeback without the protagonist having gone anywhere. » Read more

The unbearable Israeli lightness of arresting Palestinians ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Amira Hass - May 11, 2011 - 12:00am It began with what dozens of Palestinians experience every month: In the middle of the night, there are kicks on the door or shouts behind it and the house is inundated with soldiers aiming rifles. This time the rifles were aimed at a girl of 14 and her 67-year-old grandmother who are visiting an aunt of 53 and her 22-year-old daughter at their home in El Bireh. Afterwards the young women related that the soldiers “barked” orders, questions and threats. » Read more

Ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, or, democratic Israel at work ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Gideon Levy - (Opinion) May 12, 2011 - 12:00am It happened on the day after Independence Day, when Israel was immersed in praise of itself and its democracy almost ad nauseam, and on the eve of (virtually outlawed ) Nakba Day, when the Palestinian people mark the "catastrophe" - the anniversary of the creation of Israel. My colleague Akiva Eldar published what we have always known but for which we lacked the shocking figures he revealed: By the time of the Oslo Accords, Israel had revoked the residency of 140,000 Palestinians from the West Bank. » Read more

All Netanyahu needs is to say one magic number: 1967 ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Ari Shavit - (Opinion) May 12, 2011 - 12:00am The international community is tensely waiting to hear Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's words to the U.S. Congress in 12 days' time. Yet it will not be words that determine how the speech is received, but rather a number. If Netanyahu does not specifically mention the number 1967, the world will reject his speech from the outset. Israel's future hangs today on the prime minister's ability to utter the four digits he has not yet uttered - one, nine, six, seven: 1967. » Read more

Right of Reply: Sensible statecraft ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Matthew Gould - (Opinion) May 11, 2011 - 12:00am This paper’s recent editorial “Befuddled Britain” (May 6) was based on the understandable fear of many Israelis that the world will go misty-eyed about Hamas and let wishful thinking triumph over judgment. Britain understands that fear, and has been clear that it will not suddenly go soft on Hamas. Britain understands the threat Hamas poses to Israel, and the hate-filled ideology that pervades Hamas’s charter. But while the editorial was right to set out the importance of moral clarity, it was wrong to misrepresent Britain’s position on the issue on the basis of innuendo and falsehoods. » Read more