June 9th

Hamas: Netanyahu responsible for swap deal delay ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency June 9, 2011 - 12:00am Hamas leader Moussa Abu Marzouq blamed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday, for what he said was a delay in the release of Israeli and Palestinian prisoners in a swap deal. Citing Netanyahu's "intransigence," the official said the leader bore "full responsibility" for the continued confinement of captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit as well as thousands of Palestinians considered prisoners of war. » Read more

Erekat: Settlement freeze a must ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Elior Levy - June 9, 2011 - 12:00am A settlement construction freeze is still a precondition for Palestinian talks with Israel, senior Fatah official Saeb Erekat told Ynet Wednesday. Erekat denied an earlier Washington Post report whereby the Palestinian Authority is willing to renounce the building freeze demand. Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat backs Mideast policy speech given by Barack Obama, which urges return to 1967 borders with land exchanges, but in a new twist says nothing of halting West Bank settlement activity » Read more

The conflict's new players ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Elior Levy - June 9, 2011 - 12:00am Naksa Day, 11 am. Tensions are already palpable near the Qalandiya checkpoint. IDF soldiers equipped with crowd dispersal means are confronted by dozens of Palestinians including a small group of youngsters with gas masks and Palestinian flags. Two tall European-loking girls suddenly emerge from the crowd and approach the photographers standing in between the parties. Behind them, and unknown to the two, two Palestinians emerge and hurl bottles full of foul-smelling material at the soldiers and escape. The soldiers respond by firing shock grenades. The conflict begins. » Read more

Countering Israeli propaganda ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News by George S. Hishmeh - (Opinion) June 9, 2011 - 12:00am Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may have had a point when he claimed that Syria allowed Palestinian youth to jump the border fence separating northern Israel from Syria's Golan Heights — occupied by Israel after the 1967 war — in a bid to deflect attention from the bloody demonstrations against President Bashar Al Assad. As things turned out, the world's attention ended up being focused on Israel's lethal response — it gunned down two dozen unarmed Palestinian youths climbing the border fence that Israel built 44 years ago after occupying the Golan Heights. » Read more

The Republicans Heart Netanyahu ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward by Eric Alterman - (Opinion) June 8, 2011 - 12:00am When a group of student radicals took over the Columbia University administration building in 1968, they issued a series of demands having to do with university policies. The administration wisely ignored these demands, however, because it understood that, in actuality, they were not terribly relevant to the problem it had on its hands. As radical student leader Mark Rudd had explained even then, these were mere excuses for the group’s violent power grab. » Read more

Ex-Mossad chief: Purity of arms eroded ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews June 9, 2011 - 12:00am Zvi Zamir, Israel's Mossad chief in the years 1968-1974 is criticizing the government over its way of handling the 'Naksa Day' events which saw 23 Syrian protestors killed. In an interview with Israel Army Radio, Zamir attacked the decision to open fire at the Syrian protestors who tried to breach the border fence and said: "I'm concerned by the fact that soldiers, my grandchildren, are firing at unarmed people." » Read more

Israel’s ‘Mr. Security’ Goes Rogue ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward by J.J. Goldberg - (Opinion) June 8, 2011 - 12:00am Official Jerusalem has been thrown into a world-class tizzy this spring by what some top figures are calling a serious security breach, committed by one of the highest-ranking Israeli officials ever accused of endangering the Jewish state. There have been cabinet-level calls for his indictment. The Knesset is considering draconian new legislation to outlaw the sort of leak he perpetrated. It looks like serious stuff. » Read more

Palestinian leadership divided over plan to seek UN recognition ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Barak Ravid - June 9, 2011 - 12:00am The Palestinian leadership is sharply divided over the unilateral move to seek recognition from the United Nations General Assembly in September. While Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is determined to go through with the move, a group of senior Palestinians have said in closed conversations that they oppose it because they believe seeking recognition from the United Nations could do more harm than good to their cause. » Read more

Palestinians believe Fayyad is the man for the job ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Khaled Abu Toameh - June 9, 2011 - 12:00am A majority of Palestinians wants a government of independent figures and believes that Salam Fayyad is the most appropriate figure to head the government, according to a public opinion poll published on Wednesday. Two-thirds of the respondents are optimistic regarding the support from world countries to the Palestinians in September, when the Palestinian Authority plans to ask for recognition of a state along the pre-1967 lines, the poll by the Jerusalem Media & Communications Center showed. » Read more

IDF must not shoot unarmed people ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Larry Derfner - (Opinion) June 8, 2011 - 12:00am Here’s a tip on how to deal with these unarmed Palestinians in Syria (or elsewhere) racing fearlessly in broad daylight at our well-defended borders: We should stop killing them. We should stop shooting them, even in the legs, because people can and do die from such wounds, and some almost certainly did near the Syrian border on “Naksa Day” at the start of the week. » Read more