Hamas Leaders Evacuating Families From Syria ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press by Ibrahim Barzak - January 17, 2012 - 1:00am GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Hamas officials say senior members of their exiled leadership will evacuate their families from the group's headquarters in Syria. Hamas, a militant Islamist Palestinian group, rules the Gaza Strip. The officials, speaking from Damascus, said Tuesday that the evacuations are in response to the deteriorating security situation in Syria, where President Bashar Assad has been resisting a 10-month uprising. » Read more

Playing for time ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons by Yossi Alpher - (Opinion) January 16, 2012 - 1:00am Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Mahmoud Abbas is currently managing two very different and in many ways contradictory negotiating tracks. Neither has produced any sort of substantive success thus far. If one does produce a breakthrough, the other will probably collapse. Meanwhile, the counterpoint between them is instructive. » Read more

Israel Needs a Positive Approach to Hamas-Fatah Reconciliation ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons by Shlomo Brom - (Opinion) January 18, 2012 - 1:00am The conventional wisdom in Israel holds that Hamas-Fateh reconciliation is detrimental to the peace process. The main argument is that Hamas is a spoiler of the negotiations process because it is a radical Islamic movement guided by a virulent anti-Israel ideology that preaches elimination of the state of Israel. Successful reconciliation would endow Hamas with veto power to block any attempt to achieve a peaceful resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. » Read more

Israel's "national suicide" ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Jazeera English by Mark Levine - (Opinion) January 16, 2012 - 1:00am Irvine, California - Say what you will about Israel's High Court of Justice, it knows how to name a decision. In titling last Wednesday's legal decision, upholding the controversial Citizenship Law that prevents Palestinian spouses of Israeli citizens from living in Israel "Human rights are not a prescription for national suicide", the court's majority well summed up the existential predicament Israel faces today - indeed, has always faced - as it attempts to be both Jewish and democratic. » Read more

Israel Plays a Role ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons by Ghassan Khatib - (Analysis) January 16, 2012 - 1:00am There has always been a very strong correlation between internal Palestinian issues and Palestinian-Israeli relations. This is true because Israel is a key player in all aspects of Palestinian life. Israel's troops are on the ground in the West Bank, and occupy the Gaza Strip by air and sea. But Israel's occupation was never an issue of military or security control alone; it has interfered with Palestinian economic and political development for the four decades of its existence. » Read more

Yalla Peace: Falafel, fences and Syria ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Ray Hanania - (Opinion) January 17, 2012 - 1:00am A day never passes without an Arab complaining about Israel. Of course, a day never passes without an Israeli complaining about the Arabs, either. The complaints vary widely, covering everything from food to violence. A common complaint is that Israel “stole” the falafel. Well, Israel has stolen Palestinian land, but can you really steal a food? I recently read an Israeli official’s counter to this claim: has Israel also “stolen” Italian food? To be fair, Israelis don’t go around bragging about their “Israeli spaghetti” the way they promote “Israeli falafel.” » Read more

Is Hamas Mellowing? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Carnegie Endowment for International Peace by Nathan J. Brown - (Analysis) January 17, 2012 - 1:00am Over the past few weeks, as Palestinian reconciliation efforts have inched forward, some of Hamas’s leaders have provoked interest by apparently staking out new positions. They have not only agreed to enter the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), thus participating in a body that signed the Oslo Accords with Israel, a pact the group has long opposed, but also committed themselves to “popular resistance,” an alternative to the armed activity through which the group gained international notoriety. » Read more

The VIPs' hush money ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Amira Hass - (Opinion) January 18, 2012 - 1:00am Two people signed the entry permit into Israel that Mahmoud Abbas received from Israel's Civil Administration on January 1 (and which will be in force until March 1 ): 1st Lt. Noy Mitzrafi, commander of the permits office, and Lt. Col. Wissam Hamed, a department head in the Israel Defense Forces' operations directorate. It is this limited permit that Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president and PLO chairman, complained of receiving instead of his normal VIP permit during a closed meeting of his Fatah faction. » Read more

The Israel Lobby Finds a New Face: Black College Students ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Color Lines by Seth Freed Wessler - January 18, 2012 - 1:00am When Vincent Evans arrived as a bright-eyed first-year at Florida A&M, the country’s largest historically black university, he knew he wanted to get involved in politics. So when an older student leader approached him one afternoon after a student government meeting to ask if he wanted an all expenses paid trip to D.C., Evans jumped at the opportunity. » Read more

Leading Article: Mere words will not secure peace ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent (Editorial) January 18, 2012 - 1:00am Nick Clegg's description this week of Israeli settlements as "deliberate vandalism" of the basic premise of peace negotiations drew a sharp response from Israel. Yet it was only exceptional in making public what every sentient minister across Europe knows to be true, but seldom dares to say. There is ample justification for his remarks in two recent internal EU reports covered in this newspaper. » Read more