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. » Read more

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. » Read more

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. » Read more

May 16th

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. » Read more

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. » Read more

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. » Read more

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. » Read more

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. » Read more

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. » Read more

Prisoners of Process ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast by Hanan Ashrawi - (Opinion) May 15, 2012 - 12:00am Two days ago the news of an agreement between Israel and the Palestinian prisoners to end the hunger-strike broke. The prisoners, most of whom have been without food for a month, won the right to have Gazan family visit them in prison (such visits have been denied for the past seven years) and the release of roughly 20 prisoners from solitary confinement into the general prison population (one prisoner has been in solitary confinement for almost a decade). » Read more