May 11th

PA: Suspects in Jenin shooting attack detained ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency May 11, 2012 - 12:00am JENIN (Ma'an) -- Security forces on Thursday arrested the perpetrators of a shooting attack on the home of the late governor of Jenin, a spokesman said. On May 1, assailants opened fire on Qaddura Musa's home in Jenin. The governor left his home with security chiefs to investigate when he suffered a heart attack that killed him, police spokesman Mujahid Rabiya said. » Read more

Lawyer: Halahla could die at any moment ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency May 11, 2012 - 12:00am BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Prison doctors have told Thaer Halahla that he could die at any moment after 72 days on hunger strike, his lawyer Mona Neddaf said Thursday. Neddaf visited Halahla, 33, in Ramle prison clinic on Thursday, the prisoner rights group Addameer said in a statement. He is vomiting blood, bleeding from his gums and lips and has extremely low blood pressure, she said. His temperature is fluctuating at dangerous levels and the prison doctor said he also has an infection. He has refused food since Feb. 29 and now weighs 55 kilograms. » Read more

Palestinian leader warns Israel over hunger strike ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press May 10, 2012 - 12:00am RAMALLAH, West Bank — The Palestinian president says his people "will not be quiet" if any harm comes to a group of Palestinian hunger strikers held by Israel. Hundreds of prisoners are striking, including two men who have not eaten for 73 days. The strikers want better conditions and an end to an Israeli system of holding them for months without charge. President Mahmoud Abbas told a West Bank rally on Thursday that if anyone is harmed, "we will not be quiet ever." He did not elaborate. » Read more

The Palestinian taxi driver crucial to Jewish settlement in E. Jlem ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Nir Hasson - May 11, 2012 - 12:00am Mohammed Nabulsi's paper trail has been catching up with him, which is making it difficult for Jewish settlers and their state patrons to take over East Jerusalem homes. Starting in the 1970s, Nabulsi, an East Jerusalem taxi driver, provided settler organizations with affadavits claiming that Palestinian owners of East Jerusalem homes were "absentees" residing in enemy countries, which the state used over and over to expropriate the properties and turn them over to settler organizations. » Read more

Netanyahu to convene special meeting to discuss bill legalizing Ulpana outpost ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua May 11, 2012 - 12:00am JERUSALEM, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu scheduled on Thursday a special cabinet meeting for Friday with government members to debate on a law that would legalize a controversial West Bank outpost. Netanyahu called on the government members on Thursday to debate on the possibility of approving a bill to legalize the 30 Ulpana outpost homes in the West Bank, the Ha'aretz daily reported. » Read more

May 10th

Hamas Looks to the Future: With Gains Come Dilemmas ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Carnegie Endowment for International Peace by Yezid Sayigh - (Analysis) March 8, 2012 - 1:00am Since the start of 2012, the head of the Hamas government in Gaza, Ismail Haniyya, has traveled to Egypt, Tunisia, Turkey, Qatar, Bahrain, and Iran. Six years after Hamas achieved victory at the Palestinian ballot box, it has received genuine regional recognition.  » Read more

Let's Make a Deal ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Foreign Policy by Aaron David Miller - (Opinion) May 10, 2012 - 12:00am Having spent the better part of two decades traveling the negotiator's highway, I've often thought about why some deals get made along the way and others don't. Granted, I've labored almost exclusively in the Middle East coal mines -- an often bizarre, idiosyncratic, and exceptionally dysfunctional place where deals rarely, if ever, get done. » Read more

Changes in Israeli Policy after the Netanyahu-Mofaz Deal ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Institute for Near East Policy by David Makovsky - (Analysis) May 9, 2012 - 12:00am In a stunning political shift, Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Shaul Mofaz, the newly elected head of the leading opposition party Kadima, forged a national unity government in Israel late Monday night. The move adds 28 Kadima parliamentarians to the ruling coalition, increasing the current government's tally to 94 of the Knesset's 120 seats, the most ever. Mofaz will become vice prime minister, a member of the inner security cabinet, and a minister-without-portfolio. Various portfolios will be given to other Kadima members. » Read more

Refugees join Palestinians as the reviled 'other' in Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National by Mya Guarnieri - (Opinion) May 10, 2012 - 12:00am On Tuesday, Israelis woke up to the surprising news that the early elections announced by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday had been cancelled. In a deal made while the country was asleep, Mr Netanyahu forged a new coalition with the centre-right party Kadima. Now the Knesset will march in lockstep behind the prime minister, meaning little will change. Not that elections would have made much of a difference, anyway - the popular Mr Netanyahu had been expected to win by a landslide. » Read more

Likud's ideology will now move toward the center ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Israel Harel - (Opinion) May 10, 2012 - 12:00am To attack Iran, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu doesn’t need Shaul Mofaz. Such a strike, if it is ever carried out ‏(and it seems it won’t be necessary‏), will enjoy consensus support even without the Kadima chairman. » Read more