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June 25, 2012

Middle East News: World Press Roundup

NEWS: Hamas celebrates the victory of the Muslim Brotherhood candidate in Egypt's presidential election while Israel frets. Hamas threatens to escalate attacks against Israel. Israel and the US are planning their largest-ever joint military drill. PLO official Ishtayya says Palestinians are moving forward with efforts to gain membership in more UN bodies but the US has asked for a delay. Fatah says Pres. Abbas and Hamas leader Mishaal have agreed to set a date for their next meeting. The PA has arrested more than 100 people following the assassination of the governor of Jenin and is holding them under controversial circumstances. Settler Council leaders denounce extremist “price tag” violence. The mixed Jewish-Arab town of Acre is drawing more tourists and Jewish extremists. A Palestinian man is reported to have been killed during an Israeli military training exercise in the occupied West Bank. COMMENTARY: The Washington Post interviews PM Fayyad, who says he may run in future elections. Nathan Thrall says a third intifada is “inevitable.” Merav Michaeli says police are to blame for clashes with social justice protesters in Tel Aviv. Rivka Cohen says Israel's Jewish and Arab schools are separate and distinctly unequal. Khaled Abu Toameh says Hamas seems to be losing control of the Gaza Strip. Maya Sela says Israelis could learn from Alice Walker's novel The Color Purple if she would allow a Hebrew translation. Walid Choucair says it makes no sense for Palestinians or other Arabs to put their cause on hold for the next US elections, which are always around the corner. Yael Gvirtz asks what the real costs of the settlements are to Israel. Aaron David Miller looks at how the Palestinian-Israeli peace process got sidelined. Akiva Eldar says it's a shame that Israeli “social justice” protesters don't notice of the plight of Palestinians living under occupation. Hazem Saghiyeh says that regarding the tragedy of the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon, there is no answer but the Lebanese state but no state to provide that answer.


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Gazans celebrate Brotherhood victory in Egypt

Article Author(s): 
Ibrahim Barzak
Media Outlet: 
Associated Press
Date: 
June 25, 2012
Source Link(s): 
http://www.statesman.com/news/nation/gazans-celebrate-brotherhood-victory-in-egy... [6]

The Gaza Strip erupted in celebratory gunfire on Sunday with news that the Muslim Brotherhood's candidate won the presidency in neighboring Egypt, but one person was killed.

Tens of thousands of joyous Palestinians took to the streets across the territory after Egypt announced that Mohammed Morsi won last weekend's runoff election, the first time an Islamist has won that nation's highest office.



Israel jittery after Brotherhood victory in Egypt

Article Author(s): 
Josef Federman
Media Outlet: 
Associated Press
Date: 
June 25, 2012
Source Link(s): 
http://www.statesman.com/news/nation/israel-jittery-after-brotherhood-victory-in... [7]

The Muslim Brotherhood victory in Egyptian presidential elections, announced Sunday, has raised fears in Israel that its strategic 1979 peace agreement with its southern neighbor could be in danger.

In contrast, in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, ecstatic residents flocked into the streets, fired guns in the air and handed out candy in celebration.

Israel's peace agreement with Egypt, its first with an Arab country, is a cornerstone of Israeli security. The agreement ended decades of hostilities, with to five wars and thousands of deaths.



Hamas threatens to escalate attacks on Israel

Article Author(s): 
Ian Deitch
Media Outlet: 
Associated Press
Date: 
June 24, 2012
Source Link(s): 
http://www.statesman.com/news/nation/hamas-threatens-to-escalate-attacks-on-isra... [8]

Gaza's militant Hamas rulers threatened to escalate fighting with Israel on Saturday after airstrikes killed several gunmen in the coastal territory, and Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel wounded one person and damaged an elementary school in the country's south.

The two sides periodically clash, but this flare-up was the most serious in months. It started with an attack by a little known al-Qaida-inspired Palestinian militant group but has extended to drag in Hamas.



Israel, U.S. planning largest-ever military drill

Media Outlet: 
Xinhua
Date: 
June 25, 2012
Source Link(s): 
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-06/25/c_131675109.htm [9]

Israel and the United States are set to hold their largest-ever missile defense drill in October, local media said on Monday.

About 3,000 soldiers are expected to take part in the drill and they will practice responses to a simulated mass barrage of hundreds of missiles fired at Israel simultaneously from Iran and Syria, the Ma'ariv daily reported.

Israel will deploy its upgraded Arrow 2 missile defense system, while the U.S. do its Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense and PAC-3 Patriot air defense systems during the drill, according to the report.



Negotiator: UN bid underway, US asked for delay

Media Outlet: 
Ma'an News Agency
Date: 
June 25, 2012
Source Link(s): 
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=498495 [10]

PLO negotiator Muhammad Ishtayya said Monday that the US and other foreign nations were pressing the Palestinian leadership to suspend its campaign for membership of UN bodies until after the US presidential election.

Ishtayya told the official PA radio Voice of Palestine that the leadership had initiated the process of obtaining a UN General Assembly resolution which recognizes a Palestinian state on borders prior to Israel's occupation in 1967.

Palestinian officials have opened talks with Arab states and France to get the process started, he said.



Fatah official: Mashaal, Abbas to set meeting date

Media Outlet: 
Ma'an News Agency
Date: 
June 25, 2012
Source Link(s): 
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=498494 [11]

Fatah leader President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas chief Khalid Mashaal are set to organize a meeting now the Egyptian presidential election results have been announced, a Fatah official said Monday.

The heads of the rival political parties were scheduled to meet last Wednesday. The summit, the latest chapter of the long-running reconciliation process, was postponed amid the Egypt presidential electoral run-off.



Palestinian Authority arrests more than 100 following death of Jenin governor

Article Author(s): 
Amira Hass
Media Outlet: 
Haaretz
Date: 
June 25, 2012
Source Link(s): 
http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/palestinian-authority-arrests-more-than-... [12]

Many family members of detainees from the Jenin refugee camp have been having trouble sleeping in recent weeks. Not because of their relatives held in Israeli prisons but rather because of their relatives held in Palestinian Authority prisons, and mainly because of rumors - which have been confirmed - of torture at the Preventative Security detention facility in Jericho.



Yesha leaders come out against extremist violence

Article Author(s): 
Itamar Fleishman
Media Outlet: 
Ynetnews
Date: 
June 25, 2012
Source Link(s): 
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4246849,00.html [13]

Yesha Council leaders voiced rare criticism against the violent acts of far Right activists on Sunday after unknown assailants punctured the tires of Yesha official Ze'ev Hever.

In a Yesha Council conference in Ofra, chairman Danny Dayan said, "Violence has become common currency in our camps while we remain silent."



Israel's historic city of Acre faces tourist and settler tensions

Article Author(s): 
Harriet Sherwood
Media Outlet: 
The Guardian
Date: 
June 24, 2012
Source Link(s): 
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/24/israel-historic-city-acre-tensions [14]

Amid narrow winding alleys, crumbling courtyards and dark doorways of neglected buildings, a work of art gleams within the walls of Israel's ancient but dilapidated city of Acre. The Efendi Palace hotel opened in March after eight-and-a-half years of painstaking restoration.



Israeli army ‘game’ leaves one Palestinian dead

Article Author(s): 
Selim Saheb Ettaba
Media Outlet: 
The Daily Star
Date: 
June 25, 2012
Source Link(s): 
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2012/Jun-25/178019-israeli-army-gam... [15]

As the Shawakha brothers rushed to protect their home from intruders, they had no clue they were unwitting participants in an Israeli army exercise that would leave one of them dead.

“It was March 27, 1:30 in the morning,” recalls Akram Shawakha, 36, who was on watch duty on the top floor of the modest family home on a hill east of the West Bank city of Ramallah. Their house is on the outskirts of the wealthy village of Rammun, where most residents have emigrated to America.



Lally Weymouth interviews Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad

Article Author(s): 
Lally Weymouth
Media Outlet: 
The Washington Post
Article Type: 
Interview
Date: 
June 22, 2012
Source Link(s): 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/lally-weymouth-interviews-palestinian-pri... [16]

“If only we could clone him,” a senior U.S. official said to me recently, speaking about Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad. Held in great respect by foreigners, Fayyad may soon find himself out of a job if Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (also called Abu Mazen) forges a national unity government with Hamas. This past week, Fayyad sat down in the West Bank city of Ramallah with The Washington Post’s Lally Weymouth. Excerpts:



The Third Intifada Is Inevitable

Article Author(s): 
Nathan Thrall
Media Outlet: 
The New York Times
Article Type: 
Opinion
Date: 
June 22, 2012
Source Link(s): 
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/24/opinion/sunday/the-third-intifada-is-inevitabl... [17]

EARLIER this month, at a private meeting with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his security advisers, a group of Middle East experts and former intelligence officers warned that a third Palestinian intifada was imminent. The immediate catalyst, they said, could be another mosque vandalized by Jewish settlers, like the one burned on Tuesday, or the construction of new settlement housing.



The police turned Israel's nonviolent protest into terror

Article Author(s): 
Merav Michaeli
Media Outlet: 
Haaretz
Article Type: 
Opinion
Date: 
June 25, 2012
Source Link(s): 
http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/the-police-turned-israel-s-nonviolent-protest-int... [18]

"Our policy is to use force to restore quiet," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared Sunday, at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting.

And the translation: "Force," i.e., disproportionate violence; "quiet," i.e., suppression of the opposition that interferes with our ability to rule and do whatever we feel like doing; "to restore," i.e., it had previously been quiet, everything was in order and we just want to return things to that previous state.



Schools for Jews and Arabs: Separate but definitely not equal

Article Author(s): 
Rivka Cohen
Media Outlet: 
Haaretz
Article Type: 
Opinion
Date: 
June 25, 2012
Source Link(s): 
http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/schools-for-jews-and-arabs-separate-but-definitel... [19]

In one clear step, Israel’s Education Minister has demonstrated that the separate Jewish and Muslim school systems have nothing to do with preserving an autonomous space for Jewish and for Arab culture, but rather - plain segregation.



Is Hamas losing control?

Article Author(s): 
Khaled Abu Toameh
Media Outlet: 
The Jerusalem Post
Article Type: 
Analysis
Date: 
June 24, 2012
Source Link(s): 
http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=274958 [20]

Hamas's failure to enforce the latest Egyptian-brokered cease-fire with Israel is seen by Palestinians as a sign that the Islamist movement may be losing control over the Gaza Strip.

In the past, Hamas has shown that its security forces are capable of implementing cease-fires with Israel.

Hamas, whose leaders maintain that they are not interested in providing Israel with an excuse to launch another major military offensive in Gaza, had even gone as far as detaining members of other groups who insisted on launching rockets at Israel.



Alice Walker's The Color Purple should be read in Israel

Article Author(s): 
Maya Sela
Media Outlet: 
The Guardian
Article Type: 
Opinion
Date: 
June 22, 2012
Source Link(s): 
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jun/22/alice-walker-color-purple-re... [21]

Literature at its best should be a Trojan horse. Good authors don't just tell us a story to pass the time in a pleasant way; he or she offers ideas that insinuate themselves into the reader's mind, sometimes unconsciously, sometimes in the form of a tale that disguises its moral and cultural lessons. Books can provide readers a mirror in which they will see something they hadn't seen before, and give them the opportunity of subsequently seeing themselves and their surroundings in a different light.



“Freezing” Palestine – not the Settlements

Article Author(s): 
Walid Choucair
Media Outlet: 
Al-Hayat
Article Type: 
Opinion
Date: 
June 22, 2012
Source Link(s): 
http://alhayat.com/Details/412799 [22]

Eighteen months into the Arab Spring, as expected, the Palestinian situation is being neglected in the Arab world and by the international community. All of the countries concerned with Palestine have been busy tending to their domestic situations, or the regional repercussions of Arab uprisings on other countries, which has allowed Israel to act unilaterally against the Palestinians.



The Real Cost of Israel's Settlers

Article Author(s): 
Yael Gvirtz
Media Outlet: 
Yedioth Ahronoth
Article Type: 
Opinion
Date: 
June 13, 2012
Source Link(s): 
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/culture/2012/06/21-in-favor-of-the-settlers.html [23]

The only difference between the hate crime perpetrated at Neve Shalom ("Oasis of Peace," a cooperative village jointly established by Jewish and Arab citizens of Israel as a model of coexistence) and others is that the target this time around was an Israeli village.



The Overshadowed Peace Process

Article Author(s): 
Aaron David Miller
Media Outlet: 
The National Interest
Article Type: 
Opinion
Date: 
June 22, 2012
Source Link(s): 
http://nationalinterest.org/commentary/the-overshadowed-peace-process-7107 [24]

Once upon a time in a galaxy far, far away, there once lived something called the Arab-Israeli peace process. It never lived an altogether happy life, but it did actually exist and breathe. In fact, it was capable of some spectacular highs (Egyptian-Israeli and Israeli-Jordanian peace treaties) and a great many lows. More failures than successes, to be sure, but there was—at least most of the time—a real sense of hope and possibility and a credible process worth pursuing.



Palestinian disinheritance sponsored by Oslo

Article Author(s): 
Akiva Eldar
Media Outlet: 
Haaretz
Article Type: 
Opinion
Date: 
June 25, 2012
Source Link(s): 
http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/palestinian-disinheritance-sponsored-by-oslo.prem... [25]

It's a shame the police don't show the same determination treating the settlers who invade private Palestinian land as they do evicting the temporary settlers on Tel Aviv's Rothschild Boulevard. It's a shame the social justice activists ignore the creeping eviction by the Israeli government in the occupied territories.



Blocked prospects

Article Author(s): 
Hazem Saghiyeh
Media Outlet: 
NOW Lebanon
Article Type: 
Opinion
Date: 
June 25, 2012
Source Link(s): 
http://www.nowlebanon.com/NewsArticleDetails.aspx?ID=412649&MID=0&PID=0 [26]

The Nahr al-Bared ordeal epitomizes the ordeal befalling Lebanon as a whole, including with regard to the Palestinian issue.

The Nahr al-Bared camp, which is still witnessing the same long-term misery and marginalization added to destruction that was not followed by the promised reconstruction, summarizes the situation of the Palestinian “community” in Lebanon. However, it also epitomizes the inability of the sectarian regime, which is extremely attached to “balances,” to take any useful step in dealing with the Nahr al-Bared ordeal (and others as well).

Source URL (retrieved on Dec 26 2024 - 12:49am): http://www.americantaskforce.org/world_press_roundup/20120625t000000

Links:
[1] http://www.americantaskforce.org/print/26237
[2] http://www.americantaskforce.org/printmail/26237
[3] http://www.americantaskforce.org/printpdf/26237
[4] http://www.americantaskforce.org/rss/wpr
[5] https://www.americantaskforce.org/civicrm/contribute/transact?reset=1&id=1
[6] http://www.statesman.com/news/nation/gazans-celebrate-brotherhood-victory-in-egypt-2403440.html
[7] http://www.statesman.com/news/nation/israel-jittery-after-brotherhood-victory-in-egypt-2403493.html
[8] http://www.statesman.com/news/nation/hamas-threatens-to-escalate-attacks-on-israel-2402921.html
[9] http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-06/25/c_131675109.htm
[10] http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=498495
[11] http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=498494
[12] http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/palestinian-authority-arrests-more-than-100-following-death-of-jenin-governor.premium-1.443630
[13] http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4246849,00.html
[14] http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/24/israel-historic-city-acre-tensions
[15] http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2012/Jun-25/178019-israeli-army-game-leaves-one-palestinian-dead.ashx#axzz1yntmhQ5n
[16] http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/lally-weymouth-interviews-palestinian-prime-minister-salam-fayyad/2012/06/22/gJQAZFwmvV_story.html
[17] http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/24/opinion/sunday/the-third-intifada-is-inevitable.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Nathan%20thrall&st=Search
[18] http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/the-police-turned-israel-s-nonviolent-protest-into-terror.premium-1.443670
[19] http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/schools-for-jews-and-arabs-separate-but-definitely-not-equal-1.443811
[20] http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=274958
[21] http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jun/22/alice-walker-color-purple-read-israel
[22] http://alhayat.com/Details/412799
[23] http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/culture/2012/06/21-in-favor-of-the-settlers.html
[24] http://nationalinterest.org/commentary/the-overshadowed-peace-process-7107
[25] http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/palestinian-disinheritance-sponsored-by-oslo.premium-1.443671
[26] http://www.nowlebanon.com/NewsArticleDetails.aspx?ID=412649&MID=0&PID=0