Hezbollah may fight Israel to relieve Syria
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
(Analysis) June 22, 2011 - 12:00am

Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group is preparing for a possible war with Israel to relieve perceived Western pressure to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, its guardian ally, sources close to the movement say. The radical Shi'ite group, which has a powerful militia armed by Damascus and Iran, is watching the unrest in neighboring Syria with alarm and is determined to prevent the West from exploiting popular protests to bring down Assad.

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Israel expects new Lebanese Cabinet to keep truce
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Statesman
June 15, 2011 - 12:00am

Israel says it expects Lebanon's new government to honor the truce that ended the 2006 summer war between Israeli troops and the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group. Lebanon this week formed a Cabinet dominated by Hezbollah and its allies. The move capped Hezbollah's steady rise over decades from a guerrilla group fighting Israel to Lebanon's most powerful military and political force. In Israel's first official comment on the new Cabinet on Wednesday, the Foreign Ministry said Israel expects the Lebanese government to honor the U.N. Security Council resolution that ended the 2006 war.

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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.

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The end of the media's Israel fixation?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Carmel Gould - (Opinion) June 8, 2011 - 12:00am

The Arab spring has had a remarkable effect on the media's appetite for Middle East news which doesn't revolve around Israel. Over the first three months of this year, correspondents usually engaged full time in counting Israeli bricks going down in the West Bank were dispatched to Tahrir Square and Tripoli, because something even bigger was happening.

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Report: 14 Palestinians killed in Syria camp
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
June 7, 2011 - 12:00am

Fourteen Palestinian refugees were reported killed and another 43 injured on Monday, a report from the Palestinian government's WAFA news said. The victims were part of a massive group in Al-Yarmok, an unofficial Palestinian refugee camp in the Syrian capital of Damascus, mourning the death of between 10-23 Palestinians by Israeli fire on the Golan Heights ceasefire line the day before.

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The No-Longer Temporary Occupation
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Joseph Dana - (Opinion) June 5, 2011 - 12:00am

One particular success of Israel’s 44-year control of the West Bank and Gaza Strip has been the government’s ability to convince the Israeli population of the temporary nature of the occupation. Every sector of Israeli society, except religious settlers and the military establishment, understand the occupation to be an ephemeral security measure necessary only in the absence of a peace agreement with the Palestinians.

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A Former Spy Chief Questions the Judgment of Israeli Leaders
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ethan Bronner - June 3, 2011 - 12:00am

The man who ran Israel’s Mossad spy agency until January contends that Israel’s top leaders lack judgment and that the anticipated pressures of international isolation as the Palestinians campaign for statehood could lead to rash decisions — like an airstrike on Iran. The former intelligence chief, Meir Dagan, who stepped down after eight years in the post, has made several unusual public appearances and statements in recent weeks. He made headlines a few weeks ago when he asserted at a Hebrew University conference that a military attack on Iran would be “a stupid idea.”

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Jerusalem Day: Why the Holy City is at the crux of the peace process
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Christa Case Bryant, Ariel Zirulnick - (Analysis) June 1, 2011 - 12:00am

Today is Jerusalem Day in Israel, the anniversary of the day in the 1967 war when Israel took the Old City and East Jerusalem from Jordan. More than 40 years later, Jerusalem remains one of the largest hurdles to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israel insists Jerusalem is its ‘undivided and eternal’ capital while Palestinians insist on securing a capital in East Jerusalem. Here are three reasons why Jerusalem is so important to both sides. One capital city wanted by two nations

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Report: Tension rises between Arabs, J'lem police
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Yair Altman - May 31, 2011 - 12:00am

The friction between the police and Jerusalem's Arab population has escalated considerably over the past 18 months, a report released Tuesday by the Association for Civil Rights indicates. According to the report, roughly 1,200 children were questioned on suspicion of pelting stones and 759 were arrested for suspected violations of a nationalistic nature. Charges were pressed in 226 of the cases. East Jerusalem neighborhoods of Silwan and Issawiya were listed in the report as the most prominent sites of contention.

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Netanyahu warns Egypt losing control of growing terror groups in Sinai
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Jack Khoury, Jonathan Lis - May 30, 2011 - 12:00am

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Monday that Egypt's new military government was having a "hard time" controlling the rise of international terror organizations in the Sinai Peninsula. "Egypt is having a hard time realizing its sovereignty in Sinai," Netanyahu said during a meeting of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. "International terror organizations are stirring in Sinai and their presence is increasing due to Sinai's connection to Gaza."

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