Middle East News: World Press Roundup

NEWS: A former Israeli soldier is seeking Palestinian citizenship. An informant for Israel on Hamas is on a speaking tour in Israel. Aid groups and UN agencies urge Israel to lift the blockade of Gaza. The Israeli group Gisha says the Gaza blockade threatens a two-state solution. A Palestinian sniper in Gaza shoots at an Israeli farmer across the border. Hamas' de facto interior minister in Gaza says the organization will never make peace with secularism. PM Netanyahu vows to expand an Israeli settlement. An Israeli court acquits Palestinian youths accused of a firebomb attack in occupied East Jerusalem. Pres. Obama awards Pres. Peres the Medal of Freedom. A former aide to the late Pres. Arafat says Pres. Abbas has $100 million in assets. A new report says water in Gaza is unsafe to drink. The IOC warns that a refusal to compete against Israeli athletes would violate the rules of the Olympic Games. Hamas' popularity is continuing to plummet despite the Arab uprisings. COMMENTARY: Nathan Brown reviews five years of Hamas rule in Gaza. Michael Sfard says Zionism's revival of Hebrew as a spoken language has turned into an insidious instrument of repression. Gideon Levy says some Israeli MKs serve as an “affable face of evil.” Israel Harel says the world should not support UNRWA. Tal Harris and Jonathan Lyndon both separately say Israel must choose between settlements and democracy. Jonathan Rosen says the Israeli government's program to promote employment among Palestinian citizens is only a first step towards equality. Hanan Greenberg says Israel's challenges lie much closer to home than Iran. Dimitris Bouris and Stuart Reigeluth say EU leaders need to move quickly to save a two-state solution in their own interests.

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Ex-Israeli soldier seeks Palestinian citizenship ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press by Dalia Nammari - June 14, 2012 - 12:00am In an odd twist to the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian saga, a former Israeli soldier has embarked on a new fight: He wants to renounce his Israeli citizenship and move to a Palestinian refugee camp in the West Bank. Andre Pshenichnikov, a 23-year-old Jewish immigrant from Tajikistan, was recently detained by Israeli police for residing illegally in the Deheishe Refugee Camp near Bethlehem. There he told police that he wants to break all ties with Israel, give up his Israeli citizenship and obtain a Palestinian one instead. » Read more

Hamas informer in Israel on lecture tour ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press by Amy Teibel - June 14, 2012 - 12:00am The son of a Hamas founder who renounced his father's militant group to spy for Israel has returned to the Jewish state on a pro-Israel lecture tour, an Israeli official said Thursday. Mosab Yousef was invited by Druse Arab lawmaker Ayoob Kara, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud Party. » Read more

Aid groups urge Israel to lift Gaza blockade ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters by Crispian Balmer - June 14, 2012 - 12:00am Fifty international aid groups and United Nations agencies issued a joint appeal on Thursday calling on Israel to lift its blockade of the Gaza Strip, which is ruled by Hamas Islamists. "For over five years in Gaza, more than 1.6 million people have been under blockade in violation of international law. More than half of these people are children. We the undersigned say with one voice: 'end the blockade now,'" the petition said. » Read more

Gaza blockade threatens two-state solution ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency June 14, 2012 - 12:00am Israel's 5-year blockade of the Gaza Strip has compromised the two-state solution in ways which will be difficult to reverse, an Israeli legal rights group has warned. "Gaza’s connections with Israel and the West Bank, vital for its economy and the welfare of its residents, are still subject to sweeping restrictions on movement," Gisha said in its latest report. » Read more

Gaza sniper targets Israeli farmer, as shooting attacks increase ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua June 14, 2012 - 12:00am A Palestinian sniper in the Gaza Strip on Thursday opened fire at an Israeli farmer in a community bordering the coastal enclave, the army told Xinhua. The farmer, who was unharmed in the attack, took cover behind a vehicle, which sustained damage in the shooting, according to Army radio. Troops in the vicinity returned deterrent fire, but it was unclear if the gunmen was hit. » Read more

Hamas govt: No peace with secularism ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency June 14, 2012 - 12:00am Islamic rule will prevail and will not make peace with secularism, the Interior Minister in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip said Wednesday. "There will be no peace with secularism. The only peace is first with God, then with Jihad, then with resistance, then with the people and with martyrs," Fathi Hammad said. » Read more

After striking down bill to legalize neighborhood, Netanyahu vows to expand West Bank settlement ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Jonathan Lis, Barak Ravid, Oz Rosenberg - June 6, 2012 - 12:00am Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded on Wednesday to the Knesset meeting in which a bill aimed at legalizing homes on the Ulpana Hill neighborhood in the West Bank settlement of Beit El - which were built on privately owned Palestinian land – was voted down. Speaking at a press conference, Netanyahu criticized organizations that had petitioned Israel’s High Court over the matter, stating that “those who think they use the legal system to harm the settlements are mistaken, since the opposite is actually taking place.” » Read more

Israel court acquits Palestinian teens of East Jerusalem firebomb attack ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Oz Rosenberg - June 14, 2012 - 12:00am Five East Jerusalem teenagers were acquitted on Wednesday of throwing rocks and firebombs - but only after having spent a year and a quarter in jail or under house arrest. » Read more

President Peres awarded Medal of Freedom ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Yitzhak Benhorin - June 14, 2012 - 12:00am President Shimon Peres was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Wednesday – the highest civilian award the United States government can bestow upon an individual. In a gala dinner held in Washington in Peres' honor, US President Barack Obama praised the Israeli president's legacy and efforts on behalf of peace. » Read more

Former Arafat aide Rashid says Abbas worth $100m. ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Khaled Abu Toameh - June 14, 2012 - 12:00am Yasser Arafat’s former financial adviser, Muhammad Rashid, stepped up his attacks on Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas over the past few days. A PA court recently sentenced Rashid in absentia to 15 years in prison and a $15 million fine on charges of embezzlement of public funds and money-laundering. The PA decided to prosecute Rashid after a series of interviews he gave to the Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya TV station in which he talked about his experiences as one of Arafat’s most trusted aides. » Read more

Gaza water too contaminated to drink, say charities ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News June 13, 2012 - 12:00am The charities Save the Children and Medical Aid for Palestinians say the number of children being treated for diarrhoea has doubled in five years. They say Israel's five-year blockade of the territory is preventing crucial sanitation equipment from getting in. The blockade must be lifted "in its entirety", they say. The report, Gaza's Children: Falling Behind, says that high levels of nitrates and other contaminants have been found in the main water supply. » Read more

IOC warns against boycotting Israeli athletes in London ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) June 14, 2012 - 12:00am The International Olympic Committee warned that a refusal by any participant in next month's Games to compete against an athlete from a particular country is against the IOC's code of ethics. The warning came Thursday in response to an Algerian kayaker who withdrew last month from a World Cup event after learning that he would be competing against an Israeli. » Read more

Hamas 'left behind' by Arab Spring ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National by Hugh Naylor - June 14, 2012 - 12:00am When Hamas won control of the Gaza Strip after a brief but vicious round of factional fighting in 2007, it earned a degree of influence unprecedented in its short history. Its clashes with its archrival Fatah that culminated in military victory five years ago today emboldened Islamists, rattled Israel and the West and divided Palestinians between rival leaders in Gaza and the West Bank. » Read more

Gaza Five Years On: Hamas Settles In ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Carnegie Endowment for International Peace by Nathan J. Brown - (Analysis) June 14, 2012 - 12:00am As political upheavals spread over much of the Middle East and North Africa in 2011, regimes throughout the region were shaken and a few fell. But in both the West Bank and Gaza, a soft authoritarianism that has provoked uprisings elsewhere has only been further entrenching itself. » Read more

Occupation double-speak ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Michael Sfard - (Opinion) June 12, 2012 - 12:00am We are now marking the 45th anniversary of the largest national project in our young country's history: the suppression of millions of peoples' longing for independence and freedom. This project is bigger than the National Water Carrier, more expensive than the Lavi fighter jet, which never did take off, and more foolish than the idea of draining Lake Hula, which wound up exacting a tremendous ecological cost. We are all invested in it up to our necks -- financially, politically and, most important, morally. » Read more

The affable face of evil ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Gideon Levy - (Opinion) June 14, 2012 - 12:00am Israeli evil wears many faces these days. There are the rude, the crude and the thuggish, who still manage to generate some heat: When MK Miri Regev goes off on one of her jingoist, gutter-talk rampages - "the 'infiltrators' are a cancer" - some people are still shocked. The same goes for her partner in base incitement, MK Danny Danon, known for spouting his own swinish pearls of wisdom, or Interior Minister Eli Yishai, no piker when it comes to bandying about inflammatory language about crime or about spreading disease. » Read more

Why the world shouldn't support UNRWA ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Israel Harel - (Opinion) June 14, 2012 - 12:00am Five million Palestinians define themselves as refugees. They insist on festering away in camps, at the international community's expense, while holding fast to their main dream: returning to the towns and villages from which their ancestors fled or were expelled. Their ambition to realize this dream - which is a major stumbling block to ever ending the conflict - is made possible by the unending aid they have received for more than 60 years now from the UN Relief and Works Agency. » Read more

Make a choice: Settlements or democracy ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Tal Harris - (Opinion) June 13, 2012 - 12:00am The events surrounding last week’s Knesset vote on the illegal Ulpana outpost seemed like a vindication of Israeli democracy for many of its citizens. The Supreme Court ruling to evacuate 30 families living on Palestinian land was upheld, as was the notion that Israel’s democracy and the rule of law can exist side by side with its expanding presence in the West Bank. This is fiction. » Read more

Israel Must Move Toward a Two-State Solution ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Huffington Post by John Lyndon - (Blog) June 13, 2012 - 12:00am The events surrounding last week's Knesset vote on the illegal Ulpana outpost seemed like a vindication of Israeli democracy for many of its citizens. The Supreme Court ruling to evacuate 30 families living on Palestinian land was upheld, as was the notion that Israel's democracy and the rule of law can exist side by side with its expanding presence in the West Bank. This is a fiction. » Read more

Inside out: Equality in the Arab sector ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Jonathan Rosen - (Opinion) June 13, 2012 - 12:00am The Authority for the Economic Development of the Arab, Druse and Circassian Sectors in the Prime Minister’s Office launched a large-scale ad campaign on Sunday geared to encourage companies to hire Arab university graduates. The campaign, which urges prospective employers not to discriminate against non-Jewish applicants for jobs, was designed in response to data showing generally lower levels of employment among Arab university graduates relative to their Jewish counterparts, and a number of glaring disparities in certain fields, such as high-tech jobs. » Read more

Israel's 'Real' Challenges Much Closer Than Iran ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'ariv by Hanan Greenberg - (Opinion) June 11, 2012 - 12:00am While all eyes seem to be fixed on Iran, the IDF’s main focus is on threats emerging a car-drive away from Tel Aviv. In a special conversation, the operations officers of the IDF’s four commands tell Maariv about their military activities that involve daily attempts to kidnap soldiers, the escalation of “price-tag” activities (a violent retribution campaign by fundamentalist Israeli youths against Palestinians), the heating up of the Egyptian border and the fragile peace in the north. » Read more

Can the EU save the two-state solution? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from EurActiv.com by Dimitris Bouris, Stuart Reigeluth - (Opinion) June 14, 2012 - 12:00am "It has become clear that the window of opportunity for solving the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians is closing. The reasons behind this are several and have to do with both internal and external dynamics. » Read more

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