Middle East News: World Press Roundup

NEWS: A hunger-striking Palestinian soccer player is released in a deal with Israeli authorities. Hamas welcomes Muslim Brotherhood claims of victory in the Egyptian presidential election. Two Palestinians are killed in a refugee camp in Lebanon. The death toll on Israel's Egypt and Gaza borders rises to seven. PM Netanyahu condemns an attack by extremist settlers on a mosque near Ramallah. Israelis and Palestinians cooperate in stopping the spread of deadly bacteria. Israel says Hamas, in a rare move, is firing rockets into southern Israel, and reports say Hamas is taking “credit” for the attacks. No Palestinian citizens of Israel will be in that country's upcoming Olympic delegation. Former Palestinian prisoners describe life after being released. Palestinians are seeking full representation at the Rio+20 sustainable development summit. COMMENTARY: Shaul Arieli says unilateral Israeli moves may not advance the peace process. Carlo Strenger says messianism is endangering Israel. Yaakov Katz says Israel can't deal with it security concerns In Sinai and elsewhere, and it needs Egyptian cooperation. Nachman Shai asks if it's really a good idea for Israel to surround itself with barriers. Gerson Baskin says national unity talks between Fatah and Hamas have broken down completely. The National says the MRSA bacteria scare in Gaza is one more affliction the people there don't need. Aaron David Miller looks at what he identifies as five myths about the US-Israel relationship. Yael Gvirtz says Israeli society needs to count the costs of the settlement project. Lara Friedman says Israeli unilateralism won't work.

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Palestinian footballer to end strike, go free ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press June 18, 2012 - 12:00am A lawyer for an imprisoned Palestinian soccer player who has been on a hunger strike for more than three months says his client has agreed to resume eating and will be released July 10 in a deal with Israel. The attorney, Mohammed Jabareen, spoke Monday after the deal was struck at an Israeli prison clinic. Israeli prison officials could not be reached for comment. The soccer player, Mahmoud Sarsak, has been held by Israel for nearly three years without charges or trial. Israel claims he was active in the violent group Islamic Jihad. Sarsak denies the allegations. » Read more

Gazans welcome claim of Islamist victory in Egypt ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press by Ibrahim Barzak - June 18, 2012 - 12:00am Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Monday welcomed the claim of a Muslim Brotherhood victory in Egypt's presidential election, distributing sweets, praising God and expressing hope for a new era of warm relations between Gaza and Egypt. Gaza, a small, densely populated territory, borders Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. The strip's ruling militant Hamas group is a local offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood and draws inspiration from the Egyptian organization. » Read more

Two Palestinians killed in Lebanon refugee camp ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters June 18, 2012 - 12:00am The Lebanese army shot dead two Palestinians in a refugee camp near the northern city of Tripoli on Monday after confrontations broke out during the funeral of man killed in the camp on Friday, residents said. The army said in a statement the soldiers used tear gas and rubber bullets before opening fire on a crowd that attacked an army post inside the Nahr al-Bared camp. It said three soldiers had been wounded by stones and petrol bombs thrown at them. Medical sources said 20 other people had been injured in the clashes. » Read more

Seven killed on Israel's Egypt and Gaza borders ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters by Maayan Lubell - June 18, 2012 - 12:00am Militants who crossed into Israel from Egypt's Sinai Desert fired on Israelis building a barrier on the border on Monday, killing one worker, before soldiers shot dead two of the attackers, Israel's military said. Israel later launched air strikes killing four Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, including two militants from the Islamic Jihad group on a motorcycle. Two other militants were killed while trying to fire a rocket, Israel said. » Read more

Netanyahu slams 'price tag' attack on mosque near Ramallah ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua June 19, 2012 - 12:00am Unknown vandals set fire to a mosque near Ramallah early Tuesday morning, damaging the structure, and sprayed Hebrew slogans against a pending evacuation at a disputed settlement neighborhood. "At one o'clock we heard screaming from the people of the village and realized the mosque was on fire," Jab'a Mayor Abdul Karim Sharaf said, according to The Jerusalem Post. "More than three hundred people awoke and we managed to put it out." » Read more

Israel, Palestine join forces in containing MRSA bacteria spreading ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua June 18, 2012 - 12:00am Amid a fresh round of hostilities along Israel's border with the Gaza Strip, Israeli and Palestinian scientists are continuing joint efforts to combat a potentially lethal bacterium that is spreading in Gaza City. The research group has recently identified a unique strain of Methicillin - resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA), a particularly aggressive antibiotic-resistant bacteria, which has become common in Gaza, the Israeli daily Ha'aretz reported on Monday. » Read more

Hamas fires four rockets from Gaza into Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Avi Issacharoff, Yanir Yagna - June 19, 2012 - 12:00am The military wing of Hamas fired four rockets toward Israel overnight Monday, which landed in open areas and caused no casualties. Hamas claimed responsibility for the act. The rocket fire marks an unusual move for the group, which has been avoiding launching rockets toward Israel for many months now. Following the attack, communities near the Gaza border were put on heightened alert. The residents were given instructions to remain at a close distance to a bomb shelter. » Read more

Hamas claims responsibility for rocket fire into Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post June 19, 2012 - 12:00am Hamas on Tuesday took responsibility for at least some of the rocket fire aimed at Israeli civilians Monday night, stating that it was responding to the killing of Palestinians in recent days. The IAF killed four Palestinian terrorists in the last 24 hours, at least two of whom were members of the Islamic Jihad terrorist group. » Read more

No Arabs in Israeli Olympic Delegation ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Yedioth Ahronoth by Erin Lahav - June 14, 2012 - 12:00am The Israeli delegation to the Olympics in London will not include even one Arab athlete. Not that it’s been any better in previous years; only two Arabs have represented the country in Olympic Games to date. The Arab sector is convinced that this is due to discrimination, but the athletic establishment denies the accusations. » Read more

Former Palestinian Prisoners Describe Life on the Outside ATFP World Press Roundup Article from As-Safir by Amjad Semhan - June 18, 2012 - 12:00am After 20 to 30 years of detention, how does a released Palestinian prisoner live his life? What kind of psychological situation does he face? After all those years, does he believe that he still has a future? » Read more

Palestinians seek full representation at Rio+20 ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Economic Times June 19, 2012 - 12:00am Palestinians are pushing for full representation as a state at the UN Rio+20 summit on sustainable development, but the issue will have to be decided by world leaders, according to officials. "We expect full-status participation because we already have it in UNESCO and we have ties with Brazil (the host country which recognizes the Palestinian state) and with more than 130 countries," Palestinian ambassador Ibrahim Alzeben told AFP. » Read more

The minuses of unilateral withdrawal from the West Bank ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Shaul Arieli - (Opinion) June 19, 2012 - 12:00am The stalemate in negotiations with the Palestinians and the assumption that it's impossible at present to reach a final-status solution have revived the idea of evacuating part of the West Bank unilaterally. Supporters of this idea believe that current trends, especially the expansion of the settlement enterprise, must be stopped before taking a decision that will anchor the two-state solution. A unilateral evacuation, they believe, will create a two-state reality that will make it easier to implement a final-status agreement. » Read more

National-religious messianism is endangering Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Carlo Strenger - (Opinion) June 13, 2012 - 12:00am Every month I drive to Bar-Ilan University to tape four or five discussions with national-Religious Rabbi Uri Sherki that are posted under the title "The Rabbi and the Professor" (unfortunately there are no English subtitles so far). I do this because I believe that there is desperate need for dialogue between Israel’s liberals and the national-religious. We have come to the point where we live in universes so different that it is becoming questionable how these groups can ever cooperate fruitfully for a common future. » Read more

A hybrid of peace and terror ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Yaakov Katz - (Analysis) June 19, 2012 - 12:00am There is something ironic about the situation in Sinai, a senior defense official said on Monday. Israel is officially in a perpetual state of war with Lebanon and Syria, but those are two of Israel’s quietest borders today. “Egypt, which we have peace with, is turning into our biggest problem,” the official said. » Read more

The good fence? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Nachman Shai - (Opinion) June 18, 2012 - 12:00am Afew days ago, Israel marked the 30th anniversary of the outbreak of the war initially “Operation Peace for the Galilee,” now known as the “First Lebanon War,” since it was recently followed by another one. With the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in June 1982, the concept of the “Good Fence,” through which Israel had tried to good relations with Lebanon, collapsed. » Read more

Encountering Peace: Unity, disunity and peace ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Gershon Baskin - (Opinion) June 18, 2012 - 12:00am From what I hear around the area, once again the reconciliation talks between Fatah and Hamas have re-entered the freezer. Just last week the parties announced that on June 20, Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal would be announcing a new transitional government supported by both movements without any direct or representatives of either. The task of the transitional government was to prepare new elections for president of the Palestinian Authority, the PA Legislative Council and the Palestinian National Council of the PLO. » Read more

MRSA scare in Gaza ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National (Editorial) June 19, 2012 - 12:00am MRSA is an all-too-real monster. A bacterium that can resist most antibiotics, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus can be fatal. It spreads easily and quickly, and is particularly dangerous to patients in hospitals and nursing homes, where it is increasingly found. And now a strain of this microbe has been found in Gaza City, Haaretz reports. The danger of this fast-moving, hard-to-treat and potentially deadly germ must now be added to the list of tribulations afflicting people in Gaza, one of the most densely populated areas on Earth. » Read more

Five Myths About the US-Israeli Relationship ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Monitor by Aaron David Miller - (Opinion) June 18, 2012 - 12:00am Urban legends, fantasies, misconceptions abound in life. But nowhere do they seem to be more pronounced and durable than in the discussion of America's relationship with the State of Israel. Some are simply a result of fuzzy thinking; others flow from the willful propaganda efforts of both the pro and anti-Israeli advocates and the battles they wage for the hearts and minds of the committed and the not-so-committed. » Read more

The Real Cost of Israel's Settlers ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Yedioth Ahronoth by Yael Gvirtz - (Opinion) June 13, 2012 - 12:00am 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. » Read more

The Siren Call of Israeli Unilateralism ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast by Lara Friedman - (Opinion) June 18, 2012 - 12:00am With Israeli-Palestinian efforts at an impasse and immediate-term hopes for progress toward any agreement fading, the appeal of new ideas is understandable. This is no doubt why discussion of Israeli unilateral options—generally in terms of unilateral “withdrawals” from the West Bank—is in the air. » Read more

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