Middle East News: World Press Roundup

NEWS: Israel is considering its next move in an exchange of violence with Hamas, as another Palestinian is killed. A toddler in Gaza is killed when militants apparently misfire a rocket. Three Lebanese soldiers and ten Palestinian refugees are wounded in clashes in a refugee camp in northern Lebanon. Israeli settlers are expanding an outpost near Nablus. A new poll suggests that a large majority of Palestinians have no confidence in reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas. Political tensions in Egypt are fueling unrest in Sinai. Recent Palestinian corruption convictions raise the question of political prosecutions. A small group of Israeli settlers prepare to evacuate an "unauthorized" outpost. Former Mossad chief Dagan says "Israel is in a unique place to make peace with Arabs." Japanese investment in a business park near Jericho aims to help Palestinian society towards economic sustainability. American novelist Alice Walker refuses to authorize a Hebrew translation of “The Color Purple” in protest against Israeli policies. COMMENTARY: Crispian Balmer looks at Israeli anxieties about the Egyptian presidential election. Pres. Peres says the Middle East badly needs a two-state solution. Barak Ravid asks if PM Netanyahu's speech 3 years ago endorsing a two-state solution was sincere. Carlo Strenger says "national-religious messianism" is endangering Israel. Norman Ornstein profiles the late Economist Jerusalem Bureau chief Peter David. Osama Al Sharif looks at the possibility of a war in the Middle East this summer. John Daly says Israel's growing relations with China are compromised by disputes over Iran and energy. Colum Lynch looks at the Palestinian bid to have the Church of the Nativity listed as a World Heritage Site in Palestine.

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Israel Weighs Response After Attacks by Hamas ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Fares Akram, Isabel Kershner - June 19, 2012 - 12:00am Hamas, the Islamic militant group that governs here, fired barrages of rockets into southern Israel on Tuesday after a break of more than a year during which the group largely adhered to an informal cease-fire. By evening, Israel had issued a stern warning that it was examining all possible responses, signaling the potential for a sharp escalation in the area. » Read more

Israel kills Gaza militant on 3rd day of fighting ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters by Dan Williams - June 20, 2012 - 12:00am Israel killed a Gaza militant on Wednesday as a surge of fighting across the border of the Palestinian enclave entered a third day despite what Egypt said were its efforts to broker a truce. The militant, a Palestinian belonging to one of Gaza's fringe Islamist Salafi networks, died and a comrade was wounded in an air strike on their motorcycle in southern Rafah, near Gaza's frontier with the Egyptian Sinai, medical officials said. » Read more

Toddler killed in Gaza explosion ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency June 20, 2012 - 12:00am A Palestinian toddler was killed Tuesday evening in an explosion south of Gaza City, medics said. Emergency services spokesman Adham Abu Salmiya said in a statement that Hadil al-Haddad, 2, was killed and her brother was injured in the Zaitoun neighborhood of Gaza City. A Hamas medical official told Reuters the cause of the child's death was not clear. Witnesses said she was killed when militants launched a rocket close by. » Read more

13 wounded in clashes in north Lebanon camp ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press June 18, 2012 - 12:00am Lebanese security officials say three soldiers and 10 Palestinians have been wounded in clashes inside a refugee camp in the country's north. The clashes broke out Monday in the Nahr el-Bared camp during the funeral of a Palestinian who was killed in a confrontation Friday. There are tensions between Palestinian in Nahr el-Bared and Lebanese soldiers left over from three months of clashes in 2007 between the army and an al-Qaida-inspired Islamic extremist group. The battles killed more than 170 soldiers, as well as dozens of militants and Palestinian civilians. » Read more

Settlers erect homes, level land by Nablus outposts ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency June 20, 2012 - 12:00am Israeli settlers have brought 45 caravans to expand settler outposts near Nablus, a local official said Wednesday. Construction began on Monday on three settler outposts adjacent to Eli and Shilo settlements in the northern West Bank, PA official monitoring settler activities Ghassan Daghlas told Ma'an. Bulldozers have razed more than 60,000 square meters of agricultural land near Palestinian villages Jalud, Qaryut and Jurish, he said, noting that settlers had constructed several cement homes and brought in caravans. » Read more

Majority of Palestinians Doesn’t Trust Fatah, Hamas Regards of Reconciliation ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Palestine News Network June 20, 2012 - 12:00am A poll hosted by the Palestine News Network has shown that the majority of Palestinians, around 80%, have no confidence in the reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas, saying that there is no hope for the reconciliation. The poll was published on the PNN website several weeks ago directly after the news about Fatah and Hamas signed an agreement on the formation of a new consensus government. The poll shows that: » Read more

Internal Egyptian power struggle encouraging Sinai threat to Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua by Adam Gonn - June 20, 2012 - 12:00am One Israeli was killed and several others wounded in a terrorist ambush Monday on their way to work on Israel's border fence with Egypt, in an attack that bodes ill for future bilateral relations. Militants crossed into Israel from Egypt and carried out a combined shooting, bombing and rocket-propelled grenade attack against two vehicles carrying the Israeli workers. Israeli troops were dispatched to the area and killed two of the three gunmen. » Read more

Palestinian anti-corruption court secures conviction but raises questions of bias ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post by Karin Brulliard - June 20, 2012 - 12:00am A two-year-old Palestinian court charged with combating corruption handed down its first major conviction this month, ruling that a man widely considered a pretty big fish — the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s former economic adviser — had embezzled millions of dollars. » Read more

Forced Move Raises Anger in West Bank Villages ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Jodi Rudoren - June 19, 2012 - 12:00am A Palestinian walked through a mosque in the West Bank town of Jabaa, near Ramallah, that was burned and vandalized on Tuesday. » Read more

'Israel in a unique place to make peace with Arabs' ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post June 20, 2012 - 12:00am Former Mossad chief Meir Dagan asserted that the Arab Spring and changes taking place in the region could have a positive effect on Israel's chances to improve its relations with Arab states, speaking on a panel at the Presidential Concerence in Jerusalem Wednesday. "The radicals in the Arab League are no longer there and a range of mutual interests that require regional cooperation provide an incredible opportunity for fostering peaceful relations," Dagan said. » Read more

Jericho business park aims to inch Palestine towards sustainability ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian by Liz Ford - June 18, 2012 - 12:00am On a slab of dusty land near the city of Jericho, rows of solar panels are being installed and tested. Eventually, there will be 2,600 of them in the 11.5 hectare (28 acre) area, providing around 300kW a day to help power the Jericho Agro-Industrial Park (Jaip), a public-private enterprise designed to boost the economic fortunes of the Palestinian territories. » Read more

In Protest, Walker Won’t Allow Hebrew Translation of ‘The Color Purple’ ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Dave Itzkoff - June 19, 2012 - 12:00am The author Alice Walker has told an Israeli publisher that she will not permit it to release a Hebrew-language translation of her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, “The Color Purple,” as a protest of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. » Read more

No light at end of Egyptian tunnel for Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters by Crispian Balmer - (Analysis) June 19, 2012 - 12:00am Egypt's political upheaval is by no means over, but its uneasy neighbour Israel is not waiting for the outcome. Desert defences are being strengthened and strategy revised as a once stable relationship splinters. Shortly after the Muslim Brotherhood claimed victory in Egypt's presidential vote on Monday, unidentified gunmen crossed the Sinai border and killed an Israeli worker. » Read more

Shimon Peres says: Two states for two peoples ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Los Angeles Times by Shimon Peres - (Opinion) June 20, 2012 - 12:00am The Middle East is ailing. The malady stems from pervasive violence, shortages of food, water and educational opportunities, discrimination against women and — the most virulent cause of all — the absence of freedom. There can be no peace without freedom. Economic growth is impossible without integration in the free global economy. Tragically, this simple logic eludes us in the Middle East. » Read more

Three years since Netanyahu's Bar-Ilan speech: Was it for real? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Barak Ravid - (Opinion) June 19, 2012 - 12:00am Few noticed that last Thursday, June 14, was the third anniversary of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech at Bar-Ilan University during which he declared, for the first time, his willingness to accept "a demilitarized Palestinian state side by side with the Jewish state." » 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

Peter David, Journalist and Middle East Thinker ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward by Norman Ornstein - (Opinion) June 20, 2012 - 12:00am I last saw Peter David a couple of months before he died, when we had lunch at Vidalia, a downtown Washington restaurant on a holiday Monday. Because it was a holiday, we did not have to shout over the lunchtime crowds or rush to get through and move on to the next appointment. Instead, it was a perfect opportunity to have an extended and great conversation with one of the most informed, deep, witty and experienced people I have ever known. We talked about British politics, American politics, both societies, the global economy, and even a little about the Middle East. » Read more

The next Middle East war ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times by Osama Al-Sharif - (Opinion) June 19, 2012 - 12:00am Will there be a war in the Middle East this summer? It is a question that is frequently asked by pundits and laymen alike this time of the year, every year. » Read more

A Marriage Made in Heaven, Except for Energy Issues ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Oilprice.com by John Daly - (Opinion) June 17, 2012 - 12:00am China and Israel are the most pragmatic of partners. For China, Israel’s prime attraction is as a source of cutting-edge high technology, for Israel, its gaining a foothold in the world’s largest market. China’s interest in Israel’s technology combined with China’s go it alone attitudes on energy issues represent a mixed blessing for Tel Aviv. » Read more

Palestine nominates birthplace of Jesus in controversial UNESCO World Heritage bid ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Foreign Policy by Colum Lynch - (Opinion) June 19, 2012 - 12:00am Palestine, recognized last October as the 195th member state by the U.N. Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), recently launched its first initiative as a full-fledged government in the Paris-based agency, nominating the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem and a traditional pilgrimage route to be listed as an endangered site on the World Heritage List. » Read more

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