Middle East News: World Press Roundup

NEWS: Palestinians may exhume the body of the late Pres. Arafat after media claims traces of polonium were found on some of his possessions, but say they want more information first. Israeli officials deny Arafat was poisoned and say they had nothing to do with his death. Hamas says Hanniyeh will meet with Pres. Morsy in Egypt. Israel reaches a plea bargain with a journalist over classified information. Israel's Council of Higher Education rejects an application for higher status from a settlement college. Palestinian protesters demand an end to negotiations with Israel, this time without any disruption from security forces. UN officials say Hamas must allow the Palestinian election commission to conduct voter registration in Gaza. Reports say Jordan is discriminating against Palestinians fleeing from Syria. Palestinian officials downplay prospects for the upcoming meeting between Pres. Abbas, Sec. Clinton and Pres. Hollande. Israeli settlements are badly damaging the Palestinian economy in the Jordan Valley. Reuters looks at the collapsing West Bank economy. COMMENTARY: Thomas Friedman looks at the implications of the victory of Morsy for Egyptian-Israeli relations. Ephraim Sneh says bold action on the Israel-Palestine conflict is needed to stem the tide of Islamism. Bradley Burston says, following the legacy of the late PM Shamir, Israel is burying itself via the settlements. Alex Fishman says new conspiracy theories about the death of Arafat are designed to provide a narrative of a more “dignified death” for the national leader. Peter Joseph says Israel's new coalition government could still produce significant breakthroughs. Alan Phillips says theories about polonium poisoning of Arafat are problematic for both Israel and Fatah. George Hishmeh says the US seems more interested in appeasing Israel with tough talk on Iran rather than doing anything to deal with the civil war in Syria. The Daily Star says the cause of Palestine has been forgotten in the Arab uprisings. Benny Morris says Israel is likely to attack Iranian nuclear facilities.

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Palestinians May Exhume Arafat After Report of Poisoning ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Isabel Kershner - July 4, 2012 - 12:00am A potentially explosive re-examination of the circumstances behind the death of Yasir Arafat, the symbol of the Palestinian national struggle, has galvanized Palestinian suspicions that he was poisoned and led the Palestinian Authority to agree in principle on Wednesday to an exhumation of his remains, possibly within days. Yasir and Suha Arafat in Ramallah in 2004, about two weeks before Mr. Arafat died. Al Jazeera has reported that he might have been poisoned with radioactive polonium 210. » Read more

Aide: Palestinian leader wants more on Arafat ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press July 5, 2012 - 12:00am An aide says the Palestinian leader wants more information from a Swiss lab before deciding whether to dig up the remains of his predecessor, Yasser Arafat. Doctors at the lab say they found elevated levels of the radioactive agent polonium-210 on clothing reportedly worn by Arafat before his death in November 2004. The lab says the findings don't prove Arafat was poisoned. Experts are divided over whether an autopsy, sought by Arafat's widow, could clear up a lingering mystery surrounding the cause of Arafat's death. » Read more

Israeli officials deny Arafat poisoning rumors ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua July 5, 2012 - 12:00am Israeli officials on Thursday quashed recent rumors that late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat died due to radiation poisoning, denying any connection to his death. Arafat passed away in a French military hospital outside Paris on Nov. 11, 2004. Hospital doctors said the specific cause of death was a massive brain hemorrhage, and Arafat has a blood disease called "disseminated intravascular coagulation," according to the Haaretz daily. The report said the ailment has a number of causes, including infections, colitis and liver disease. » Read more

Hamas PM to meet Islamist president of Egypt ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press July 5, 2012 - 12:00am A Palestinian official says Gaza's prime minister will head to Cairo within the next two weeks to meet with Egypt's new Islamist president, who has close ties with the territory's Hamas rulers. Cabinet secretary Mohammed Askoul says Ismail Haniyeh will meet President Mohammed Morsi and senior Egyptian security officials. Haniyeh wants Egypt to open its border with Gaza. Hamas is an offshoot of Morsi's region-wide Muslim Brotherhood movement. » Read more

Israeli journalist reaches plea bargain with state ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press July 5, 2012 - 12:00am An investigative reporter who faced indictment for exposing classified military documents has reached a plea bargain with the government that will allow him to avoid jail time, his newspaper and the justice ministry said Thursday. The government had announced in May that it would charge Uri Blau from the liberal Haaretz newspaper with unauthorized possession of state secrets, stirring up fears of a crusade to stifle the press. Journalists had said charges against Blau would make reporters hesitate to do their jobs, for fear they might end up in jail. » Read more

Israel rejects settlement university in West Bank ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press July 4, 2012 - 12:00am Israel's council of higher education voted Wednesday not to grant a West Bank college coveted university status, vetoing a move that could have triggered international condemnations and enraged the Palestinians. Sharon Achdut, the council's spokesman, said five out of seven members of the committee voted against upgrading the status of the college in Ariel, one of the largest Jewish settlements in the West Bank. » Read more

Palestinians take anti-Oslo protest to Abbas HQ ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters July 3, 2012 - 12:00am Hundreds of demonstrators marched on the offices of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday to protest against diplomatic contacts with Israel and to denounce police violence at a previous rally. Chanting for an end to the Oslo accords, which were meant to pave the way to permanent peace with Israel, the flag-waving crowd cut through Ramallah's crammed city centre under the watchful eye of scores of plainclothes security officers. » Read more

UN envoy: Elections commission must be allowed to work in Gaza ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency July 5, 2012 - 12:00am UN envoy Robert Serry on Thursday called on authorities in Gaza to allow the Central Elections Commission to operate, after Hamas suspended its work. Serry, the UN special coordinator for the peace process, visited the commission's headquarters in Gaza on Thursday, a statement from his office said. » Read more

Report: Jordan biased over Palestinians from Syria ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press July 4, 2012 - 12:00am HRW's report could not be independently verified. The Palestinians are living in a heavily-guarded housing complex near the northern border, 100 kilometers (60 miles) north of the Jordanian capital. Jordan already hosts 2 million Palestinian refugees and their descendants who fled or were driven out of their homes in Arab-Israeli wars. » Read more

Palestinians skeptical on Clinton-Abbas meet ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Nida' Tuma - July 5, 2012 - 12:00am Palestinian officials don’t believe that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Friday-scheduled meeting with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and French President Francois Hollande will bring them back to the negotiation table. The meeting, which Clinton requested, will discuss the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and the release of Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails. The meeting agenda also includes a Palestinian plan to seek a UN resolution that condemns settlements in the “occupied” territories. » Read more

Israeli settlements 'jeopardising' Palestinian prosperity ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News July 5, 2012 - 12:00am The study suggests Palestinians could generate an extra £1bn ($1.5bn) a year if restrictions to their use of land, water and movements were removed. It says Palestinians can use only 6% of the land, while settlers control 86%. Israel criticised the report, saying it had "a clearly political agenda". About 500,000 Jews live in more than 100 settlements built since Israel's 1967 occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The settlements are considered illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this. » Read more

West Bank high life masks deepening economic crisis ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters by Noah Browning - July 5, 2012 - 12:00am Past the Israeli sentry towers blackened by firebombs and the entrance to a refugee camp emblazoned with posters of rifle-clenching militants, downtown Ramallah sparkles. The scars of an intractable conflict and occupation melt away: cafes bustle with smartly dressed patrons, water-pipe smoke perfumes the air and basslines from trendy clubs shake the night. New model BMWs ply leafy avenues beneath villas and tall apartment blocks sprout from the West Bank hills. But it's more mirage than miracle. » Read more

What Does Morsi Mean for Israel? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Thomas L. Friedman - (Opinion) July 3, 2012 - 12:00am Is the election of Mohamed Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood candidate, as president of Egypt the beginning of the end of the Camp David peace treaty between Israel and Egypt? It doesn’t have to be. In fact, it could actually be the beginning of a real peace between the Israeli and the Egyptian peoples, instead of what we’ve had: a cold, formal peace between Israel and a single Egyptian pharaoh. But, for that to be the case, both sides will have to change some deeply ingrained behaviors, and fast. » Read more

Containing the Islamist Revolution ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Foreign Policy by Ephraim Sneh - (Opinion) June 28, 2012 - 12:00am When politicians are in election mode, they can see nothing but victory. All decisions, all considerations, are subservient to one question: how they can convince voters to check their name at the ballot box. As someone who ran for office nine times, I know what I am talking about. But for the candidate who wins the election, and for the voters, there is always the day after. » Read more

It was Zionism itself that Israel buried this week. Let it go. ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Bradley Burston - (Opinion) July 3, 2012 - 12:00am It's time to take a lesson from the successful. It's time to begin thinking like Yitzhak Shamir. When he died this week, the first several people I spoke with, knowledgeable people who closely follow politics and the news, all had the same reaction. "I wasn't sure that he was still alive." » Read more

Rewriting the Arafat story ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Alex Fishman - (Opinion) July 5, 2012 - 12:00am Fatah’s old guard, and especially Arafat’s family, has a great task: Arranging a dignified death for the father of the Palestinian nation. The fact that Arafat left the stage while afflicted with a disease that one does not speak about openly, far away from his people, at a French hospital, is incommensurate with the national ethos. » Read more

Israel's Coalition With Potential ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward by Peter A. Joseph - (Opinion) July 5, 2012 - 12:00am The inclination by those in the peace camp, both in Israel and the United States, to react cynically to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s surprise announcement of a coalition agreement with Kadima party chairman Shaul Mofaz was not that shocking. But it is sorely misguided. Worse, it could be detrimental to Israel’s interests. » Read more

The mystery of Arafat's death affects friend and foe alike ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National by Alan Philps - (Opinion) July 6, 2012 - 12:00am Followers of the career of Yasser Arafat, who died in Paris almost eight years ago, will not be surprised that his ghost has now returned to haunt his successors at the head of the Palestinian Authority. Al Jazeera dropped a bombshell this week with an investigation into the still-unexplained causes of his death: a Swiss laboratory has found traces of polonium, the radioactive isotope used to assassinate the former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006, on Arafat's toothbrush and clothing. » Read more

US sending the wrong signals ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News by George S. Hishmeh - (Opinion) July 5, 2012 - 12:00am Although Syria seems on the verge of imploding, US President Barack Obama and his Republican rival Mitt Romney — both locked in a tight presidential campaign — are still distracted, focusing elsewhere in the Middle East — yes, on Israel and its inflated ambitions! » Read more

Palestine’s winter ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star (Editorial) July 4, 2012 - 12:00am Since the so-called Arab Spring began a year and a half ago, there has been one cause conspicuous by its absence: that of Palestine. This is a subject that was described as the central issue of Arab nationalism and was the inspiration given for revolutions and military movements that have taken place since the great catastrophe of 1948. » Read more

The Coming War ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast by Benny Morris - (Opinion) July 3, 2012 - 12:00am Over the years, commentators–including myself–have wrongly predicted an Israeli assault on Iran’s nuclear installations coming “soon.” But recent developments and a variety of signs indicate that such an attack is imminent, and highly likely before the American presidential elections. » Read more

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