May 27th

'PA boycott is a declaration of war'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Tovah Lazaroff - May 27, 2010 - 12:00am

The Palestinian Authority has "declared war" on the Israeli economy by boycotting settlement goods, charged Knesset speaker Ruby Rivlin (Likud) during a solidarity visit he made Thursday morning to the Barkan Industrial Park in Samaria. The West Bank park, located right off Route 5, is home to 143 factories. Half of its 5,000 workers are Palestinian. Rivlin spoke on the same day that the PA inaugurated its house-to-house campaign, in which 3,000 volunteers are knocking on doors and explaining the significance of the boycott.

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What’s Behind White House Strategy To Woo U.S. Jews
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Nathan Guttman - May 27, 2010 - 12:00am

Washington — As the Obama administration’s charm offensive toward the Jewish community enters its second month, a clearer picture is emerging of the White House’s strategy for recouping lost ground with American Jews on Israel. First and foremost, the administration is touting its strengthening of military cooperation and security ties with Israel, even as public clashes recede, for now, over expanding Israeli-Jewish settlements in predominantly Palestinian East Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank.

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Israel's Arab-Jewish conflict played out on a soccer field
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Lisa Rosen - May 27, 2010 - 12:00am

Any soccer fanatic gearing up for the World Cup will tell you that national pride is on the line with every game. When that pride is caught up in geopolitics, keeping score can get even more complicated. The documentary "After the Cup: Sons of Sakhnin United" looks at Bnei Sakhnin, a soccer team from an Arab city in Israel that won that country's national cup in 2004.

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The dig dividing Jerusalem
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Ahdaf Soueif - May 27, 2010 - 12:00am

If you walk out of Jerusalem Old City through its south-eastern gate and on to the perimeter road encircling it, you will most likely see several large coaches with elderly western tourists climbing out of them. You will see them stand at the low wall at the edge of the road and peer down into the lush valley with its pretty houses that nudge and lean against each other. The tourists may notice the woman marking exercise books on her sunny terrace, they may smile to see the bright-haired four-year-old riding her tricycle round the yard.

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White House to Host Mideast Leaders
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
May 27, 2010 - 12:00am

President Obama has invited Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, to the White House for separate meetings, White House officials said Wednesday. The meetings with Mr. Obama will be the first for the Middle Eastern leaders since the start of the indirect peace talks that began last month, with the president’s special envoy, George J. Mitchell, mediating between the parties.

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Elections in Palestine, again
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
by Daoud Kuttab - May 27, 2010 - 12:00am

The Palestinian Authority is going ahead with plans to hold municipal elections on July 17. The elections are taking place despite the fact that the de facto government in Gaza has refused to accommodate them in areas under its control. Hamas has also said that it is calling on its supporters in the West Bank not to participate in the coming elections. The movement, which has yet to agree to the Egypt-sponsored reconciliation plan, says that elections of any kind (municipal, parliamentary or presidential) should only take place after Palestinians are unified.

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Rattling the Cage: Living it up in Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Larry Derfner - May 27, 2010 - 12:00am

Don’t you just wish you lived in Gaza? Don’t you just envy those people who get to raise their kids amid such abundance? Look at all the stuff they’ve got: “Truckloads of meat, poultry, fish, dairy products, fruits, vegetables, milk powder, baby food, wheat and other staples arrive in Gaza on a daily basis,” said the Foreign Ministry in advance of the “Freedom Flotilla,” due to either reach Gaza or get intercepted by the navy today.

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May 26th

Yariv Oppenheimer says Palestinians are right not to continue to subsidize settlements. 15 Palestinians are injured in Israeli air raids on Gaza. A UN official says a two state solution is urgently required. Israel will allow hundreds of Arab businesspersons to attend the second investment conference in Bethlehem. Israel continues to impede Palestinian access to Highway 443. Aid agencies urge Israel to ease restrictions on Gaza. PM Netanyahu will visit the White House next week. Lt. Gen. Dayton is stepping down as special security coordinator in the fall. An Israeli extremist is banned from certain parts of Jerusalem and the West Bank. Pres. Abbas says Iran has hijacked the Palestinian cause, calls the second intifada a big mistake and says peace could be achieved in a week. Palestinian officials dismiss Israeli threats of retaliation for the boycott. Ira Lee explains why he's joining the Gaza flotilla. Ghassan Khatib says the purpose of the settlement goods boycott is to draw the distinction between Israel and the occupation. Yossi Alpher says it is an understandable but ill-timed measure.

An understandable but ill-planned gesture
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Yossi Alpher - May 24, 2010 - 12:00am

I don't like boycotts. Israel suffered from a comprehensive Arab boycott prior to 1967, when settlements and territories were not an issue. Israel is today targeted for academic and economic boycotts by elements in the West whose hostility toward it in many cases goes far beyond the West Bank, Jerusalem and the settlements.

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End the blockade in Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Hill
by Iara Lee - May 25, 2010 - 12:00am

This week, I will be boarding one of several ships that are part of a flotilla sailing to Gaza. The Israeli government’s recent decision to deny internationally renowned scholar Noam Chomsky entrance into the occupied territories suggests we, too, might be refused entry. Nevertheless, we will set sail with the intent of delivering food, water, medical supplies and reconstruction materials to communities in Gaza that are in need of humanitarian relief.

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