For Palestinians, Egyptian Unrest Is Bittersweet ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Media Line by David Miller - January 31, 2011 - 1:00am Ordinary people cheer on protestors, but Hamas and Fatah are both hesitant to take sides Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and West Bank expressed both hope and anxiety as unrest went into its seventh day in Egypt, a country that has acted as a lifeline to besieged Gaza and a patron to the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank but also as the object of anger and resentment. » Read more

EGYPT AND ISRAEL: Israel approves first Egyptian military deployment in Sinai since 1979 ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times by Batsheva Sobelman - (Blog) January 31, 2011 - 1:00am Responding to a request from Egypt, Israel has approved the deployment of Egyptian troops in Sinai amid civil unrest in Egypt. According to news reports, two battalions -- about 800 soldiers -- are headed for the resort of Sharm el Sheik. This is a first since the 1979 peace treaty between the two countries, which limits the security presence in Sinai to police forces. » Read more

Israel Denies Sending Egypt Riot Equipment ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward January 31, 2011 - 1:00am Israel has denied an Al Jazeera report that Egypt had requested Israel to send riot-dispersal gear and that two airplanes had landed in Cairo with the equipment. Israel’s Foreign Ministry on Monday denied both that Egypt had made the request and that Israel had sent the equipment. Some 250,000 protesters gathered Monday in Tahrir Square in Cairo as Egypt entered its seventh day of protests against the government of President Hosni Mubarak. » Read more

Israel's human rights abuses in the name of security ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian by Janan Abdu - January 31, 2011 - 1:00am "Israeli security" is the sacred cow of the Israeli street and ruling establishment. Practically all the manifestations of Israeli racism directed at the state's Palestinian citizens, as well as those living under occupation in the West Bank and Gaza, fall within this elastic slogan. In the name of this slogan, too, Israeli human rights organisations working to expose the practices of the state and army have recently had restrictions placed upon them. » Read more

Exit the Israel Alibi ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Roger Cohen - (Editorial) January 31, 2011 - 1:00am One way to measure the immense distance traveled by Arabs over the past month is to note the one big subject they are not talking about: Israel. For too long, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been the great diversion, exploited by feckless Arab autocrats to distract impoverished populations. None of these Arab leaders ever bothered to visit the West Bank. That did not stop them embracing the justice of the Palestinian cause even as they trampled on justice at home. Now, Arabs are thinking about their own injustices. With great courage, they are saying “Enough!” » Read more

Maverick Sari Nusseibeh proposes an interim route to peace in the Middle East ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Chronicle of Higher Education by Haim Watzman - January 30, 2011 - 1:00am Sari Nusseibeh's socks match these days, he's clean-shaven, and he's a university president rather than an anarchist student or faculty union leader. But his hair, though a bit shorter and a lot grayer than it was in the 1970s and 80s, is still unkempt. Despite his establishment perch and his foothold in East Jerusalem, his head is still in the clouds. It might be the distance between his extremities that makes him the most politically incorrect political activist in Palestinian politics. » Read more

Palestinian Adversaries Unite, for Now, on Egypt ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Fares Akram, Isabel Kershner - January 31, 2011 - 1:00am The Hamas rulers of Gaza and the rival Palestinian Authority leadership of the West Bank rarely see eye-to-eye on anything. But with mass protests rocking Egypt, across Gaza’s southern border, the Palestinian adversaries have united in maintaining a cautious silence, hedging their bets given the unpredictability of the outcome and clearly concerned about a possible spread of popular unrest to their areas. » Read more

Mubarak's Role and Mideast Peace ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times (Opinion) February 1, 2011 - 1:00am The uprising in Egypt has created turmoil for Israeli and Palestinian leaders, who have their own complicated relationships with the Mubarak regime. For Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, President Hosni Mubarak has been his strongest ally in the region. At the same time, Mr. Mubarak has been a firm ally of the Palestinian Authority and a staunch supporter of the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Egypt has also tried to broker reconciliation talks (so far, unsuccessfully) between Fatah, the party governing the West Bank, and Hamas, which controls Gaza. » Read more