NEWS: Hamas blames PM Netanyahu for a snag in prisoner exchange talks, and is reportedly considering taking a back-seat in any new government. Hamas and Fatah officials will meet again in Cairo next week. The Palestinian leadership is reportedly divided over the wisdom of a UN statehood bid in September. Former Mossad chief Zvi Zamir expresses concern that Israeli forces have opened fire on unarmed demonstrators. Palestinian officials say they will continue to insist on a complete settlement freeze as a condition for renewed negotiations. International activists play a growing role in the occupied territories. The majority of Palestinians want PM Fayyad to continue in office. The BBC looks at the Palestinian youth movement in Gaza. Olivia Snaije recounts a bicycle trip through the occupied territories. COMMENTARY: Gideon Levy says Israel can’t complain about the Syrian government shooting protesters when it does the same at the border. Ari Shavit says Dagan is right about the need for peace with Palestinians but wrong in some of his comments on Iran. D. Bloomfield says the French peace conference proposal is a good opportunity for Pres. Abbas. Larry Derfner says the Israeli military should not shoot unarmed protesters. JJ Goldberg says Israel’s leaders need to listen to Dagan. Eric Alterman says only Republicans benefit from the rift between Pres. Obama and Netanyahu. George Hishmeh says Arab-Americans should organize to counter Israeli propaganda.

Hamas: Netanyahu responsible for swap deal delay
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
June 9, 2011 - 12:00am

Hamas leader Moussa Abu Marzouq blamed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday, for what he said was a delay in the release of Israeli and Palestinian prisoners in a swap deal. Citing Netanyahu's "intransigence," the official said the leader bore "full responsibility" for the continued confinement of captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit as well as thousands of Palestinians considered prisoners of war.

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NEWS: Hamas blames PM Netanyahu for a snag in prisoner exchange talks, and is reportedly considering taking a back-seat in any new government. Hamas and Fatah officials will meet again in Cairo next week. The Palestinian leadership is reportedly divided over the wisdom of a UN statehood bid in September. Former Mossad chief Zvi Zamir expresses concern that Israeli forces have opened fire on unarmed demonstrators. Palestinian officials say they will continue to insist on a complete settlement freeze as a condition for renewed negotiations. International activists play a growing role in the occupied territories. The majority of Palestinians want PM Fayyad to continue in office. The BBC looks at the Palestinian youth movement in Gaza. Olivia Snaije recounts a bicycle trip through the occupied territories. COMMENTARY: Gideon Levy says Israel can’t complain about the Syrian government shooting protesters when it does the same at the border. Ari Shavit says Dagan is right about the need for peace with Palestinians but wrong in some of his comments on Iran. D. Bloomfield says the French peace conference proposal is a good opportunity for Pres. Abbas. Larry Derfner says the Israeli military should not shoot unarmed protesters. JJ Goldberg says Israel’s leaders need to listen to Dagan. Eric Alterman says only Republicans benefit from the rift between Pres. Obama and Netanyahu. George Hishmeh says Arab-Americans should organize to counter Israeli propaganda.

Erekat: Settlement freeze a must
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Elior Levy - June 9, 2011 - 12:00am

A settlement construction freeze is still a precondition for Palestinian talks with Israel, senior Fatah official Saeb Erekat told Ynet Wednesday. Erekat denied an earlier Washington Post report whereby the Palestinian Authority is willing to renounce the building freeze demand. Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat backs Mideast policy speech given by Barack Obama, which urges return to 1967 borders with land exchanges, but in a new twist says nothing of halting West Bank settlement activity

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The conflict's new players
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Elior Levy - June 9, 2011 - 12:00am

Naksa Day, 11 am. Tensions are already palpable near the Qalandiya checkpoint. IDF soldiers equipped with crowd dispersal means are confronted by dozens of Palestinians including a small group of youngsters with gas masks and Palestinian flags. Two tall European-loking girls suddenly emerge from the crowd and approach the photographers standing in between the parties. Behind them, and unknown to the two, two Palestinians emerge and hurl bottles full of foul-smelling material at the soldiers and escape. The soldiers respond by firing shock grenades. The conflict begins.

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Countering Israeli propaganda
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
by George S. Hishmeh - (Opinion) June 9, 2011 - 12:00am

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may have had a point when he claimed that Syria allowed Palestinian youth to jump the border fence separating northern Israel from Syria's Golan Heights — occupied by Israel after the 1967 war — in a bid to deflect attention from the bloody demonstrations against President Bashar Al Assad. As things turned out, the world's attention ended up being focused on Israel's lethal response — it gunned down two dozen unarmed Palestinian youths climbing the border fence that Israel built 44 years ago after occupying the Golan Heights.

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The Republicans Heart Netanyahu
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Eric Alterman - (Opinion) June 8, 2011 - 12:00am

When a group of student radicals took over the Columbia University administration building in 1968, they issued a series of demands having to do with university policies. The administration wisely ignored these demands, however, because it understood that, in actuality, they were not terribly relevant to the problem it had on its hands. As radical student leader Mark Rudd had explained even then, these were mere excuses for the group’s violent power grab.

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Ex-Mossad chief: Purity of arms eroded
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
June 9, 2011 - 12:00am

Zvi Zamir, Israel's Mossad chief in the years 1968-1974 is criticizing the government over its way of handling the 'Naksa Day' events which saw 23 Syrian protestors killed. In an interview with Israel Army Radio, Zamir attacked the decision to open fire at the Syrian protestors who tried to breach the border fence and said: "I'm concerned by the fact that soldiers, my grandchildren, are firing at unarmed people."

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Israel’s ‘Mr. Security’ Goes Rogue
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by J.J. Goldberg - (Opinion) June 8, 2011 - 12:00am

Official Jerusalem has been thrown into a world-class tizzy this spring by what some top figures are calling a serious security breach, committed by one of the highest-ranking Israeli officials ever accused of endangering the Jewish state. There have been cabinet-level calls for his indictment. The Knesset is considering draconian new legislation to outlaw the sort of leak he perpetrated. It looks like serious stuff.

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Palestinian leadership divided over plan to seek UN recognition
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Barak Ravid - June 9, 2011 - 12:00am

The Palestinian leadership is sharply divided over the unilateral move to seek recognition from the United Nations General Assembly in September. While Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is determined to go through with the move, a group of senior Palestinians have said in closed conversations that they oppose it because they believe seeking recognition from the United Nations could do more harm than good to their cause.

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