June 3rd

Rahm Emanuel says Pres. Obama is committed to Israel. Israeli occupation forces and settlers clash at an unauthorized outpost. The Palestinian doctors union threatens to resign en masse over a strike. France formally issues invitations to a new Middle East peace conference. Palestinian refugees in Syria say they are determined to return. Yoel Marcus Says PM Netanyahu deserves a chance to make peace. Yitzhak Laor says that for its own sake, Israel needs to move beyond Zionism. Ami Gluska says 1956 was crucial in turning David Ben-Gurion into an expansionist hawk. DM Barak says Israel cannot negotiate with Hamas. Palestinian citizens of Israel face home demolitions. The Israeli naval blockade drives Gaza fishermen deeper towards the coast. George Hishmeh says Israel needs to understand the longer the conflict continues the harder it will be to solve. The EU says it’s ready to resume its role at the Egypt-Gaza border if requested. Some accuse Israel of leaving white phosphorus canisters in the West Bank. David Pollack says political leadership is needed to give the API more momentum and public appeal.

The real issue is political leadership
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by David Pollock - (Opinion) June 1, 2011 - 12:00am

Around half of Israelis, Palestinians, and some other key Arab publics, according to various opinion polls taken in the past decade, support something like the Arab Peace Initiative of 2002, whose basic concept is peace and Arab recognition of Israel in exchange for Israel's full withdrawal from the territories it captured in the 1967 war.

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Israel accused after Palestinian boys burned by mystery canister
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Conal Urquhart - June 3, 2011 - 12:00am

The Israeli army has been accused of leaving dangerous munitions near Palestinian homes after two boys were seriously burnt when they picked up a mysterious silver canister which exuded toxic white fumes. A second canister, discovered nearby less than a week later, was destroyed by the army in a controlled explosion

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EU representative says ready to resume Rafah role if requested
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Masry Al-Youm
by Marian Houk - June 3, 2011 - 12:00am

The European Union stands ready - if asked - to resume its Border Assistance Mission (EUBAM) at the Rafah crossing, or take up other similar new tasks there, according to Christian Berger, EU Representative to the Palestinian Authority. In an interview in his East Jerusalem headquarters last Friday, and again in a joint appearance with Palestinian Authority (PA) Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki in Ramallah on Monday, Berger said the EU welcomed the reopening of the only crossing point between Egypt and Gaza. “We’ve always said that all crossing points have to be open,” he added.

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Time for Israel to wake up
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
by George S. Hishmeh - (Opinion) June 3, 2011 - 12:00am

These must be heady days for Palestinians, certainly most, if not all, of those who live inside their usurped homeland and among the Palestinian diaspora in the Middle East or western countries. There were lots of good news lately, now topped by the endorsement by the Arab League of the Palestinian intention to ask the UN General Assembly in September to recognise the State of Palestine, a course that does not necessarily guarantee smooth sailing thanks to US and Israeli objections.

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Israeli navy forces Gazan fishermen to cast nets inland
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Rebecca Collard - June 3, 2011 - 12:00am

Bassam El-Najjar once made his living from the seas off Gaza's coast. For two decades he set out each morning to catch tuna, sardines and mackerel from the waters of the eastern Mediterranean. Not any longer. Now El-Najjar drops his nets into a large fish pool dug in the earth of a 0.5 hectare farm near Khan Younis in the central Gaza Strip. "The sea is closed," he says, scooping a handful of pellets and scattering them across the water. Freshwater tilapia come to the surface, swallowing the feed.

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In Lod, destruction of homes may be harbinger of more woes for Israel's Arabs
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Hugh Naylor - June 3, 2011 - 12:00am

Where six modest homes of the Abu Eid family once stood rest piles of rubble, refrigerators and personal belongings. Demolitions that target Arab homes are certainly not a new issue inside Israel: as many as 800 were destroyed last year, according to the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD). Because many lack the difficult-to-obtain housing permits, tens of thousands more are at risk for demolition.

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Barak to Juppe: Israel cannot negotiate with Hamas
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Herb Keinon - June 3, 2011 - 12:00am

Defense Minister Ehud Barak met on Friday with French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe to discuss a French initiative involving a peace conference in Paris next month. The conference would be scheduled to precede September's contentious Palestinian state bid at the UN. During their meeting at Barak's office in Tel Aviv, the defense minister reiterated to Juppe that Israel would be unable to negotiate with Hamas since the group does not either recognize Israel nor denounce terrorist attacks against its civilians.

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The Old Man's 'day of horrors'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Ami Gluska - (Opinion) June 3, 2011 - 12:00am

Toward the end of May 1967, the Egyptian army had deployed in eastern Sinai, the Straits of Tiran were blocked to Israeli shipping and transport of oil to Eilat, the reserves were called up, the economy was paralyzed, shelters were dug in backyards and public parks were readied to serve as temporary cemeteries. Great excitement prevailed in the whole Arab world. Fiery speeches and Cairo Radio broadcasts informed the masses that the end of the "Zionist entity" was near. On the Israeli home front, the sense of isolation and existential foreboding only grew.

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Get rid of Zionism
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Yitzhak Laor - (Opinion) June 3, 2011 - 12:00am

The 45th year of occupation is now beginning. The depth of the entanglement, from which there is apparently no way out without bloodshed, is as great as the obedience of the intelligentsia: Just as European colonialism was collapsing once and for all, the local intelligentsia found a way to collaborate with the claims of Israel's governments, leaving us today with both a right-wing coalition and a right-wing opposition.

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