MKs attend controversial settlement announcement ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency May 26, 2011 - 12:00am The speaker of Israel's parliament and two ministers attended the dedication on Wednesday of new Jewish settler homes in East Jerusalem in what an Israeli NGO called "a dangerous provocation." Among the first of the VIPs to arrive at the site in the city's annexed eastern sector were speaker Reuven Rivlin, Environment Minister Gilad Erdan and Education Minister Gideon Saar, all of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party. » Read more

Abbas: Netanyahu pushing back peace ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency May 26, 2011 - 12:00am President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of pushing the peace process back further than ever, the official Palestinian news agency reported. Speaking at the opening of a meeting for the Palestinian leadership in Ramallah, Abbas said Netanyahu “has shown us, in addition to the many mistakes and distortions, that he moved very far from the peace process.” He added: “There was nothing that we could build positively on. We look at his speech negatively.” » Read more

$1 billion Gaza investment fund unveiled ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency May 26, 2011 - 12:00am Muhammad Mustafa, the Palestine Investment Fund president, announced Thursday the establishment of a $1 billion investment fund for the reconstruction of Gaza. The rumored top candidate for the role of prime minister in the new technocrat government arrived in Gaza on Wednesday, to coordinate reconstruction efforts and meet with prominent contractors and businesspeople. » Read more

Netanyahu's Congress speech could set Middle East peace back another 18 years ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor by Ibrahim Sharqieh - (Opinion) May 26, 2011 - 12:00am Taking advantage of his New York accent while addressing Congress on Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered an eloquent speech offering only more obstacles to a lasting and just peace in the Middle East. He not only failed to provide a vision for the peace process in a changing Middle East, but also introduced new terms and phrases that will probably hamper any peace efforts in the future. » Read more

Israel's settlement liability ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times by Dan Simon - (Opinion) May 25, 2011 - 12:00am Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected President Obama's recent contention that the dream of a democratic Jewish state is incompatible with permanent occupation of the West Bank. Obama suggested in two recent speeches that peace negotiations should aim for a sovereign and non-militarized Palestinian state based on pre-1967 borders, with mutually agreed swaps. » Read more

WEST BANK: Palestinians call on U.N. to implement 1967 borders proposal ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times (Blog) May 26, 2011 - 12:00am Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas expressed disappointment with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to a joint meeting of Congress on Tuesday and said the Israeli leader's comments had dealt a blow to efforts to resume peace talks. » Read more

Obama pushes Europe not to support Palestinians' U.N. statehood bid ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times by Christi Parsons, Paul Richter - May 25, 2011 - 12:00am A week after ratcheting up pressure on Israel's government to restart peace talks with Palestinians, President Obama launched a campaign to persuade European leaders not to endorse a separate Palestinian bid for statehood. But his appeal to Britain's prime minister, David Cameron, won only a noncommittal response. After a meeting Wednesday with Obama, Cameron said the time was not yet right for European leaders to decide on the Palestinian bid for United Nations recognition, which the Palestinian Authority leadership is expected to make at the U.N. General Assembly in September. » Read more

Where Netanyahu fails himself and Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post by Fareed Zakaria - (Opinion) May 25, 2011 - 12:00am Conventional wisdom is fast congealing in Washington that President Obama was wrong to demarcate a shift in American policy toward Israel last week. In fact, it was Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu who broke with the past — in one of a series of diversions and obstacles Netanyahu has come up with anytime he is pressed. He wins in the short run, but ultimately, he is turning himself into a version of Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko, “Mr. Nyet,” a man who will be bypassed by history. » Read more

Netanyahu visit deepens Israeli-Palestinian impasse ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post by Joel Greenberg - May 25, 2011 - 12:00am Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s tumultuous visit to Washington has left Israeli and Palestinian officials facing each other across a deepening abyss, raising concerns that the impasse in peace efforts could prompt a renewed slide to violence. “When all is said and done, the question remains, where do we go from here?” wrote Sima Kadmon, a columnist in Yediot Ahronot, Israel’s most widely read newspaper. » Read more

Egypt to reopen Gaza border crossing, raising Israeli concerns ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post by Joel Greenberg, Ernesto Londono - May 25, 2011 - 12:00am Egypt will permanently open its border crossing with the Gaza Strip this weekend, the government announced Wednesday, underscoring how dramatically the uprisings that are roiling the Arab world could reshape the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Egypt’s interim military leaders, who had been instrumental in implementing the blockade under orders from then-President Hosni Mubarak, appeared to be responding to an increasingly vocal and empowered constituency that wants Egypt to decisively back the Palestinian cause. » Read more