Netanyahu: France says PA must OK Jewish state ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Agence France Presse (AFP) May 6, 2011 - 12:00am Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday after talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy that France wants the new Palestinian government to recognize Israel as a Jewish state. "What I heard from President Sarkozy is that they must recognize Israel as the state of the Jewish people," Netanyahu said outside the Elysee Palace in Paris, after a meeting he described as "good, far-ranging and friendly". » Read more

A University Trustee Expands on His View of What Is Offensive ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Jim Dwyer - May 5, 2011 - 12:00am “I want to say something,” Jeffrey S. Wiesenfeld said. “The question is offensive. Before you even finish.” Mr. Wiesenfeld is the City University of New York trustee who rose this week at a board meeting to block an honorary degree to the playwright Tony Kushner, declaring him an “extremist” opponent and critic of Israel. It was a startling development for a board that appeared to be on the verge of rubber-stamping a bundle of honorary degrees proposed by the colleges within the university, including one for Mr. Kushner from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. » Read more

Accord Brings New Sense of Urgency to Israeli-Palestinian Conflict ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Ethan Bronner, Steven Lee Myers - May 5, 2011 - 12:00am A day after Palestinian leaders signed what many called a landmark reconciliation accord, the antagonists in the protracted Israeli-Palestinian conflict and their international mediators in Europe staked out positions in a rapidly shifting political and diplomatic landscape on Thursday. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, travelling to Rome for a meeting focused on Libya, refused to slam the door on negotiations that could include Hamas as part of a larger Palestinian authority, even as Hamas’s leader, Khaled Meshal, said he was fully committed to working for a two-state solution. » Read more