Interview: Alice Walker ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Foreign Policy by Robert Zeliger - (Interview) June 24, 2011 - 12:00am Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alice Walker will join the flotilla of ships next week that will try to break Israel's maritime blockade of the Gaza Strip. She says the goal is to bring supplies and raise awareness of the situation there. Last May, during a similar attempt by activists, Israel raided six ships. On one, clashes broke out and Israeli commandos killed nine people. Foreign Policy reached the author of The Color Purple in Greece, where she is preparing for her departure. Foreign Policy: Why are you taking part in the flotilla mission? » Read more

Palestinians seek to redefine national struggle ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News by Raymond G. Helmick, Nazir Khaja - (Opinion) June 26, 2011 - 12:00am Young Palestinians, fascinated by the Arab Spring, have demonstrated recently in ways that ignore the contest of parties within their own community and seek simply freedom, justice, dignity and equality. Their movement is still small, only a couple of hundred demonstrators, determinedly nonviolent in their demand, gathered, but of course they were immediately flooded with tear gas and worse by the Israelis, who understand how vital it is for them to provoke nonviolent protesters into throwing that first stone. » Read more

Mantras parading as incontestable truths ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News by Uri Avnery - (Opinion) June 26, 2011 - 12:00am Those opposing the Palestinians’ UN bid forget that State of Israel was proclaimed unilaterally The Palestinians are planning something thoroughly obnoxious: They intend to apply to the UN for statehood. Why obnoxious? Any Israeli spokesman (not to mention spokeswoman) will tell you readily: Because it is a "unilateral" move. How dare they proclaim a state unilaterally? How dare they do so without the consent of the other party to the conflict — us? » Read more

Israel’s Soviet Political Party ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward by Liam Hoare - (Opinion) June 27, 2011 - 12:00am Yisrael Beiteinu is widely understood to be the party of Russian Jewry, that population of nearly one million Jews who arrived in Israel after the disintegration of the Soviet Union. Twelve years since its founding, it has become the third largest party in the Knesset, on a radical anti-clerical and staunchly nationalist platform. » Read more

Peres's Conference, Netanyahu's Challenge ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward by J.J. Goldberg - (Opinion) June 27, 2011 - 12:00am Tel Aviv — When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rose to address the 4,000 delegates at the close of Shimon Peres’s Israeli Presidential Conference in Jerusalem on June 23, he beamed like a film student accepting an Oscar. » Read more

Europe's responsibility ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Akiva Eldar - (Opinion) June 27, 2011 - 12:00am BRUSSELS - Last week I met with more than a dozen European officials who closely follow Israel and its dispute with its neighbors. Some wondered how it could be that Israel's defense minister warns about a "tsunami," while the country's public os focused on cottage cheese. Some asked whether I had a clue as to what my prime minister wants. Are all statements made by Benjamin Netanyahu about negotiations, they asked, aimed at giving the settlers another year or two, and also at scuttling any prospect of dividing the country? » Read more

Let the flotilla go ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz (Editorial) June 27, 2011 - 12:00am The term "flotilla" is understood in Israel as a declaration of war. This is the case with respect to the latest Gaza-bound flotilla, just as it was with the one that set off from Turkey in May 2010. Furthermore, due to unstable relations with Turkey, Israel is still feeling the repercussions of its deadly raid on that maritime convoy. » Read more

Fayyad nomination is final, Fatah says ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News by Nasouh Nazzal - June 27, 2011 - 12:00am Ramallah: The Fatah party Sunday said the nomination of Dr Salam Fayyad to lead the Palestinian unity government is final. It said if Hamas did not agree with the nomination in the next couple of days, the current caretaker government under Fayyad will remain in place. "If agreement on the nomination of Dr Fayyad is not reached within the coming couple of days, it is highly possible that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas assigns Dr Fayyad to reshuffle his cabinet and preserve the status quo," Ameen Maqboul, who heads the Revolutionary Council at Fatah, told Gulf News in an interview. » Read more

Exploding the myths: UNRWA, UNHCR and the Palestine refugees ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency (Opinion) June 27, 2011 - 12:00am JERUSALEM (Ma'an) -- As Palestinian leaders prepare to seek UN recognition of statehood in September, there is increasing talk in the US, Israel and elsewhere of disbanding the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, the UN Relief and Works Agency, and handing responsibility for Palestinian refugees to the UN High Commission for Refugees. Some argue UNHCR would resettle the refugees, robbing them of their right to return to their homes. » Read more

Building Boom in Gaza’s Ruins Belies Misery That Remains ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Ethan Bronner - June 25, 2011 - 12:00am GAZA — Two luxury hotels are opening in Gaza this month. Thousands of new cars are plying the roads. A second shopping mall — with escalators imported from Israel — will open next month. Hundreds of homes and two dozen schools are about to go up. A Hamas-run farm where Jewish settlements once stood is producing enough fruit that Israeli imports are tapering off. » Read more