May 9th

Coalition of the Willing ATFP World Press Roundup Article from International Herald Tribune by Shmuel Rosner - (Opinion) May 9, 2012 - 12:00am JERUSALEM — Monday morning I was on the phone with Doron Avital, a smart if quirky Knesset back-bencher from the Kadima Party. The announcement that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party was forming a grand coalition with Kadima was still a day away. » Read more

Is a two-state solution dead? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times (Editorial) May 9, 2012 - 12:00am It's hard to imagine now, but there was a time when a comprehensive rapprochement between Israelis and Palestinians seemed not just possible but inevitable. In the mid-1990s, the two-state solution was gaining support on both sides. Hamas and Islamic Jihad were losing influence. » Read more

Palestinians isolated and short of funds -Fayyad ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters by Samia Nakhoul, Michael Stott - (Interview) May 8, 2012 - 12:00am RAMALLAH, West Bank, May 8 (Reuters) - Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said on Tuesday the Palestinians may have "lost the argument" on the international stage for an independent state but cautioned that continued Israeli occupation was unsustainable. In an interview with Reuters, Fayyad struck a note of discord with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas by calling for elections that have long been delayed because of deep political divisions between the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank. » Read more

Israeli-Arabs Grow Cooler to National Service ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Media Line by David Rosenberg - May 9, 2012 - 12:00am Five years after the government launched a program to encourage Israeli-Arab youth to take time off from school and work to perform volunteer work in lieu army service, Israeli-Arab support for the program is lower than ever. » Read more

Jerusalem: Ads warn parents – keep daughters away from Arabs ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Ari Galahar - May 8, 2012 - 12:00am Lehava, the extremist Jewish organization for the prevention of assimilation in the Holy Land, has come up with a new gimmick that is creating a stormy debate on the issue of mixed marriages between Jews and Arabs. » Read more

Israel's AG mulling charges against 'Jenin, Jenin' director ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Tomer Zarchin - May 9, 2012 - 12:00am The attorney general will soon decide whether to file charges against Mohammed Bakri, director of the controversial film "Jenin, Jenin," which implies that Israel Defense Forces soldiers committed war crimes in a 2002 military operation in the Palestinian refugee camp. » Read more

Abbas says ready to engage with Netanyahu on Middle East peace process ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters May 9, 2012 - 12:00am Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Tuesday he was ready to engage with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on a Middle East peace agreement if he proposes "anything promising or positive." Abbas, speaking to Reuters after Netanyahu announced a grand coalition that will strengthen the Israeli leader's hand, said Netanyahu had to realize that Israeli settlements in the West Bank were destroying hopes of peace and must cease. » Read more

Abbas warns of disaster if hunger-striker dies ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters by Ali Sawafta - May 9, 2012 - 12:00am RAMALLAH (Reuters) -- President Mahmoud Abbas warned on Tuesday that the death of any one of the hundreds of Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike in Israel would be a "disaster" and could trigger a backlash that might slip out of control. "It is very dangerous," Abbas told Reuters on a day when the Red Cross urged Israel to transfer to hospital six detainees who it said were close to death after not eating for two months. » Read more

Second Palestinian on hunger strike hospitalized ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press May 9, 2012 - 12:00am JERUSALEM — A spokeswoman for Israel's prison service says a Palestinian prisoner refusing to eat food for the past 71 days has been transferred to a civilian hospital. Sivan Weizman says Thaer Halahleh was hospitalized early Tuesday after he refused to drink water. Halahleh is the second hunger striker to be transferred. Bilal Diab, also on a 71-day hunger strike, was hospitalized last week. » Read more

How Netanyahu's 'unity' government may affect Palestinians, Iran ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor by Joshua Mitnick - May 8, 2012 - 12:00am A stunning overhaul in the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could produce progress on the peace process with the Palestinians but also enhance Israeli threats to attack Iran’s nuclear program. » Read more