June 19th

Israel, Palestine join forces in containing MRSA bacteria spreading ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua June 18, 2012 - 12:00am Amid a fresh round of hostilities along Israel's border with the Gaza Strip, Israeli and Palestinian scientists are continuing joint efforts to combat a potentially lethal bacterium that is spreading in Gaza City. The research group has recently identified a unique strain of Methicillin - resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA), a particularly aggressive antibiotic-resistant bacteria, which has become common in Gaza, the Israeli daily Ha'aretz reported on Monday. » Read more

Netanyahu slams 'price tag' attack on mosque near Ramallah ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua June 19, 2012 - 12:00am Unknown vandals set fire to a mosque near Ramallah early Tuesday morning, damaging the structure, and sprayed Hebrew slogans against a pending evacuation at a disputed settlement neighborhood. "At one o'clock we heard screaming from the people of the village and realized the mosque was on fire," Jab'a Mayor Abdul Karim Sharaf said, according to The Jerusalem Post. "More than three hundred people awoke and we managed to put it out." » Read more

National-religious messianism is endangering Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Carlo Strenger - (Opinion) June 13, 2012 - 12:00am Every month I drive to Bar-Ilan University to tape four or five discussions with national-Religious Rabbi Uri Sherki that are posted under the title "The Rabbi and the Professor" (unfortunately there are no English subtitles so far). I do this because I believe that there is desperate need for dialogue between Israel’s liberals and the national-religious. We have come to the point where we live in universes so different that it is becoming questionable how these groups can ever cooperate fruitfully for a common future. » Read more

Seven killed on Israel's Egypt and Gaza borders ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters by Maayan Lubell - June 18, 2012 - 12:00am Militants who crossed into Israel from Egypt's Sinai Desert fired on Israelis building a barrier on the border on Monday, killing one worker, before soldiers shot dead two of the attackers, Israel's military said. Israel later launched air strikes killing four Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, including two militants from the Islamic Jihad group on a motorcycle. Two other militants were killed while trying to fire a rocket, Israel said. » Read more

Two Palestinians killed in Lebanon refugee camp ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters June 18, 2012 - 12:00am The Lebanese army shot dead two Palestinians in a refugee camp near the northern city of Tripoli on Monday after confrontations broke out during the funeral of man killed in the camp on Friday, residents said. The army said in a statement the soldiers used tear gas and rubber bullets before opening fire on a crowd that attacked an army post inside the Nahr al-Bared camp. It said three soldiers had been wounded by stones and petrol bombs thrown at them. Medical sources said 20 other people had been injured in the clashes. » Read more

Gazans welcome claim of Islamist victory in Egypt ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press by Ibrahim Barzak - June 18, 2012 - 12:00am Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Monday welcomed the claim of a Muslim Brotherhood victory in Egypt's presidential election, distributing sweets, praising God and expressing hope for a new era of warm relations between Gaza and Egypt. Gaza, a small, densely populated territory, borders Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. The strip's ruling militant Hamas group is a local offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood and draws inspiration from the Egyptian organization. » Read more

The minuses of unilateral withdrawal from the West Bank ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Shaul Arieli - (Opinion) June 19, 2012 - 12:00am The stalemate in negotiations with the Palestinians and the assumption that it's impossible at present to reach a final-status solution have revived the idea of evacuating part of the West Bank unilaterally. Supporters of this idea believe that current trends, especially the expansion of the settlement enterprise, must be stopped before taking a decision that will anchor the two-state solution. A unilateral evacuation, they believe, will create a two-state reality that will make it easier to implement a final-status agreement. » Read more

Palestinian footballer to end strike, go free ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press June 18, 2012 - 12:00am A lawyer for an imprisoned Palestinian soccer player who has been on a hunger strike for more than three months says his client has agreed to resume eating and will be released July 10 in a deal with Israel. The attorney, Mohammed Jabareen, spoke Monday after the deal was struck at an Israeli prison clinic. Israeli prison officials could not be reached for comment. The soccer player, Mahmoud Sarsak, has been held by Israel for nearly three years without charges or trial. Israel claims he was active in the violent group Islamic Jihad. Sarsak denies the allegations. » Read more

June 18th

A perfect metaphor for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Global Post by Noga Tarnopolsky - (Analysis) June 18, 2012 - 12:00am In a metaphor its opponents may relish, the Israeli settlement movement finds itself mired in a sewer. For 30 years, the settlement of Ofra, located about 40 minutes north of Jerusalem and about 15 minutes from Ramallah, has disposed of its raw sewage in the local valley, soiling pristine streams and damaging the nearby mountain aquifer. » Read more

Why I'm Still a Two Stater ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast by Emily L. Hauser - (Opinion) June 15, 2012 - 12:00am In recent years, it’s become all the rage to support —or accept, or give in to—the notion of a “one-state solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. » Read more