June 6th, 2011

Abbas agrees to peace talks based on 1967 borders ATFP World Press Roundup Article from December 31, 1969 - 8:00pm President Mahmoud Abbas has told France he is ready to attend a Paris peace conference if Israel accepts talks based on the 1967 borders, an aide told AFP Sunday. Nimr Hammad, a political adviser to Abbas, said the president had told French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe that he agreed officially to a French proposal to host a peace conference in Paris before July. Juppe raised the possibility of the conference during a visit to Israel and the West Bank this week. » Read more

Abbas agrees to peace talks based on 1967 borders ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency June 6, 2011 - 12:00am President Mahmoud Abbas has told France he is ready to attend a Paris peace conference if Israel accepts talks based on the 1967 borders, an aide told AFP Sunday. Nimr Hammad, a political adviser to Abbas, said the president had told French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe that he agreed officially to a French proposal to host a peace conference in Paris before July. Juppe raised the possibility of the conference during a visit to Israel and the West Bank this week. » Read more

A Former Spy Chief Questions the Judgment of Israeli Leaders ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Ethan Bronner - June 3, 2011 - 12:00am The man who ran Israel’s Mossad spy agency until January contends that Israel’s top leaders lack judgment and that the anticipated pressures of international isolation as the Palestinians campaign for statehood could lead to rash decisions — like an airstrike on Iran. The former intelligence chief, Meir Dagan, who stepped down after eight years in the post, has made several unusual public appearances and statements in recent weeks. He made headlines a few weeks ago when he asserted at a Hebrew University conference that a military attack on Iran would be “a stupid idea.” » Read more

Israeli Soldiers Shoot at Protesters on Syrian Border ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Isabel Kershner - June 5, 2011 - 12:00am Israeli forces fired at pro-Palestinian protesters on the Syrian frontier on Sunday as they tried to breach the border for the second time in three weeks, reflecting a new mode of popular struggle and deadly confrontation fueled by turmoil in the Arab world and the vacuum of stalled peace talks. » Read more

June 3rd

The real issue is political leadership ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons by David Pollock - (Opinion) June 1, 2011 - 12:00am Around half of Israelis, Palestinians, and some other key Arab publics, according to various opinion polls taken in the past decade, support something like the Arab Peace Initiative of 2002, whose basic concept is peace and Arab recognition of Israel in exchange for Israel's full withdrawal from the territories it captured in the 1967 war. » Read more

Israel accused after Palestinian boys burned by mystery canister ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian by Conal Urquhart - June 3, 2011 - 12:00am The Israeli army has been accused of leaving dangerous munitions near Palestinian homes after two boys were seriously burnt when they picked up a mysterious silver canister which exuded toxic white fumes. A second canister, discovered nearby less than a week later, was destroyed by the army in a controlled explosion » Read more

EU representative says ready to resume Rafah role if requested ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Masry Al-Youm by Marian Houk - June 3, 2011 - 12:00am The European Union stands ready - if asked - to resume its Border Assistance Mission (EUBAM) at the Rafah crossing, or take up other similar new tasks there, according to Christian Berger, EU Representative to the Palestinian Authority. In an interview in his East Jerusalem headquarters last Friday, and again in a joint appearance with Palestinian Authority (PA) Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki in Ramallah on Monday, Berger said the EU welcomed the reopening of the only crossing point between Egypt and Gaza. “We’ve always said that all crossing points have to be open,” he added. » Read more

Time for Israel to wake up ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News by George S. Hishmeh - (Opinion) June 3, 2011 - 12:00am These must be heady days for Palestinians, certainly most, if not all, of those who live inside their usurped homeland and among the Palestinian diaspora in the Middle East or western countries. There were lots of good news lately, now topped by the endorsement by the Arab League of the Palestinian intention to ask the UN General Assembly in September to recognise the State of Palestine, a course that does not necessarily guarantee smooth sailing thanks to US and Israeli objections. » Read more

Israeli navy forces Gazan fishermen to cast nets inland ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National by Rebecca Collard - June 3, 2011 - 12:00am Bassam El-Najjar once made his living from the seas off Gaza's coast. For two decades he set out each morning to catch tuna, sardines and mackerel from the waters of the eastern Mediterranean. Not any longer. Now El-Najjar drops his nets into a large fish pool dug in the earth of a 0.5 hectare farm near Khan Younis in the central Gaza Strip. "The sea is closed," he says, scooping a handful of pellets and scattering them across the water. Freshwater tilapia come to the surface, swallowing the feed. » Read more

In Lod, destruction of homes may be harbinger of more woes for Israel's Arabs ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National by Hugh Naylor - June 3, 2011 - 12:00am Where six modest homes of the Abu Eid family once stood rest piles of rubble, refrigerators and personal belongings. Demolitions that target Arab homes are certainly not a new issue inside Israel: as many as 800 were destroyed last year, according to the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD). Because many lack the difficult-to-obtain housing permits, tens of thousands more are at risk for demolition. » Read more