Middle East News: World Press Roundup

NEWS: Amr Moussa reiterates that the Arab League is committed to Palestinian statehood. Gaza hospitals reportedly face a critical shortage of supplies. An Israeli lawsuit against Al Jazeera is dismissed. Given nternational opposition, Palestinian leaders are split on a UN statehood bid in September, and reports claim PM Fayyad is the foremost critic of the idea. Hamas says it will not accept that Fayyad continues in office. Ha’aretz outlines Israel’s strategy for combating Palestinian diplomatic plans to approach the UN. The BBC looks at the deadly incidents at the Golan Heights border. One of Hamas’ founders dies. COMMENTARY: Carlo Strenger says Israeli right-wingers are living in a colonial past. Alex Fishman says Israel needs to move quickly to develop nonlethal means to deal with unarmed protesters. The Gulf News says of 1967 borders are key to peace. Aijaz Zaka Syed says there needs to be an Arab lobby in the United States. Henry Siegman says Pres. Obama is wrong and that the UN could create a Palestinian state if the US supported that. Ha’aretz says it’s unclear whether or not unfolding events will lead to another intifada. The Economist says PM Netanyahu is trying to divert the attention of Israelis from diplomatic dangers ahead. The Forward looks at the language used by Netanyahu and Obama in recent weeks. A Palestinian teenager outlines the difficulties of living without citizenship. R.M. Schneiderman examines new claims that Henry Kissinger encouraged Egypt to attack Israel in 1973.

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Moussa 'committed' to Palestinian statehood ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency June 10, 2011 - 12:00am The Arab League's outgoing chief and Egyptian presidential candidate Amr Moussa told French television on Thursday that he wants to work for peace between Israel and Palestinians but not at any price. "Egypt's position will have to get back to a position of influence in the region and to follow the right policy, which is to establish peace, not at any price," he told France 24 during a visit to Paris. "Not just to move around, joining meetings and so on, but to work diligently and seriously to establish peace. This is what I intend to do if I'm elected," he said. » Read more

Medics: Gaza hospitals at crisis point ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency June 10, 2011 - 12:00am Hospitals in Gaza are at crisis point due to shortages of supplies, medical services spokesman Adham Abu Salmiya said Thursday. Warehouses have run out of over 178 types of medicine, the spokesman said, adding that over 190 types of medical equipment needed for surgery had either run out or were in short supply. Abu Salmiya said doctors in Gaza had been forced to postpone surgeries due to the shortages, and working hours were reduced in many hospitals. The official urged countries in the region to intervene urgently to avert the crisis in Gaza. » Read more

Israel rocket victims fail in bid to sue Al Jazeera ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Alertnet by Basil Katz - June 9, 2011 - 12:00am Victims of 2006 rocket strikes on Israel cannot sue Al Jazeera on grounds the broadcaster intentionally helped Hezbollah attack civilians by reporting the sites of explosions, a U.S. judge ruled this week. The Israeli plaintiffs, who were asking for $1.2 billion in damages from Al Jazeera, said the Qatar-based news network helped Hezbollah militants target their rockets more accurately during the 34-day war with Israel. Their lawsuit, filed a year ago, argued that a Manhattan court had jurisdiction over the case because U.S. citizens had been harmed. » Read more

Palestinians grapple with opposition to UN plan ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Statesman by Mohammed Daraghmeh - June 9, 2011 - 12:00am Faced with opposition from the United States, a number of top Palestinian officials are quietly advising President Mahmoud Abbas to drop plans to seek recognition for a state of Palestine at the United Nations this fall. Top officials say Abbas remains committed to his plan — a result of the widespread sense among Palestinians that two decades of on-and-off negotiations with Israel have run their course, and that the current Israeli leadership is not a partner for peace. » Read more

Hamas says not to accept Fayyad as PM ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua June 9, 2011 - 12:00am The Islamic Hamas movement, which controls Gaza, said on Thursday that it cannot accept Salam Fayyad, the West Bank-based prime minister, to lead the upcoming Palestinian unity government. Appointing Fayyad for the new government "is unacceptable and it cannot theoretically or practically lead to achieving reconciliation," said Mousa Abu Marzouk, the deputy chief of Hamas ' politburo. » Read more

Haaretz exclusive: Secret cables show Israel's battle plan over Palestinian UN bid ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Barak Ravid - June 10, 2011 - 12:00am Israel has started mobilizing its embassies for the battle against UN recognition of a Palestinian state in September, ordering its diplomats to convey that this would delegitimize Israel and foil any chance for future peace talks. Envoys are being asked to lobby the highest possible officials in their countries of service, muster support from local Jewish communities, ply the media with articles arguing against recognition and even ask for a call or quick visit from a top Israeli official if they think it would help. » Read more

Memories of Six Day War see violence return to Golan Heights ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News by Kevin Connolly - (Analysis) June 9, 2011 - 12:00am When the early sun burns away the last of the misty night in Majdal Shams it leaves a landscape that looks a little like model railway scenery - all evenly-shaped pale hillsides and symmetrical thickets of darker green trees and patches of grey rock. When the noise of gunfire dies away in such a place, the silence that follows has an air of unreality. It feels too still and too deep. It must have felt this way in 1967 when the guns fell silent at the end of the Six Day War leaving Israel in possession of the rich farmland and spectacular mountains of the Golan Heights. » Read more

Abbas and Fayyad disagree on unilateral declaration of Palestinian state at UN ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ahram Online by Saleh Al-Naami - June 9, 2011 - 12:00am The Hebrew website of the Israeli daily Haartez revealed Thursday a disagreement between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad regarding seeking state recognition from the United Nations in September. » Read more

Low-profile, influential Hamas founder Shama dies ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press by Ibrahim Barzak - June 10, 2011 - 12:00am A founder of Hamas in the Gaza Strip died Friday of a stroke after decades as an influential yet little-known figure at the helm of the Palestinian militant organization. He was 76. Muhammad Hassan Shama, revered by Hamas loyalists but nearly anonymous outside Gaza, was one of the eight founders of the Islamist group in the 1980s. After his death, Hamas publicly announced Friday for the first time that Shama had been the leader of the secretive Shura Council, its top governing body. » Read more

Israel's rightists are living in a colonial past ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Carlo Strenger - (Blog) June 10, 2011 - 12:00am Benjamin Netanyahu has one great upside and one great downside: the upside is that he is predictable. The downside is that, when it comes to foreign policy, he is utterly one-sided, uncreative and devoid of initiative, as Meir Dagan has recently pointed out. » Read more

Israel, the masses are coming ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Alex Fishman - (Opinion) June 8, 2011 - 12:00am There were days when we mocked the “Hatzatzit,” the stone-throwing vehicle developed by the IDF to respond to the first Intifada’s mass demonstrations. How could it be, we wondered, that the great, wise IDF goes back to the Stone Age and confronts civilians so primitively? » Read more

1967 borders are key to peace in Middle East ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News (Editorial) June 10, 2011 - 12:00am There is no way of bringing an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict except through a peace agreement that is just and equal, and gives Palestinians their rights. Hence, the 1967 borders are central to any peace talks for the establishment of a Palestinian state. Israel has repeatedly stated that it would not accept the 1967 borders as the basis of negotiations for a Palestinian state, and this was made very clear by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. » Read more

How about an Arab lobby? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News by Aijaz Zaka Syed - (Opinion) June 10, 2011 - 12:00am Pundits are still debating Benjamin Netanyahu's little circus in US Congress. And it seems it's not just us, distant observers and sympathisers of the Palestinians who were appalled by the US lawmakers repeatedly throwing themselves at the Israeli premier's feet. Many a US commentator has been troubled by the craven subservience and sycophancy of their politicians. The lawmakers cheered even when the ‘guest' standing in the highest body in the land continually derided their president and rubbed his nose in. » Read more

What have Obama and Netanyahu wrought? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Foreign Policy by Henry Siegman - (Opinion) June 8, 2011 - 12:00am What conclusions are to be drawn about the state of Middle East peacemaking from the extraordinary spectacle of the adversarial encounter between President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and their several major adversarial addresses in the second half of May? » Read more

September is here ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Amos Harel, Avi Issacharoff - (Analysis) June 10, 2011 - 12:00am On Sunday morning, soldiers manning an Israeli army lookout positioned south of the "Shouting Hill," in the Golan Heights, reported sighting an unfamiliar flag. The protesters across the Syrian border had raised something resembling the flag of Switzerland - red with a white shape in the middle. The deputy-commander of the 36th Division, Col. Nadav Padan, raised his binoculars and surveyed the protesters, who were trying to cross the anti-tank ditch the Israel Defense Forces had dug between the fence and Majdal Shams. » Read more

Don't think about September ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Economist (Editorial) June 8, 2011 - 12:00am UNARMED Palestinian refugees clambering across the Syria-Israel border and getting shot by Israeli troops may provide a useful diversion both for Syria’s beleaguered president, Bashar Assad, and for Israel’s prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu. The Palestinians, all of them apparently from camps in Syria, made their first attempt at breaching the fence on May 15th, the anniversary of Israel’s founding, known to Palestinians as the naqba, or catastrophe. Hundreds crossed the line near the Druze village of Majdal Shams, on the Golan Heights, which were annexed by Israel after the war of 1967. » Read more

The Language Bibi and Bam Used ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Forward by Philologos - (Opinion) June 8, 2011 - 12:00am “On the Same Page?” asked a front-page caption of the June 3 edition of the Forward, beneath which were parallel excerpts from President Barack Obama’s May 19 speech on U.S. policy in the Middle East and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s May 24 Congressional address. The second pair of matching quotes had the U.S. » Read more

I'm Either an Illegal Citizen of One State, or an Inferior Citizen in Another ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Salem News by Jalal Abukhater - (Opinion) June 10, 2011 - 12:00am (RAMALLAH) - I am considered under the Israeli law to be an illegal citizen of the Palestinian West Bank and I am supposed to avoid it as an area of danger while Jewish settlers are allowed to come from all over the world and settle legally (under Israeli law) in the Palestinian West Bank. » Read more

Did Kissinger Urge Egypt to Attack Israel? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast by R.M. Schneiderman - (Book Review) June 9, 2011 - 12:00am Whether it’s the expansion of settlements or the status of Jerusalem, the past has always held a central role in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. So as Palestinian protests continued to roil the Jewish state on Sunday, a new book by a former CIA agent in Amman and a trusted adviser to the Jordanian king offers some eye-opening claims about the history of the conflict. » Read more

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