Middle East News: World Press Roundup

NEWS: The murder of a respected West bank governor suggests lawlessness may be returning to towns like Jenin. Palestinians are hoping Egypt will help resolve the crisis over hunger striking prisoners. UNSG Ban says Israel should either charge prisoners or release them. Settlers are creating patrols in the West Bank, looking for Palestinian homes for Israel to demolish. The oldest Palestinian refugee camps run by the UN are slated for upgrades. The CEO of a construction company says settlers in "Ulpana" knew they were building on privately owned Palestinian land. A new Hamas force is reportedly thwarting rocket attacks against Israel. Palestine is attempting to participate in the upcoming United Nations Sustainable Development Conference as a state. A US congressional committee seeks to tighten controls on aid to the Palestinians and Egypt. Israel's separation barrier threatens an ancient way of life in West Bank villages. The Palestinian national air carrier, grounded since 2005, has resumed operations with flights between Egypt’s El-Arish and Amman. COMMENTARY: Fareed Zakaria says under PM Netanyahu Israel is now stronger than ever, but questions whether he can use his power for anything other than own survival in office. Gideon Levy says Israel's new coalition leaders are delegitimizing the country. The Boston Globe says the new government offers new hope for peace. Israel Harel predicts that the new coalition will mean that Likud's ideology shifts towards the center. Harriet Sherwood says Netanyahu outmaneuvered the militant pro-settler right in his own party. J.J. Goldberg says Kadima leader Mofaz got more out of the deal than Netanyahu. The Daily Star says Israel's unity government shows Palestinians also must reunify. Mya Guarnieri says African refugees and migrants have joined Palestinians as the most marginalized people in Israeli society. David Makovsky looks at how the new coalition might affect various Israeli policies. Yezid Sayigh says Hamas is struggling to turn the Arab uprisings into political gains.

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Model West Bank City Loses a Crime Fighter ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Jodi Rudoren - May 9, 2012 - 12:00am JENIN, West Bank — Relaxing in their rooftop salon one recent night, Amal Qadoura headed to fetch ice cream for herself and her husband when the shooting began. First, she recalled, two bullets were fired at one side of the glass-enclosed porch, followed by a barrage from a hilltop on the other side. » Read more

Palestinian leadership expects Egyptian efforts to resolve hunger strike ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua May 10, 2012 - 12:00am RAMALLAH, May 10 (Xinhua) -- The Palestinian leadership expects that the Egyptian efforts will soon succeed in reaching a settlement between Israel and hunger-striking Palestinian prisoners, a Palestinian official said Thursday. "We have positive signs that the results of these efforts will be seen by Saturday," said Ziad Abu Ein of the Palestinian Prisoners' Affairs Ministry. He refused to elaborate. » Read more

UN's Ban urges Israel to charge prisoners or free them ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency May 10, 2012 - 12:00am BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday urged Israel to either charge or release Palestinian detainees "without delay." Ban expressed concern for Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike in protest over their detention without charge and stressed "the importance of averting any further deterioration in their condition," in a statement issued through his spokesman Martin Nesirky. » Read more

Settler group patrols West Bank for demolition targets ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency by Charlotte Alfred - May 10, 2012 - 12:00am BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- A tiny village of Palestinian families in the southern West Bank has had an unwelcome visitor in recent months. “He comes with small weapons and his camera, sometimes with armed forces, sometimes with settlers,” Susiya resident Nasser Nawaja says. The armed visitor is Ovad Arad, the Judea and Samaria Director of Regavim, an Israeli non-governmental organization. » Read more

UN's oldest refugee camps look at sensitive upgrades ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters by Noah Browning - May 10, 2012 - 12:00am BETHLEHEM (Reuters) -- Three generations of Palestinians displaced by the founding of Israel in 1948 know only life in UN refugee camps, going to schools beneath the blue-and-white UN flag and drawing their food stocks from UN warehouses. For these Palestinians whose long-cherished goal is the right of return to the lands they lost 64 years ago, the camps must be seen as temporary no matter how permanent they might seem to others. » Read more

Settler leaders knew homes were built on private Palestinian land, says Ulpana developer ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Chaim Levinson - May 10, 2012 - 12:00am Settler leaders knew from the start that Beit El's Ulpana neighborhood was built partly on privately owned Palestinian land, police documents reveal, even though residents claim they bought the houses in good faith. Yoel Tsur, CEO of the company that built the neighborhood and owns 24 of the 30 houses that the High Court of Justice has ordered razed, admitted in a police interrogation three years ago that it was built on land whose purchase was never finalized. » Read more

New Hamas force in Gaza is foiling rocket attacks against Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Avi Issacharoff - May 10, 2012 - 12:00am The Hamas government in Gaza has been operating a force over the past few months whose sole task is to prevent the firing of rockets into Israel. Hamas, which has always championed jihad against Israel, is now using its authority to foil the firing efforts of cells from other organizations such as the Islamic Jihad and the Popular Resistance Committees. » Read more

PA seeks to take part in UN earth summit as state ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post May 10, 2012 - 12:00am As part of its continuing efforts to gain international recognition as a state, the Palestinian Authority is requesting to take part in the United Nations Sustainable Development Conference (Rio+20) scheduled to take place in Brazil in June, Army Radio reported on Thursday. The PA vowed to seek membership in various UN agencies after its bid for recognition as a state, presented to the Security Council in September, stalled. » Read more

US c'tee moves to control Egypt, PA money ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Hilary Leila Krieger - May 10, 2012 - 12:00am WASHINGTON – A congressional subcommittee approved a foreign aid budget tightening control over money to Egypt and the Palestinians Wednesday following some members’ concern over developments in the region. The House foreign operations appropriations subcommittee passed by voice vote the $40.1 billion foreign operations budget for 2013, which includes fully funding the $3.1b. US commitment to Israeli military assistance as part of the 10-year Memorandum of Understanding between the two countries. » Read more

West Bank barrier threatens villagers' way of life ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News May 9, 2012 - 12:00am In this part of the world, the supply and control of water is a major logistical and political issue. Yet the quaint village of Battir must be one of the luckiest and most blessed communities around - because Battir has water in abundance. For more than 2,000 years, seven natural springs have given life to the village and its fields. Children still play, almost incongruously, in an old Roman bath built centuries ago at the spot, in the middle of the village, where one of the springs emerges. » Read more

Palestinian Airline resumes flights, with Amman route ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Agence France Presse (AFP) May 10, 2012 - 12:00am The Palestinian national carrier, grounded since 2005, has resumed operations with flights between Egypt’s El-Arish and Amman, its director general told AFP on Thursday. “We started yesterday from Amman to El-Arish and from El-Arish to Amman,” Palestinian Airlines director general Zeyad Albad said. “We are going to have flights from El-Arish to Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) soon too, and we are trying to set up some new routes to Turkey and the (United Arab) Emirates,” he said. » Read more

Under Netanyahu, Israel is stronger than ever ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post by Fareed Zakaria - (Opinion) May 9, 2012 - 12:00am While incumbents around the world are struggling to hold on, one is thriving. By bringing the rival Kadima party into his ruling coalition, Benjamin Netanyahu has become “king of Israel,” in Aaron David Miller’s phrase. » Read more

Netanyahu, Barak, and Mofaz are delegitimizing Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Gideon Levy - (Opinion) May 10, 2012 - 12:00am The delegitimization of Israel has been accelerating at a dizzying pace these past couple of weeks − only this campaign is being waged here, in Israel, not by critics abroad. This latest attack of delegitimization is much more serious than what goes on in the rest of the world. This time the country is being delegitimized in the eyes of its own people. In the end, not only will the world stop believing Israel, Israelis themselves will stop believing in it or its institutions. » Read more

Surprise coalition in Israel raises hopes for peace ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Boston Globe (Editorial) May 10, 2012 - 12:00am The surprise agreement between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Shaul Mofaz, leader of the Kadima party, offers some glimmer of hope for the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, because a government that includes Mofaz’s centrist party is more likely to seek a peace deal than a government involving only the Israeli right. But the greater consequence may unfold over time, as Netanyahu and Mofaz begin to address a little-discussed problem — the unstable nature of Israeli politics. » Read more

Likud's ideology will now move toward the center ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Israel Harel - (Opinion) May 10, 2012 - 12:00am To attack Iran, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu doesn’t need Shaul Mofaz. Such a strike, if it is ever carried out ‏(and it seems it won’t be necessary‏), will enjoy consensus support even without the Kadima chairman. » Read more

How a rattled Netanyahu outflanked Likud's militant settler faction ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian by Harriet Sherwood - (Analysis) May 10, 2012 - 12:00am Binyamin Netanyahu's stunning political coup this week, calling off elections and forming a unity government, was partly a response to increasingly strident demands of rightwing settlers in the West Bank coming from within his own party. » Read more

Real Winner in Israel Deal? Not Bibi. ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward by J.J. Goldberg - (Opinion) May 10, 2012 - 12:00am There are two ways to read the grand coalition deal that Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cooked up with Kadima leader Shaul Mofaz on May 8. One is that the wily Netanyahu has once again outwitted his rivals, bought another year as grandmaster of Israeli politics, neutralized the plodding Mofaz and gained almost wall-to-wall backing if he attacks Iran. Mofaz, in this reading, appended his 28-member Knesset caucus to the ruling Likud’s 27 in order to save his neck from a September 4 snap election, which would have cut Kadima’s strength by nearly two-thirds. » Read more

Divided Palestine ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star (Editorial) May 10, 2012 - 12:00am Benjamin Netanyahu’s abandonment of his early election and the revelation of a new coalition government have once again highlighted the need for the various Palestinian factions to form a cohesive front, and soon. » Read more

Refugees join Palestinians as the reviled 'other' in Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National by Mya Guarnieri - (Opinion) May 10, 2012 - 12:00am On Tuesday, Israelis woke up to the surprising news that the early elections announced by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday had been cancelled. In a deal made while the country was asleep, Mr Netanyahu forged a new coalition with the centre-right party Kadima. Now the Knesset will march in lockstep behind the prime minister, meaning little will change. Not that elections would have made much of a difference, anyway - the popular Mr Netanyahu had been expected to win by a landslide. » Read more

Changes in Israeli Policy after the Netanyahu-Mofaz Deal ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Institute for Near East Policy by David Makovsky - (Analysis) May 9, 2012 - 12:00am In a stunning political shift, Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Shaul Mofaz, the newly elected head of the leading opposition party Kadima, forged a national unity government in Israel late Monday night. The move adds 28 Kadima parliamentarians to the ruling coalition, increasing the current government's tally to 94 of the Knesset's 120 seats, the most ever. Mofaz will become vice prime minister, a member of the inner security cabinet, and a minister-without-portfolio. Various portfolios will be given to other Kadima members. » Read more

Let's Make a Deal ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Foreign Policy by Aaron David Miller - (Opinion) May 10, 2012 - 12:00am Having spent the better part of two decades traveling the negotiator's highway, I've often thought about why some deals get made along the way and others don't. Granted, I've labored almost exclusively in the Middle East coal mines -- an often bizarre, idiosyncratic, and exceptionally dysfunctional place where deals rarely, if ever, get done. » Read more

Hamas Looks to the Future: With Gains Come Dilemmas ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Carnegie Endowment for International Peace by Yezid Sayigh - (Analysis) March 8, 2012 - 1:00am Since the start of 2012, the head of the Hamas government in Gaza, Ismail Haniyya, has traveled to Egypt, Tunisia, Turkey, Qatar, Bahrain, and Iran. Six years after Hamas achieved victory at the Palestinian ballot box, it has received genuine regional recognition.  » Read more

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