* World powers agree on plan for power devolution in Syria despite of gap between Washington and Moscow on Assad. (Al Quds)
* A milestone day in the history of Egypt: Muhammad Morsi receives power from the Military Council and Tantawi affirms support of the army to the elect president. The Egyptian president asserts Egypt`s support to the Palestinian and Syrian peoples. (Al-Quds)
* 82 killed in Syria including 66 civilians. The six points in Anan`s plan to resolve the Syrian crisis. (Al-Quds)
* Enlistment of ultra-orthodox Jews and Israeli Arabs splits Netanyahu`s coalition. (Al-Quds)
* Today is the 18th anniversary of late president Yasser Arafat`s return to the homeland. (Al-Quds)
* Morsi: we will work on completing the Palestinian reconciliation to unify the ranks of the people. (Al-Ayyam)
* Gilaad: situation in Egypt gravely changed and I do not know if I will visit it after Morsi`s election. (Al-Ayyam)
* The Task Force agrees on principles of an interim plan to resolve the Syrian crisis. Al-Ayyam)
* Former Israeli PM Yitzhak Shamir passes away. (Al-Ayyam)
* Lavrov: the Syrians should approve the interim plan related to their country. Syria: 126 shot dead by the regime forces. (Al-Ayyam)
* (Al-Ayyam)
* Al-Ahmad attacks Osama Hamdan, praises Abu Marzouq and unveils names of ministers. (Al-Hayat Al-Jadida)
* New protests in Tel Aviv, Haifa, Jerusalem and Beer Sheva. (Al-Hayat Al-Jadida)
* Hammad: the storm around president Abbas`s meeting with Mofaz is meaningless.  (Al-Hayat Al-Jadida)
* 47 killed in three days of clashes southeast of Libya. (Al-Hayat Al-Jadida)

Al-Quds: 1) Cairo- Egyptian president Muhammad Morsi swearing in before the constitutional court as the first post-revolution elected president.
Al-Ayyam:  1) Field marshal Tantawi handing the armed forces shield during a military parade to honor the new president; 2) Morsi speaking during inauguration ceremony at a military base outside Cairo; 3) Ramallah- PA security forces ban protesters from coming close to the presidential headquarter; 4) Yitzhak Shamir.
Al-Hayat Al-Jadida:  1) the president during the meeting of the PLO Executive Committee in Ramallah; 20 Morsi waving his hands after delivering a speech at the Cairo University.

**Fatah`s Abdullah: Netanyahu is farther igniting the settlers` attacks against Palestinians to fail Mofaz`s plans**
Abdullah Abdullah: Member of “Fatah” Revolutionary Council.
Q: To what reason would you ascribe the recent unprecedented fierce attacks by settlers against Palestinian properties?
The Israeli escalation has not been limited to those practices by the settlers as it is primarily led by Netanyahu-led government. This government is facing international crises as well as internal crises that came to the surface after Mr. Mofaz joined the coalition. Netanyahu is looking at Mofaz with doubts and fears he may positively respond to Palestinian demands. In other words, addiotnal extremism from the side of the already Jewish extremists in a blatant defiance of the international community feeds to Netanyahu`s interest.    

How the Israel lobby erodes US sovereignty  
From writing laws to funding presidential campaigns, conservative Israelis have a strong pull on US politics.
By: Ahmed Moor* (http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/06/2012625111756468675.html)

The United States is a sovereign country. That is sometimes hard to remember.
Illinois Senator Mark Kirk had a stroke in January. The serious neurological event sent him into surgery, where doctors excised two, tiny, damaged pieces of his brain. By all accounts, the senator is now in great recovery, his office releasing a video in May, which showed him walking on a treadmill and describing his eagerness to "get back to work". Yet it appears that he has already got back to it.
At the end of last month, Kirk sponsored an amendment to a Senate appropriations bill, seemingly intent on stripping the United Nations Relief and Works Agency of some of its funding. His attempt to re-determine the definition of Palestinian refugees was met by stiff opposition from the State Department, but the senator prevailed - a considerable feat for a recovering patient.
The amendment requires the State Department to distinguish between and report on how many of those Palestinians who receive assistance from UNRWA were personally displaced from their homes as a result of the 1948 war, and those who are their descendants - which the UN agency continues to count as refugees, unable to return to their ancestral homes.
Ha’aretz reported that the senator had some help with his legislative burden, and not only from his deputy chief of staff, Richard Goldberg. It turns out that the amendment to the bill was first written by an Israeli politician. Einat Wilf, a member of the Israeli parliament, reportedly spent months working with current and former AIPAC employees, including Steve Rosen - who was once suspected by FBI agents of obtaining classified US government information and passing it on to Israeli officials - to deliver the language on Palestinian refugees to the US legislature.
In summary: a senator who suffered crippling neurological damage received legislation from an Israeli politician by way of AIPAC before he slipped it into a US bill that eventually became law. In other words, an Israeli politician helped write a US law. Then she boasted about it.
"I have nothing against the descendents of refugees and I'm not asking them to give up of their dream of returning," Haaretz quoted Wilf as saying. "But if we want a two-state solution, UNWRA can't continue to aid an inflation of refugees ... It ends up harming peace."
But that's probably not worth getting overly excited about. Foreign politicians have always written laws for their US counterparts (not really). What they haven't always done is finance US presidential races.
Sheldon Adelson is an American casino billionaire and owner of conservative Israeli daily newspaper Israel HaYom. He is famous for spending $10m on Newt Gingrich’s presidential bid. A veteran, he is also famous for saying, "the uniform that I wore in the military, unfortunately, was not an Israeli uniform". In fairness, Adelson is not the only person in the US who thinks that wearing an Israeli uniform is terrific. Rabbi Shmuley Boteach - running for New Jersey's ninth US Congressional district - recently gushed about his own relationship with the Israeli army.
Anyway, Adelson’s generous contribution to the Gingrich effort came after the then-candidate proclaimed that the Palestinians were an "invented" people. The campaign failed to convince Republicans that scandal and profligacy are good for the party, and when Gingrich failed, Adelson found a new champion. The New York Times reported that he offered an additional $10m to the Romney campaign. The money came after a suggestion that the billionaire may be willing to spend up to $100m to defeat Barack Obama.
To be sure, $100m is only 0.4 per cent of $25bn, Adelson's estimated net worth. So this is also not a big deal, unless foreign money is what's buying US democracy. In an interview condemning Adelson's contributions, Senator John McCain said that "obviously, maybe in a roundabout way, foreign money is coming into an American campaign".
All the big money and Israeli interference is coming at a time when US neoconservatives are pushing hard for a new war. And they can only push as hard as they do because they have successfully purged the Republican Party of whatever sanity it possessed - a phenomenon Pat Buchanan recently highlighted.
The administration is reportedly fighting against a war with Iran. And to the president's mind, the best way to do that is by embedding the Israelis in the US national security apparatus. For example, the head of the US delegation to the P5+1 non-proliferation talks recently flew from Baghdad to Tel Aviv. According to an unnamed US source, "we updated the Israelis in detail before we updated our own government".
So, to summarise again: Israelis are helping write US laws, funding US campaigns, and helping craft US war-making policy.
What is left for Americans to do? Well, to fight the wars, of course.

*Ahmed Moor is a Palestinian-American graduate student of Public Policy at Harvard University and co-editor of After Zionism (Saqi Books, July 2012).

“Al-Quds” Editorial
The responsibility of the International Community

The call the Palestinian leadership sent yesterday for the international community, the Quartet Committee and the world powers involved in the peace process in particular, to halt the illegitimate and illegal Israeli settlements on the oPt, which constitute the key obstacle to peace efforts, and to put an end to the persisting settlers` crimes against civilians…this call reaffirms that the Palestinian side continues knocking on all doors to rescue the peace process which its entire paths have been blocked by Israel, calling on the international community to bear its responsibilities and meet the pledges it has voiced since the beginning of the peace process by ending the occupation and implementing international resolutions related to the Palestinian cause.

There is no doubt that settlement actions and the settlers` daily assaults represent the most essential danger that is threatening to drag the entire region to new vicious circles of violence and tension and to close the door in the face of any peaceful, just and comprehensive solution. Therefore, negotiations will be pointless under continuous settlement actions and the rest of blatant Israeli violations to the international law.

We should say that the Palestinian leadership did the right thing by turning to the international community to bear its responsibility at the time the Palestinian people and their leadership are studying options to counter this barefaced Israeli challenge on the platform of preserving the inalienable national rights and the Palestinian people`s higher interests. It is high time to review all failed mechanisms that have led us to the current situation; it is also high time for the Palestinian people and their leadership to take the initiative concerning the future and the fate of the cause after they tied themselves with pledges and promises from the international community and with signed agreements that have been proven to be mirage.

Tempest in a C-Cup

The underway argument on some internet social networks and in the Palestinian street on an impending meeting between president Mahmoud Abbas and the Israeli minister Shaul Mofaz is very astonishing, mainly because the Palestinian side did not initiate holding this meeting, let alone that the Palestinian leadership, considering its political responsibility, is mandated to either accept or reject holding a meeting with the Israeli side in line with the endorsed policy that is based the Palestinian people`s interests. If there is a problem in meeting with the Israeli side under the current circumstances, the problem should lie in the substance and the goals not in the sheer fact of holding the meeting itself. Nevertheless, the Palestinian leadership did the right thing by announcing on delaying this meeting amidst news about Mofaz having nothing to propose for the peace process.
The Palestinian leadership, the only mandated party to deal with political affairs and manage negotiations and contacts with regional and international parties, is the most capable of assessing the extent of necessity and importance of any meeting or contact.    


Do we have “Shabiha” in Ramallah?
By: Rashid Shaheen* (http://www.amin.org/Print.php?t=opinion&id=18440)

While there was debate on the visit of deputy prime minister of the occupation state Shaul Mofaz, there was also a consensus over the positive stance of the Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas towards the popular move that rejected this visit. According to latest news, the visit has been cancelled due to public rejection and there was a feeling that can be described as “nice” following this harmonious stance with the popular desire. Some people even went farther by talking about the necessity of investing public and popular stances as leverage to the various positions of the leadership instead of dealing with them as anti-leadership stances.

In this context, one can recall dozens of official stances of the leaders of the Zionist entity which they account to representing the stances of their   public, and that the democracy of the Zionist state disallows those leaders from taking contradictory positions to those of their public.

The recent press reports about cancelling or delaying this visit in compliance with the popular rejection and in honor of the victims who were killed by particularly Mofaz and his gangs make us optimistic that this will not be the last popular stance that is supportive rather than destructive to the leadership.

Obviously, the Arab Spring was taken into the Palestinian president`s account when he took this decision. The underway events in the neighboring Jordan is one example to how issues are being dealt with totally different than before Morsi`s victory and the success of the Muslim Brotherhood at least in Egypt.

Nevertheless, some PA security personnel apparently disliked Abbas`s decision after they have become addict to dealing with opposition forces violently. They are still trapped in the jailer`s mentality and view a security personnel as an oppressing tool. They deal with any disorder trend, regardless of how civil correct or necessary it is as an act that targets stability, security and safety.

Those who took the streets of Ramallah against the visit of criminal Mofaz should not be treated as destructive factors but as people who seek to outreach their voices and practice their right that is guaranteed by law and constitution.

When the children of Dara`a took the streets, they were repelled by suppressing pro-regime forces and that resulted in a sweeping ongoing revolution. The Syrian security forces could not bear hearing Ibrahim Qawoush and thus cut his throat, and when they could not bear Ali Farzat`s caricatures they broke his fingers, in addition to dozens and even hundreds of other intellectuals and artists. None of them carried a rifle, a bomb or a missile, and none of them threatened the national security of Syria.

The recent incident in Ramallah was not that different from what happened in Dara`a or in any other city before the eruption of a revolution. It was a purely peaceful move and thus should be treated accordingly. There was no need to use security personnel and to deal with people is such a violent manner. The people of Ramallah, in Palestine in general, do not need “Shabiha” as they have already occupation forces that are treating them even worse than “Shabiha” do.

*A Palestinian writer based in Bethlehem city. [email protected]


The Wall, 10 years on: part 10 / My encounters with the wall in space
By: Haggai Matar* (http://972mag.com/the-wall-10-years-on-part-10-my-encounters-with-the-wall-in-space/49770/)

After a long run-down of the wall’s history and effects, and as the series nears its end, I wish to share a collection of thoughts and notes on the aesthetics of the barrier and on the way it fits into the Israeli and Palestinian landscapes, all gathered while wandering along its route.
With all due respect to this seemingly omniscient software giant, there are some things that Google simply doesn’t tell you about the world. A few months back, I was leaving a demonstration in the West Bank, planning to travel home to Tel Aviv after dropping off a friend on one of the main settler highways – Route 5. Although I knew more or less how to get there, I agreed to be guided by Google Maps on her smartphone.
The first thing Google didn’t tell us about was the differences between three types of roads which all looked the same on the map. On the ground, however, you have your settler roads, extremely well maintained, then your roads leading only to Palestinian villages, filled with holes and bumps, and then Palestinian roads sponsored by the EU, the Japanese government or USAID – new, well kept, lacking the safety barriers and street lights of the settler roads, but otherwise quite a treat. Were it not for the sponsorship signs with the funding states’ flags on them scattered along the roads, one could easily forget the troubles of occupation, and the extent to which the Palestinian Authority and people (and thus the occupation as well) are completely dependent on foreign funds to survive.
One other thing you couldn’t see on the map was the separation between these roads, which had us traveling on a Palestinian USAID-funded road overlooking the parallel and detached settler road. At one junction with a deserted checkpoint, the signs encouraged us to take a right for Route 5, declaring that going straight is illegal for Israelis. “The map says that if we just go straight we’ll be at the road in no time, while taking a right would just be a detour,” said my friend, and, somewhat unconvinced, I drove onward. Five minutes later we reached Route 5, only to find that it had been cut off from this Palestinian road by fences, and that the road only leads us under the settler highway.
“Well, if we stick to this road it’ll eventually take us into a settlement, which in turn will get us back to Route 5,” she said. One road connecting both a village and a settlement? Unlikely, I thought, so we made a bet and followed the map to the road’s abrupt end, where a massive wall cut it off. It was the wall between Mes’ha and Elkana, exactly where Israeli activist Gil Na’amati was shot by the IDF nine years ago. We parked the car, gazing in awe and dread once more at the concrete monster, and eventually turned back. After dropping her off I easily crossed the checkpoint back into Israel. It was the same one described in the first chapter of this series, and once again it felt invisible to me, like the nearby wall in Mes’ha is invisible to the Israeli eyes, and invisible to Google Maps.

Decorating and hiding the wall

Although most Israelis most likely not only support the wall but also support its current invasive route, it seems that the barrier’s planners felt it necessary to hide it from them, or at least to make it as pleasant to the eye as possible. Along Route 60, for example, in the section between the tunnel checkpoint and the village of El-Khader, the wall looks almost friendly. It is only three meters high, and instead of naked concrete, drivers enjoy a view of bright colored stones in white and pink. On the other side, facing Bethlehem, the wall is taller, thanks to the cliff it was built on, and is as grey and miserable as it is anywhere else.
Just before entering Jerusalem from the northeast, the wall creates a corridor on both sides of Route 443. Here, paintings have been drawn on the concrete slabs, showing delicate arches and a “view” of green and plain hills with a blue sky and no sign of the villages and towns that are actually on the other side – where of course there are no parallel paintings.
The most interesting encounter between Israelis and the wall takes place daily on Israel’s only toll highway, Route 6, where the wall (and the Green Line) touch the road twice: near Qalqilia and near Tul Karem (see the pictures above). Near the former, a row of eucalyptus trees has been planted, diverting the eye from the concrete behind the trees, while near the latter, a huge mound of earth has been raised and shrubs planted – hiding the wall completely from passing drivers’ eyes.
Meanwhile on the other side of the Tul Karem border, no one tries to hide the eight-meter-high wall, surrounding recycling plants, a cemetery for water boilers, mounds of construction waste, and several ill-looking stray dogs. This is the “Nitzaney Shalom” industrial zone, one of several “economic peace” compounds, where hard laboring Palestinians are cramped together in order to work hard for little money, and handle Israeli garbage – all hidden and tucked away by concrete from Israeli view.
Of course, attempts also take place on the Palestinian side to make the wall easier on the eye. Here, initiative is not taken by Israel, which at one point even considered covering it with special anti-graffiti paint, but rather by Palestinian, Israeli and international artists including as Banksy, a collection of whose wall art can be found here. In the same site, it is also mentioned that an old Palestinian man told the famous street artist that making the wall look better is wrong – as it should really be taken down.
Why exactly was it so important for the planners of the wall to hide it from view or decorate for a public that supports it wholeheartedly? This is one question I will leave open for readers to answer.

Construction site

And then there are those places where the wall has not yet been built, or where initial construction has started and stopped. The unbuilt wall is, naturally, even more invisible to Israeli eyes than the constructed wall, but for Palestinians – who know exactly where it is supposed to run through and how it will effect their lives – it often feels like a ghost wall, a wall that is never there except in the potential of its future appearance in might and concrete and steel.
Only in the village of Walajah does construction take place these days, while everywhere else gaps in the barrier are left unattended. Occasional visits to the village show the wall’s progression, slab by slab, and serve as a strong realization of the actual meaning of tearing trees, roads, houses and people apart. With every visit, one can see the wall taking another small step towards surrounding the village entirely, simply cutting it out of the land around it. The understanding of this is quite horrid.
But does all this – the wall, the fence, the construction, the gaps, the uprooting of trees, the denial of income sources, the scarring of the landscape, the maltreatment of laborers and all other effects mentioned in this series – does all this actually help achieve the wall’s stated goal of offering Israelis security? The answers to that question will be discussed in the next chapter