Date
Type

Religious Leaders Join In Support Of Mideast Peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Nathan Guttman - November 14, 2007 - 12:47pm

The highest ranking Jewish, Christian and Muslim leaders from the Holy Land made a groundbreaking statement of support this week for the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. The Muslim sheiks in charge of Jerusalem’s holy places met with Israel’s chief rabbis and with the leaders of the major Christian denominations to present a paper that not only recognized the need to end Israeli occupation but also committed all religious leaders to work together for peace in the region.

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Tough Homecoming For Lebanon's Refugees
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Nicholas Blanford - November 14, 2007 - 12:46pm

Abu Tawfiq stands in the soot-encrusted ruin of his home as cold rain blows in where an outside wall once stood. "This room is Hiroshima and the other one is Nagasaki," says the former school teacher who, agreed to speak on condition of anonymity. He's one of some 5,000 Palestinians who recently returned to the battle-ravaged ruins of this coastal refugee camp in north Lebanon, home to more than 40,000 people before the outbreak in May of three months of fighting between the Lebanese Army and Al-Qaeda-inspired militants of Fatah al-Islam.

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Tutu And St. Thomas
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Century
by James M. Wall - (Commentary) November 14, 2007 - 12:44pm

The University of St. Thomas is the largest private institution of higher learning in the state of Minnesota, a school "inspired by Catholic intellectual tradition." Recently, the university found itself in the embarrassing position of having failed to do some basic research; it did not check its sources. The story behind this development began innocently enough in April, when a staff member from St. Thomas's Justice and Peace Studies program informed his colleagues that he had booked South African archbishop Desmond Tutu for a campus appearance.

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Bush's Turn To Step Into Mideast Peace-making
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Steve Holland - November 14, 2007 - 12:41pm

Richard Nixon left office hopeful that "peace can settle at last over the Middle East." Jimmy Carter staked his career on it. Bill Clinton told Yasser Arafat, "I am a failure, and you have made me one." Now George W. Bush becomes the latest president to try to resolve the bitter, long-standing differences between close U.S. ally Israel and the Palestinians.

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Volatile City Tests Palestinian Police, And Peace Hopes
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Isabel Kershner - November 14, 2007 - 12:39pm

This lawless city in the northern West Bank is ruled by rival militias and criminal gangs, an especially gritty illustration of why a full withdrawal of Israeli forces from the West Bank, as expected under a future peace deal, gives Israelis pause.

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Economic Woes Behind New Unrest In Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
by Karin Laub - November 14, 2007 - 12:38pm

The backdrop to the latest explosion of violence in the Gaza Strip: skeletons of unfinished apartment towers, shuttered factories, empty store shelves and skyrocketing prices for bread and cigarettes. Five months of rule by the Islamic militants of Hamas and isolation from the world have taken a heavy toll on the already impoverished territory, and frustration over the hardship helped drive this week's mass rally by the rival Fatah movement that ended in mayhem.

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The New York Times examines how the Palestinian campaign to bring law and order to the West Bank city of Nablus is caught up in the larger picture of an Israeli withdrawal from the occupied territories and U.S. attempts to strengthen the Abbas/Fayyad government (2.) The Christian Century looks at the recent banning of Archbishop Desmond Tutu from speaking at the University of St. Thomas based on his criticism of Israeli occupation policies (4.) The Forward reports on the groundbreaking statement of support or current Mideast peacemaking efforts by the top ranking Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders in the Holy Land (6.) The LA Times reports from Gaza on the arrests of hundreds of Fatah members by Hamas in recent days (8.) The Guardian (UK) reports on a possible partial Israeli settlement freeze in the lead-up to the Annapolis meeting (10.) A Haaretz (Israel) opinion by Amira Haas analyzes growing indications of Palestinian disapproval of Hamas rule in Gaza (12.) Also in Haaretz, an opinion by Oxford University M. Phil. candidate Seth Anziska examines the growing uncertainty with two-state solution prospects (13.) Asharq Alawsat (pan Arab) interviews Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas (16.)

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