Date
Type

December 6th

Politics: Is Iran Nie A Blessing In Disguise For Israel?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Inter Press Service (IPS)
by Trita Parsi - (Analysis) December 6, 2007 - 4:32pm

The U.S. National Intelligence Estimate's assertion that Iran currently does not have a nuclear weapons programme has caused much frustration in Israel. Deputy Defence Minister Ephraim Sneh referred to the report as a lie at a recent breakfast in New York, and Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer reportedly "doesn't buy" its findings.

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Report On Iran Fuels Arab Fears
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Jeffrey Fleishman - December 6, 2007 - 4:31pm

The dwindling possibility of a U.S. attack on Iran is changing the dynamics of Middle East politics and raising Arab concern that Tehran may now feel emboldened to strengthen its military, increase its support for Islamic radicals and exert more influence in the region's troubled countries.

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Hamas Urges Talks With Abbas Amid Israeli Attacks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Nidal Al-mughrabi - December 6, 2007 - 4:31pm

A Hamas leader on Wednesday renewed his call for dialogue with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's rival Fatah faction a week after Abbas restarted talks with Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Abbas formally relaunched a U.S.-sponsored peace process last week and Israel has since stepped up raids on Hamas-run Gaza to try to curb rocket fire by militants.

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In The Wake Of Annapolis, Other Fronts Develop
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Marc Perelman - December 6, 2007 - 4:30pm

In a bid to reassert itself in a region where it long held sway, Russia has re-entered the Middle East diplomatic fray by serving as a go-between for Israel and Syria and by offering to host a follow-up meeting to last week’s peace summit in Annapolis, Md.

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More Gazans Turn Away From Hamas As Fatah Heads Toward Peace Talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Joshua Mitnick - December 6, 2007 - 4:29pm

Support for Hamas, the Islamist militant group that has controlled Gaza since June, has frayed as Israel keeps intense pressure on the thin, coastal strip and its chief Palestinian rival is embracing a language of peace.

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Palestinian Entrepreneurs Plan Two Built-from-scratch Cities In The West Bank
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
December 6, 2007 - 4:28pm

In this ancient land where communities have grown helter-skelter, the future now looks more like well-tended U.S. suburbia: powerful entrepreneurs are planning two built-from-scratch West Bank cities with thousands of homes as well as malls, high-tech call centers and hotels. The projects, with a total investment of up to $900 million (€610 million), are part of ambitious plans to revive the Palestinian economy, as Israelis and Palestinians talk peace again after seven years of violence.

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December 5th

The Christian Science Monitor examines the results of a poll of the Palestinian public showing a dramatic decline in support for Hamas among the Palestinians with a vast majority, including Gazans, favoring President Abbas' path to peace negotiations with Israel (2.) The Los Angeles Times looks at how the new U.S. intelligence report on Iran's nuclear program plays into Arab concern over Iranian intentions in the region (5.) A Gulf News (UAE) opinion by George Hishmeh weighs the positive results of the Annapolis meeting with some of the negative moments (7.)

Palestinian Civilians As Political Currency
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Jessica Montell - (Opinion) December 5, 2007 - 5:05pm

A cancer diagnosis is terrifying, but it does not have to be a death sentence. Hopefully, with the proper care, you will recover and continue with your life. Unless you live in the Gaza Strip.

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A Bad Odor
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Amira Hass - December 5, 2007 - 5:04pm

This is most definitely not a pastoral picture: Two village council heads are standing in front of the garbage dump of one of the villages, Beit Liqia, and counting, one by one, all of the environmental hazards. The village's houses are 200 meters away. There are people who burn garbage (mainly to separate metal from old cables or the iron from tires) and then black smoke forms and wafts around the windows of the crowded homes. Around the garbage dump are olive groves. Nobody harvests the olives there any more. At the garbage dump in the village of Beit Anan they burn the waste.

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The Devastation Our Disunity Has Created
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Miftah
by Joharah Baker - (Opinion) December 5, 2007 - 5:02pm

This morning, Israeli forces killed yet another three Hamas activists in an air strike on Beit Lahiya in the Gaza Strip. Over the past two weeks, some 30 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli military forces, mostly in the Strip, even as Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak insists his army continues to hold out on wide scale military action there.

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