Date
Type

December 4th

Bush: No Change In Iran Policy
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Simon Jeffery, Mark Tran - (Special Report) December 4, 2007 - 2:11pm

George Bush today ruled out a change in Washington's Iran policy following the declassification yesterday of a US intelligence report that concluded Tehran had abandoned its nuclear weapons programme in 2003. The US president denied the national intelligence estimate (NIE) - which said Tehran's determination to develop nuclear weapons "is less ... than we have been judging" - had undercut his administration's repeated assertions that Iran was building nuclear weapons.

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Diaspora Groups And Israel Spar At Summit
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Marc Perelman - December 4, 2007 - 2:09pm

In a rare public spat between Israel and its supporters in the United States, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert bluntly denounced efforts by a coalition of American Jewish groups aimed at maintaining a united Jerusalem. Following statements by several hawkish and Orthodox groups that appeared to question Israel’s right to broach discussion of dividing Jerusalem with the Palestinians, Olmert told reporters on the eve of this week’s peace conference in Annapolis, Md., that Israel has exclusive purview over negotiating the future of its capital.

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Israel To Build Homes In East Jerusalem
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
by Aron Heller - December 4, 2007 - 2:07pm

Israel said Tuesday it is seeking bids to build more than 300 new homes in a disputed east Jerusalem neighborhood, drawing Palestinian condemnations that the move is undermining the newly revived peace talks held last week in Annapolis, Md. A Housing Ministry spokesman said 307 units would be built in Har Homa, a Jewish neighborhood in east Jerusalem. Israel captured the eastern part of the city in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed the area. The Palestinians claim east Jerusalem as the capital of a future state.

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Mideast: Olmert Walks Razor's Edge In Peace Talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Inter Press Service (IPS)
by Peter Hirschberg - (Analysis) December 4, 2007 - 2:06pm

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has issued a dire warning to his people. Failure to reach a negotiated two-state settlement with the Palestinians, he has declared, will mean the end of the State of Israel.

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Policy Surge Key To Mideast Peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Boston Globe
by H.d.s. Greenway - (Opinion) December 4, 2007 - 2:06pm

IT OFTEN takes electric shock treatment to get the Middle East off its dead center of inertia. The lightning success of the first Gulf war in 1991 produced just that, unsettling all the old presumptions.

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Palestinians Expand Security Drive With New Forces
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Muin Shadid - December 4, 2007 - 2:04pm

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's government stepped up a Western-backed crackdown on gunmen on Tuesday by deploying hundreds of security officers in the West Bank city of Tulkarm. Tulkarm is the second West Bank city to welcome the new Palestinian force. The security drive, which comes as Palestinians start talks with Israel about statehood, started last month when hundreds of officers were deployed in Nablus.

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The Lobby Strikes Back
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The American Conservative
by Scott Mcconnell - December 4, 2007 - 2:02pm

One prism through which to gauge the impact of John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt’s The Israel Lobby and American Foreign Policy is a September incident involving Barack Obama. His campaign had placed small ads in various spots around the Internet, designed to drive readers to its website. One turned up on Amazon’s page for the Walt and Mearsheimer book. A vigilant watchdog at the New York Sun spotted it and contacted the campaign: Did Obama support Walt and Mearsheimer?

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December 3rd

Reuters reports on the expanding Palestinian security crackdown in the West Bank (2.) Inter Press Service examines the recent remarks by Israeli PM Olmert linking Israel's future existence with the need for a Palestinian state, in the context of preparing the Israeli public for withdrawing from the occupied Palestinian territories (4.) The Associated Press looks at Israel's refusal to include occupied East Jerusalem in its partial settlement freeze as evidenced by the announcement of new settlement construction there (5.) Der Speigel (Germany) analyzes how converting the current opportunity for Israeli-Palestinian peace may depend as much on the neighboring countries as it does on the protagonists themselves (8.) BBC (UK) Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen senses an opportunity for a negotiated Israeli-Palestinian settlement in 2008 despite the many obstacles to achieving one (9.) A Haaretz (Israel) editorial comes out in support of voluntary settler evacuation through the 'compensation for evacuation' Knesset bill (11.) A Jerusalem Post (Israel) opinion by Gershon Baskin examines the likely repercussions of a failure of the post-Annapolis process (12.) An Arab News (Saudi Arabia) opinion by John Whitbeck urges the Palestinians to capitalize on Israeli PM Olmert's statements regarding the necessity of a two-state solution to Israel's survival by attaching a deadline to pursuit of such a solution (14.)

Talk Less, Do More
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Michal Radoshitzky - (Opinion) December 3, 2007 - 4:25pm

“The international circumstances that were created, specifically at this time, allow you and us to take a courageous step, which involves the need to make painful compromises and forgo those dreams which were part of our national ethos for so many years, and to open a new chapter offering hope for a better life for all of us.” (Prime Minster Ehud Olmert, speaking at the official memorial ceremony for David Ben-Gurion, November 27, 2006.)

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Lieberman's Cigar Test
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Akiva Eldar - December 3, 2007 - 4:24pm

While MKs from all the parties crowded into the Knesset cafeteria to watch the television broadcasts from Annapolis, Strategic Affairs Minister Avigdor Lieberman pushed aside the sign that bans smoking in the sitting room at the end of the main auditorium. It was clear he did not care a bit about the controversy over the joint declaration's content. Nor did the decision to begin accelerated talks about a final-status agreement arouse much excitement in right-wing circles, inside and outside the coalition.

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