December 18th

The Demographic Argument Is Inherently Racist ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons by Hanan Ashrawi - (Interview) December 18, 2007 - 12:34pm bitterlemons: Israel's demand to be recognized as a "Jewish state" at Annapolis caused an uproar among Palestinians. This doesn't seem like a new demand, so why the uproar? » Read more

Har Homa Is Not In Jerusalem ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency by J.r. Almoslino - December 18, 2007 - 12:33pm Israel announced a plan last week to build 307 new housing units in what most international media are calling "a Jewish neighborhood of East Jerusalem." Har Homa's white apartment blocs are draped on a hillside overlooking the city of Bethlehem, where I work. Like other West Bank settlements, it was erected on high ground, with the intention of intimidating the Palestinian population below. Spatially speaking, Har Homa is no more in Jerusalem than Bethehem itself is. » Read more

It Will Take More Than Money To End The Plight Of The Palestinian People ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star (Editorial) December 18, 2007 - 12:31pm Monday's gathering in Paris of donor countries to support the widely hoped-for establishment of a Palestinian state was necessary but not sufficient. Without the funds that were pledged, any form of Palestinian independence that might be negotiated as part of a peace agreement to end the Israeli occupation would be a flimsy thing indeed. The more important litmus tests are yet to come, however, and each demands unprecedented levels of seriousness from both the principals and their American mediators. » Read more

Annapolis Unsettled ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Financial Times (Editorial) December 18, 2007 - 12:30pm The hopes raised by last month’s Annapolis conference on Middle East peace, at which Israel and the Palestinians undertook to negotiate a solution to the conflict by the end of next year, are already in danger of being dashed. Only days afterwards, the Israeli government gave the go-ahead to complete work on arguably the most contentious of its settlements on occupied Arab land. » Read more

Israel Alone Can Offer Something All The World's Money Cannot Buy ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Time by Bronwen Maddox - (Commentary) December 18, 2007 - 12:28pm Today's conference in Paris, a drive to breathe life into the Palestinian economy, is as easily derided as last month's summit in Annapolis, but it is worth much more. » Read more

Blair's Uphill Battle To Revive Palestinian Economy ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian by Ian Black - (Special Report) December 18, 2007 - 12:26pm It was hard to avoid the obvious seasonal message when Tony Blair, briefly playing the tourist, stayed overnight in Bethlehem recently: yes, there was room at the inn in the little West Bank town, a rare public vote of confidence in prospects for the Palestinian economy. Britain's former prime minister has been travelling incessantly since becoming the representative of the "Quartet" of Middle East peacemakers in the summer, and generally keeping a low profile. » Read more

Palestinian Aid: Where Will It Go? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bbc News December 18, 2007 - 12:25pm As donors meet in Paris to pledge aid to the Palestinian Authority, BBC Middle East analyst Roger Hardy explains the steps being taken to make sure the money will reach those who need it most. The idea is simple - to use a massive injection of outside aid to consolidate the fledgling peace process launched in Annapolis in November. But how will the aid get to those who need it? And how will it be spent? » Read more

Laughing All The Way To The (west) Bank ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Time by Andrew Lee Butters - December 18, 2007 - 12:24pm The Axis of Evil arrived in Lebanon last week. No, not in the form of some Iran-backed coup d' état, but as a stand-up comedy team made up of three Americans of Middle Eastern descent. (They couldn't find a funny North Korean.) On the last leg of a regional tour playing to sold-out venues in Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan, they arrived at the Casino Du Liban outside of Beirut with a certain sense of relief. Lebanon was the only country that allowed them to perform their routine with expletives undeleted — no small challenge for a modern American comedy act. » Read more

Israeli Neighborhood Haunts Peace Talks ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press by Sarah El Deeb - December 18, 2007 - 12:23pm The Jerusalem neighborhood of Har Homa, with its white stone buildings and billboards hawking new real estate projects, now has managed to disrupt Israeli-Palestinian peace talks for the second time in a decade. Israel's announcement this month that it plans to build 307 new homes in this east Jerusalem neighborhood, on land Palestinians want for the capital of their future state, drew international condemnation. The plan was the first wrench thrown into peace negotiations relaunched last week after a violent seven-year hiatus. » Read more

Conferees Pledge $7.4 Billion In Aid To Palestinian Authority ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post by John Ward Anderson - December 18, 2007 - 12:22pm Countries and international organizations pledged $7.4 billion in assistance to the impoverished Palestinian Authority at a conference in Paris on Monday, saying that an infusion of cash would help the peace process begun by the United States last month in Annapolis, Md. » Read more