December 10th

December 10, 2007 - Vol. 9, Issue 14
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Americans For Peace Now
by Middle East Peace Report - December 10, 2007 - 7:02pm

ADDING A WALL IN JERUSALEM: Israel issued a tender Tuesday for the construction of 307 new homes in Har Homa, an East Jerusalem neighborhood near Bethlehem. Har Homa, where about 4,000 Israelis now live, lies in territory that Israel de facto annexed in 1967 in an act that also expanded Jerusalem’s municipal boundaries.  

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Nine Little Words In The Nie
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Thomas Powers - (Opinion) December 10, 2007 - 7:01pm

The world turned upside down for President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and the state of Israel on Monday when the National Intelligence Council, drawing conclusions from new information after a year of internal debate about Iran's nuclear weapons program, said that, in fact, there was no problem after all -- and that "in fall 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program."

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Israeli Intends To Keep Jerusalem Areas
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
by Mark Lavie - December 10, 2007 - 7:00pm

A key ally of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Sunday that Israel will hold on to all Jewish neighborhoods of Jerusalem but would have to relinquish Arab neighborhoods in a peace agreement with the Palestinians. The comments by Vice Premier Haim Ramon appeared aimed at defusing U.S. criticism of an Israeli plan to expand one of its Jewish neighborhoods in east Jerusalem, the section Palestinians claim as capital of a future state.

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Eu Urges Israel To Stick To Peace Commitments
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by David Brunnstrom - December 10, 2007 - 6:59pm

The European Union joined the United States on Monday in expressing concern about new Israeli settlement activity and urged Israel to stick to its commitments in Middle East peace efforts. "I am very concerned," EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner told reporters when asked about Israel's plan to build 300 homes and other units on land captured in the 1967 Middle East war.

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December 9th

The Associated Press reports on comments by Israeli vice-PM Ramon that shed light on the Israeli government position on jerusalem in the lead up to negotiations (2.) Americans For Peace Now presents its weekly translations of excerpts from the Israeli press (4.) In the New Republic, contributing editor Yossi Halevi interviews figures in the Israeli defense establishment to reveal a major disconnect between the U.S. and Israel over the National Intelligence Estimate on Iranian nuclear weaponization (5.) The Guardian (UK) examines the continuing repercussions of the NIE report on Israeli politicians and the media (7.) The Sunday Herald (UK) looks at how the blockade of Gaza has impacted the strip's health-care system (9.) A Daily Star (Lebanon) opinion by Rami Khpuri sees the announced expansion of the Har Homa settlement in occupied East Jerusalem as a test for both the U.S. and the Palestinian leadership (10.) A Haaretz (Israel) opinion by Akiva Eldar views the Har Homa issue as a test for Annapolis, drawing lessons from the first crisis related to that settlement in 1997 (12.)

December 7th

Made In Palestine
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Yotam Feldman - December 7, 2007 - 5:59pm

RAMALLAH - The streets here were tumultuous on the last Tuesday of November, the day the Annapolis conference opened. The Palestinians who didn't watch the proceedings on television streamed onto the streets, and a small demonstration in Manara Square by opponents of the summit escalated into a violent clash with the Palestinian police, who used truncheons and teargas to disperse the crowd.

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Signs Of Political Fission
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Aluf Benn And Shmuel Rosner - (Opinion) December 7, 2007 - 5:56pm

A few months ago the host of one of America's late-night talk-shows - the ones that are off the air now because of a writers strike - cracked a joke at the expense of the European powers, in their supposed determination to halt the Iranian race toward a nuclear bomb: "France and Germany warned Iran this week not to pursue their nuclear research program. In fact, France and Germany warned Iran that if they didn't stop their program, they would, you know, warn them again," he scoffed.

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Policy On Hamas / An Egyptian-saudi Slap To Abbas
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Avi Issacharoff - (Commentary) December 7, 2007 - 5:50pm

The news from the Rafah border crossing earlier this week astounded the leaders of the Palestinian Authority (PA) in Ramallah. They had arranged with Israel to allow some 2,000 Palestinians from Gaza to go to Saudi Arabia via the Kerem Shalom and Allenby Bridge border crossings for the hajj celebrations. But Cairo apparently had different plans. The Egyptians allowed 700 Palestinians on Monday and 1,300 on Tuesday to cross the border into Sinai, where buses were waiting to take them to Saudi Arabia.

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A Jewish Israel Needs A Wholesome, Healed Palestine
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
by Rami G. Khouri - (Opinion) December 7, 2007 - 5:48pm

One of the most complex and confounding elements that emerged during the run-up to the Annapolis meeting was the demand by several senior Israelis, and its parallel rejection by Palestinian officials, that the Palestinians recognise Israel as “a Jewish state” as a precondition for the start of talks.

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Iran's Response To Annapolis
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
by Marwan Kabalan - (Opinion) December 7, 2007 - 5:44pm

When the Bush administration called for the Middle East peace meeting in Annapolis, Iran was, perhaps, the only country in the region that was not invited. In fact, isolating Iran was one of the key objectives of the US-sponsored gathering and was hence treated very much like a pariah. In response, Iran developed a strategy to undermine US policy. It included several steps. At the very beginning Tehran tried to convince the Arab world not to attend the meeting.

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