December 7th

The Catch-22 Of Palestinian Reform
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
by Keir Prince - (Commentary) December 7, 2007 - 5:42pm

You are building your home. But you are having a problem with the architect, who keeps demolishing parts of the house. Sometimes he feels you did not follow the blueprints, sometimes he feels you used sub-standard materials, and sometimes, even though you are sure you followed all the instructions, he just does not like the way it turned out. You are exhausted, the costs are almost incalculable and there seems to be no end in sight.

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Syria “not Pessimistic” On Mideast Peace Talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Agence France Presse (AFP)
December 7, 2007 - 5:39pm

WASHINGTON - Syria is not pessimistic about US-brokered talks that had set a goal of a Israeli-Palestinian peace deal by the end of 2008, said its envoy to Washington, Imad Moustapha. But he warned that Israel’s occupation of territories and killing of Palestinians could wreck negotiations launched at the US-sponsored peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland last month.

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Us Criticises Israeli Homes Plan
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bbc News
December 7, 2007 - 5:38pm

The United States has voiced rare criticism of Israel, for its decision to build more homes on occupied land. "This doesn't help build confidence," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said after meeting Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni in Brussels. Israel said on Tuesday it had invited bids to build 300 new homes in Har Homa, a settlement in East Jerusalem. The Palestinians asked the US for help. Israel says it annexed the area in 1967 and so does not regard it as occupied.

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Olmert Attempts To Bring Presidential Candidates Into Peace Process
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Nathan Guttman - December 7, 2007 - 5:31pm

Looking to the post-Bush era in American politics, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is attempting to enlist leading presidential candidates to support his renewed push for a settlement with the Palestinians. When Olmert was in the United States for the Annapolis, Md., peace summit, he took the opportunity to call each of the leading presidential candidates to brief them on the plans for engaging in final-status talks with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.

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Rice Criticizes Israel On Settlement Building
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Ari Rabinovitch - December 7, 2007 - 5:29pm

Condoleezza Rice criticized Israel on Friday for planning to build new homes on occupied land in the Jerusalem area -- a move Palestinians say could wreck a peace process Rice helped launch last week in Washington. "We are in a time when the goal is to build maximum confidence with the parties and this doesn't help to build confidence," the U.S. Secretary of State said in rare public censure of Washington's closest ally in the Middle East.

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Young Israelis Resist Challenges To Settlements
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Isabel Kershner - December 7, 2007 - 5:27pm

SHVUT AMI OUTPOST, West Bank — For two months, Jewish youths have been renovating an old stone house on this muddy hilltop in the northern West Bank. The house is not theirs, however. It belongs to a Palestinian family. And their seizure of it along with the land around it for a new settlement outpost is a violation of Israeli law. The police have evicted the group five times but they keep coming back.

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December 6th

Reuters reports on Secretary of State Rice's criticism of Israeli plans to expand the Har Homa settlement in occupied East Jerusalem (2.) In Middle East Bulletin, ATFP executive director Dajani and advocacy director Omari address the 'how and when' of engagement with Hamas (4.) A Gulf News (UAE) opinion by Damascus university lecturer Marwan Kabalan analyzes Iran's strategy in opposing the Annapolis meeting (8.) A Jordan Times (Jordan) opinion by Rami Khouri suggests that acknowledgment of Israel as a state of the Jewish people can only be a part and consequence of final status negotiations leading to Palestinian statehood (9.) Haaretz (Israel) profiles and interviews Tariq Abbas, son of Palestinian president Abbas (11.)

There Are No Happy Evacuations
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Aluf Benn - December 6, 2007 - 4:46pm

The initiative to pay compensation to settlers who live east of the separation fence and want to move to the western "Israeli" side seems both wise and just. Wise, because the "voluntary evacuation-compensation" law would signal to the world that Israel is folding up the West Bank settlement enterprise. Domestically, it would give a message of a soft evacuation, without the orange ribbons, bulldozers and tears of the Gaza disengagement.

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Rebuffs That ‘diminish’ Bush’s Stature
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
December 6, 2007 - 4:44pm

The Bush administration has suffered three serious rebuffs since the Annapolis meeting at the end of November. The most dramatic was the rejection, on Monday, by all 16 of the United States’ intelligence agencies of administration claims that Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons.

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Promises Of Annapolis
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
by George S. Hishmeh - (Opinion) December 6, 2007 - 4:33pm

Now that the dust has settled on the recent Annapolis conference that promised to try and reach a Palestinian-Israeli settlement by the end of next year, it is time to review the event that was an unprecedented achievement for the lameduck Bush administration, particularly on the decades-old Arab-Israeli conflict that has been virtually neglected in Washington for nearly seven years.

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