December 5th

Islamist Threat Is Exaggerated ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News by Amir Tehari - (Opinion) December 5, 2007 - 5:00pm Is the Greater Middle East region ready for reforms designed to broaden the decision-making base of the state? The question has been at the heart of a debate triggered in 2002 when the Bush administration launched its plans for the region. Since then, the plan itself has been put on the backburner. But the debate continues. One view is that almost none of the region's 30 states is ready for a political system based on achieving power through elections. » Read more

Problem And Hope ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Asharq Alawsat by Hussein Shobokshi - (Opinion) December 5, 2007 - 4:58pm The troubled Palestinian situation has reached an alarming deadlock with the passage of time, while the chasm continues to widen between Hamas in Gaza on one hand, and government authority and the PLO in the West Bank on the other. » Read more

Israel Questions Us Report Of Nuclear Weapons Freeze ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent by Donald Macintyre - December 5, 2007 - 4:57pm Israel moved quickly yesterday to question the US intelligence report that concluded Iran's nuclear weapons programme was frozen, and called for intensified international pressure on the country. The Israeli Prime Minster, Ehud Olmert, who said the conclusions in the National Intelligence Estimate had already been discussed with Washington, echoed US officials by declaring: "It is vital to pursue efforts to prevent Iran from developing a capability like this." He added: "We will continue doing so along with our friends the United States." » Read more

Israel Fails To Demolish West Bank Buildings ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Telegraph by Carolynne Wheeler - December 5, 2007 - 4:56pm The Israeli army has followed up on only three per cent of its own orders to demolish illegal buildings in Jewish settlements in the West Bank over the last decade, a study says. The report by Peace Now, an Israeli settlement watchdog, follows pledges by the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, to freeze new construction in settlements. Israel also faces increasing pressure to dismantle illegal outposts in preparation for negotiations toward the founding of a Palestinian state. » Read more

Darkness Surrounds Spotlight On Peace Talks ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Inter Press Service (IPS) by William Fisher - December 5, 2007 - 4:54pm Most of those representing Middle East and North African nations at the Nov. 27 conference appear to endorse the idea of a "two-state solution" to the decades-old conflict: a separate and contiguous Palestinian state living in peace alongside Israel. But Arab delegates to Annapolis -- including Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia and Yemen -- have had little to say about the nature of the state that may emerge from negotiations set to begin soon between Israel and the Palestinians. » Read more

Nobel Laureate, Bibi's Sister-in-law Launch Fund To Fight Left In Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) by Jacob Berkman - December 5, 2007 - 4:52pm A Nobel laureate and the sister-in-law of former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are heading a group of intellectuals starting a philanthropic fund to combat what they describe as a "left-wing assault" on Israeli public opinion. Robert Aumann, a Hebrew University mathematician who won the 2005 Nobel Prize in economics, and Daphne Netanyahu, an Israeli law professor, trotted out the plans for the Israel Independence Fund last week in New York at a board meeting of the Zionist Organization of America. » Read more

The Failure Of Annapolis ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Foreign Policy In Focus by Stephen Zunes - (Commentary) December 5, 2007 - 4:51pm Despite the best efforts by the Bush administration of putting a positive spin on the recently-completed summit in Annapolis to restart the “Performance-Based Road Map to Peace,” there is little reason to expect that it will actually move the Israeli-Palestinian peace process forward as long as the United States insists on simultaneously playing the role of chief mediator and chief supporter of the more powerful of the two parties. » Read more

Ehud The Semi-believer ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The American Prospect by Gershom Gorenberg - (Analysis) December 5, 2007 - 4:49pm Ehud Olmert has begun to fascinate me. Don't misunderstand: I am completely innocent of ever voting for him. I have no intent of committing such an act in the future. Had fate not put me in a country of which Olmert is prime minister at a moment that might be seized by someone else, an actual leader, to make peace, my interest in him would be purely as a literary figure, a character. I don’t mean that he is a tragic hero; precisely the point is that he lacks grandeur. He is Willy Loman with a vision: a glad-handing hack politician who was ambushed one day by a truth. » Read more

Muslim Extremists Constantly Insult Faith ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Chicago Tribune by Hussein Ibish - (Commentary) December 5, 2007 - 4:47pm The recent jailing and deportation of a British teacher in Sudan highlights yet again the depths to which ultraconservative religious fanatics are damaging one of the great faiths of mankind. Gillian Gibbons' "offense" was to allow her 7-year-old students to name a class teddy bear Muhammad. She was initially threatened with a possible sentence of 40 lashes but was sentenced to 15 days in jail, before her deportation. » Read more

Israel Plans New Homes In East Jerusalem ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press by Mark Lavie - December 5, 2007 - 4:45pm Israel announced plans Tuesday to build more than 300 new homes in a disputed east Jerusalem neighborhood, drawing quick Palestinian condemnation that the move will undermine newly revived peace talks. The new housing would expand Har Homa, a Jewish neighborhood in an area Palestinians claim as capital of a future state. Palestinian officials appealed to the U.S. to block the project, but Israel says a pledge to halt settlement activity does not apply anywhere in the holy city. » Read more