High alert in W. Bank after evacuation ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Yaakov Katz, Tovah Lazaroff - December 4, 2008 - 1:00am The United Nations Middle East envoy on Friday praised Israeli security forces for evacuating the Beit Hashalom house in Hebron, but condemned the violence which followed, and promised that the UN would "closely monitor" the developments. » Read more

Is an Israeli-Palestinian Confederation Feasible? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Middle East Times by Rachelle Kliger - December 5, 2008 - 1:00am JERUSALEM -- With time running out on the U.S. George W. Bush administration and without a settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian dispute having been reached, as was hoped, the idea of a Palestinian-Israeli confederation is gradually replacing that of a two-state solution. The notion has been floating around for several years now, in various forms. Josef Avesar, an Israeli-born attorney now based in California, is the founder of the Israeli Palestinian Confederation committee (IPC). » Read more

Obama's New Foreign Policy Team Looks Toward Syria ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward by Nathan Guttman - December 4, 2008 - 1:00am Breaking with the Bush administration, the incoming foreign policy team of President-elect Barack Obama is expected to embrace Israeli–Syrian peace talks and might actively take part in negotiations that until now the Americans have shunned. This assessment is shared by Middle East experts trying to gauge the foreign policy priorities of the incoming administration based on statements from the transition team. The negotiations on an accord between Israel and Syria would run parallel to efforts to secure a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. » Read more