January 7th

Israel Uses Absentee Land To Build Settlement ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News by Mohammed Mar’i - January 7, 2008 - 6:22pm The Israeli Housing Ministry expropriated land belonging to residents from West Bank cities of Bethlehem and Beit Sahour in accordance with the “absentee law” for the construction of more than 1,000 housing units in East Jerusalem’s Har Homa settlement in Jabal Abu Ghneim. The ministry’s move is in violation of both an instruction from the Israeli Attorney General Menachem Mazuz to stop applying the absentee law in East Jerusalem and explicit promises by Israel to the United States that it will not apply that law in Jerusalem’s eastern quarters. » Read more

What, Me Worry That Bush Is Coming? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star by Rami Khouri - (Opinion) January 7, 2008 - 6:21pm Recent experience suggests that we should be very worried that President George W. Bush is coming to the Middle East next week to promote peace. The last time he made such a journey, in June 2003, what ensued was an accelerated cycle of violence and ideological conflict that sees most of the Middle East today wracked by warfare, routine terrorism, and intense political confrontation, threats, and stress. » Read more

Storm Grows Over Jerusalem District ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bbc News by Martin Patience - January 7, 2008 - 6:19pm Yellow cranes swivel in the winter sun on a hill in south-east Jerusalem; occasional bursts of drilling puncture the otherwise peaceful atmosphere. In almost any other part of the world this scene would go largely unnoticed. But for Israelis and Palestinians the issue of construction at Har Homa/Jabal Abu Ghneim has rapidly become a political battleground. The Israeli government announced plans last month to build 300 new apartments at the Har Homa development in occupied East Jerusalem, drawing a furious diplomatic response from the Palestinians. » Read more

Israel "committed To Dismantling West Bank Settlements" ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian by Fred Attewill - January 7, 2008 - 6:18pm Israel today said it was committed to acting "expeditiously" to dismantle unauthorised West Bank settlement outposts and would tell that to President George Bush when he arrives for talks on Wednesday. A spokesman for the prime minister, Ehud Olmert, did not set a deadline for the removal of the outposts, which are typically makeshift encampments often set up by hardline settlers. » Read more

Bush Sees Mideast Peace Deal This Year ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Financial Times by Daniel Dombey - January 7, 2008 - 6:17pm George W. Bush has predicted a peace deal this year between Israel and the Palestinians ahead of his most extensive visit yet to the Middle East. US officials say the president will devote the week-long tour, in which he will travel to six countries and the Palestinian territories, to pushing for Middle East peace, rallying his regional allies against Iran and reviving Washington’s stalled democratisation agenda. » Read more

Leading Article: A Belated Awakening To Middle East Obligations ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent (Editorial) January 7, 2008 - 6:15pm Given how central the Middle East has been to US foreign policy in recent decades, it is remarkable that it has taken George Bush the best part of seven years to make his first visit to Israel as President. There have, of course, been extenuating circumstances: the preoccupation with terrorism and Afghanistan after the attacks of 11 September 2001; the ill-conceived and mismanaged war in Iraq; and Mr Bush's own home-body temperament. Even at the best of times, he was a notoriously reluctant traveller. » Read more

Hardline Israeli Settlers Plan Chilly Reception For Bush ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Agence France Presse (AFP) by Michael Blum - January 7, 2008 - 6:14pm Residents of one of the oldest and most radical Jewish settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank are dreading the upcoming Middle East visit by US President George W. Bush. The settlers of Kiryat Arba west of Hebron -- one of the first set up after the West Bank's capture in 1967 -- fear for their future amid new peace talks with the Palestinians. But they remain defiant over American pressure to freeze settlement activity during the talks, and plan to make their voices heard during the landmark visit. » Read more

Surprising Lessons From Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from International Herald Tribune by Emily Schaeffer - January 7, 2008 - 6:12pm Six years after Sept. 11th and the ensuing war on terror, what seemed a temporary situation has become a protracted conflict, with everyone from the Bush administration to competing presidential candidates offering recommendations for change. Proposals vary from withdrawing troops from Iraq to reforming the military commissions in Guantánamo. But amid an open-ended war on terror, would any of these comparatively small changes really matter? » Read more

Bush's Mideast Mission ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Boston Globe (Editorial) January 7, 2008 - 6:10pm IN AN effort to bring about enormous changes at the last minute, President Bush will arrive in Israel Wednesday to begin an eight-day trip to a half-dozen countries in the Middle East. This will be his first state visit to all the countries on his itinerary except Egypt, and Americans must hope this belated trip to such a strategically vital region means Bush now recognizes the mistake he made in waiting so long. » Read more

Substance, Not Smiles ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Baltimore Sun (Editorial) January 7, 2008 - 6:09pm Jerusalem is draping itself in the flags of the city, Israel and the United States in honor of President Bush's visit this week, perfect for the essential photo op. And that's all this trip sounds like it's shaping up to be since neither the president nor his advisers have identified any policy or message that Mr. Bush will relay to advance the commitments made at the Annapolis peace summit. And that's just unacceptable. » Read more