January 4th

Israeli Operations Kill 9 In Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Jonathan Finer - January 4, 2008 - 2:21pm

Israeli forces launched military operations in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank early Thursday, hours before a Katyusha rocket fired from Gaza crashed down harmlessly near the Israeli city of Ashkelon. At least nine Palestinians were killed during Israeli tank and helicopter attacks in Gaza, including five members of a family killed near the central city of Khan Younis, Palestinian officials said.

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January 3rd

Reuters reports on criticism by Palestinian PM Fayyad of continuing raids by the Israeli military into the West Bank city of Nablus that are ruining his security plan for the city (2.) Also in Reuters, in an interview President Bush calls ISraeli settlement expansion as an 'impediment' to current peace efforts (3.) The Christian Science Monitor examines the different challenges and responsibilities facing the Palestinians in disbursing the funds pledged recently by the international community (5.) In the National Interest, USIP fellow Barbara Slavin suggests a new course for U.S. Mideast foreign policy (6.) The Jewish Telegraphic Agency examines comment by President Bush and his national security advisor Hadley on the issue of settlements and other obstacles to Mideast peacemaking (8.) In Israel Policy Forum, MJ Rosenberg analyzes how the one uniting issue for Arab and Muslim anger worldwide is the issue of Palestine, and how the exercise of U.S. presidential will can address that issue (9.) The Economist (UK) assesses the prospects for President Bush of nudging along Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking efforts during his trip to the region next week (11.) An Arab News opinion by Fred Schlomka, board member of the Israeli Committee Against Home Demolitions, reports on Israeli policies detrimental to its Bedouin citizens (13.) A Haaretz (Israel) opinion by Century and New America Foundation senior fellow Daniel Levy suggests a list of talking points for Israeli PM Olmert's upcoming meeting with President Bush (14.) A Yedioth/Ynet News (Israel) opinion by Sever Plocker cautions that the time for implementing a two-state solution is running out as the bi-national state concept is gaining ground (15.)

Bush's Final Effort
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
(Editorial) January 3, 2008 - 5:46pm

President George Bush will complete his second term in the White House in one year and two weeks, at his successor?s inauguration. Bush?s final year in office is already under the shadow in the battle over succession. Because of this, the U.S. media is expected to focus during his visit to the region next week on the first formal stages of the nominating process of the two main parties in Iowa and in New Hampshire, rather than on Bush?s meetings with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

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Pa Takes Back The Keys To A Key City
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Avi Issacharoff - January 3, 2008 - 5:45pm

Four young women from the Nablus neighborhood of Rafidiyeh went into a shop yesterday near the clock square in the center of Nablus. Dressed in the trendiest jeans and blouses, they were looking for fashionable leather bags. Two minutes later they came out empty-handed, disappointed at not finding what they wanted.

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Our Violent Presence
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Amira Hass - January 3, 2008 - 5:40pm

There is no Israeli whose presence in the West Bank is neutral. Civilian or armed, soldier or woman settler, resident of a quality-of-life settlement or a nearby outpost, MahsomWatch activist or guest at a settlement, Bezek worker or client at a Palestinian garage. All of them, all of us, are in this Palestinian territory, in the West Bank, because our state occupied it in 1967.

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Stand-offs Threaten Arab Region
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
by Francis Matthew - (Opinion) January 3, 2008 - 5:36pm

The Middle East has never needed effective political leadership more than at present. Palestine, Lebanon, and Iraq are three very troubled states which are in danger of seeing very little political progress in the coming year, and the effects of the continuing violence ripple out to all other nations in the region. All three share similar problems of poor state structures, lack of leadership and endemic violence, but each has very different local conditions which have created their bad situations.

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The Rodeo Ride Of Manipulating Middle East Politics
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
by Rami Khouri - (Opinion) January 3, 2008 - 5:34pm

Four separate events in different parts of the world - Pakistan, Israel, the United States and wherever Osama Bin Laden makes his home these days - provided a gloomy but instructive start to the new year in the matter of Al-Qaeda-linked terrorism. The events were the assassination of Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan, a new audio tape by Osama bin Laden, Israel telling the world that Al-Qaeda is making inroads in Palestine, and US presidential candidates riding the terrorism horse like clowns at a rodeo.

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The Beilin Syndrome
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
by Uri Avnery - January 3, 2008 - 5:32pm

Mephisto, the demon who bought the soul of Faust in Goethe’s monumental drama, describes himself as “a part of that force which always wants the bad and always creates the good.” Yossi Beilin, who resigned this week as chairman of the Meretz Party, is Mephisto’s opposite: he always wants the good and all too often creates the bad.

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Christian Zionists Gain Israel's Inner Sanctum
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Inter Press Service (IPS)
by Bill Berkowitz - January 3, 2008 - 5:30pm

After raising more than two hundred million dollars for various projects in Israel, Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein and the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (IFCJ), the organisation he founded and is president of, has hit pay-dirt.

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Down Payment On A State
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Israel Policy Forum
by Sadie Goldman With Jason Proetorius And Ipf Staff - January 3, 2008 - 5:23pm

Every Israeli-Palestinian negotiating process comes with a price tag. The current process, which was re-launched in Annapolis, Maryland, and continued at the Paris Donor’s conference, is no exception.  It was in Paris that donors examined Prime Minister Salam Fayyad’s three-year reform plan and then pledged 7.4 billion dollars to help implement it.

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