April 2nd

Amid Israeli Siege, Palestinian Businesses Look East To China
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
April 2, 2008 - 6:28pm

Faced with Israeli trade and travel restrictions, a stagnant economy and a flood of cheap imports from Asia, Palestinian businessmen are increasingly seeking their fortunes in China. Demand for Chinese visas among Palestinian business owners in the West Bank is so high that the Chinese consul regularly visits the city of Hebron to stamp their passports and circumvent an Israeli ban that prevents them from traveling to the embassy in Tel Aviv.

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Tiny Party Shows Large Clout On Settlements
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Griff Witte - April 2, 2008 - 6:27pm

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice left Israel on Monday having failed to persuade leaders here to halt settlement construction on occupied Palestinian land. But the setback for Rice was a victory for Rabbi Ovadia Yossef, the spiritual leader of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party. Within hours of Rice's departure, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was on the phone with Yossef to tell him that plans for building 800 new homes in the West Bank settlement of Betar Illit had been approved, according to two Shas officials, just as Shas had requested.

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April 1st

In the Washington Post, Griff Witte reports that Condoleezza Rice has left Israel without having negotiated a halt to settlement building in occupied Palestinian land (1). An opinon in the Daily Star by Rami Khouri examines what a halt on settlement activity could do for Palestinian confidence (4). In BitterLemons, Safwat Kahlout argues that Hamas is gaining strength thanks to the blunders of its foes (5). A poll in BBC, reported on by Haaretz, shows Iran as the only country viewed more negatively than Israel (8). Also in Haaretz, an Uzi Benziman opinion discusses the motivation of settlers (9).

March 27th

The Same Air, The Same Water
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Meron Benvenisti - (Opinion) March 27, 2008 - 6:59pm

Ecological issues have become central in public discourse, with almost all activity in the fields of transportation, infrastructure, industry and agriculture spurring a lively debate on their environmental impact. The discussion long ago went beyond the limited themes of protecting nature reserves, wild animals and plants, and has begun to bite into sacred myths about the "conquest of the wilderness" and the dressing of the land "in a frock of cement and concrete."

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Drive Slowly
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Shmuel Rosner - (Opinion) March 27, 2008 - 6:58pm

U.S. President George Bush is finishing his tenure in office precisely as he began it: still determined not to repeat the mistakes of the previous administration, that of Bill Clinton. In 2000 this determination had one face: stopping over-investment in the Palestinian-Israeli peace process. Bush saw his predecessor buried under the rubble of Camp David and found no reason to retrace that same path. On February 9, 2001, the Bush administration announced that the Clinton proposals during that failed summit "were no longer United States proposals."

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Barak Promises Israeli Gestures To Fayyad
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Roni Sofer - March 27, 2008 - 6:57pm

Barak promises Israeli gestures to Fayyad Defense minister meets with Palestinian prime minister in Tel Aviv ahead of US secretary of state's visit later in week, announces easing of restrictions in West Bank Roni Sofer Defense Minister Ehud Barak met Wednesday night with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and announced Israel would ease restrictions for Palestinians living in the West Bank. This ahead of US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's visit to the region this coming Friday. 

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Rice Visit Prompts Israel Policy Shift
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Week
by Stewart Ain - March 27, 2008 - 6:55pm

Just days before Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s scheduled arrival in Israel Saturday night, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak announced a series of moves to bolster the Palestinian Authority, including the deployment of another 600 Palestinian policemen and approving permits for thousands of Palestinians to work in Israel. The issuance of work permits is a major change in Israeli policy, according to Yitzhak Reiter, a professor of Islamic and Middle Eastern History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

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The Strange Case Of Robert Malley
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The American Prospect
by Gershom Gorenberg - (Opinion) March 27, 2008 - 6:53pm

Of all the recent efforts to smear Barack Obama, none strikes me as stranger than the claims that one of his informal advisers on foreign affairs, Robert Malley, is anti-Israel. This, in turn, is supposed to prove that as president, Obama is liable to institute dangerous changes in U.S. policy toward Israel.

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Abbas Gets Ticket To White House
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
March 27, 2008 - 6:52pm

President Bush has invited Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas to the White House in an effort to give a kick to Mideast peace talks, the White House said Thursday. The plan, which envisions talks around the beginning of May, was revealed to reporters on Air Force One by National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe, who was accompanying Bush on a flight to Dayton, Ohio.

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Amnesty Urges Israel To Let Cancer Patient Leave Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
March 27, 2008 - 6:51pm

The Israeli military should allow cancer patient Karima Abu Dalal to leave the Gaza Strip to obtain desperately needed medical care in Israel, Amnesty International said on Wednesday. "Karima Abu Dalal's life now hangs in the balance because of the Israeli Army's failure to allow her a permit to leave Gaza to obtain specialist cancer treatment not available there," the rights group said in a statement. "The Israeli authorities should immediately allow her to access the treatment she needs."

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