News: Reports continue to suggest Hamas is trying to relocate from Damascus. Palestinians promote statehood in Christmas celebrations.Two are killed in an Israeli airstrike on Gaza. Occupation forces announce more demolitions and land seizures in Hebron. Israel approves yet more settlement housing units in occupied East Jerusalem. Palestinians ask the UN to intervene to stop settlement construction.Senior PLO officials say that by demanding elections in occupied East Jerusalem, Hamas is trying to torpedo them everywhere. Amb. Shapiro says the US expects direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. Israel may send a small robot to the moon. Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich forms an alliance with PM Netanyahu's stalwart Sheldon Adelson. In a rare ruling, an Israeli court acquits a Palestinian man on the grounds he was tortured. Commentary: Gideon Levy says the notion of peace has vanished from Israeli discourse. Ari Shavit says Israel is losing its base in the democratic West. Barak Ravid says Israel is hibernating through the “Arab Spring.” Ilan Manor says Netanyahu is in love with the US Republican Party. Irwin Cotler says Jewish refugees from Arab states need to be acknowledged and compensated. Nathan Guttman says frank talk about Israel from administration officials is not seen by many as a deliberate affront. Michael Jansen says most Israelis aren't going to listen to US criticism. Gershon Baskin says Israel needs a "historic leader." Labib Kamhawi says Israel's leadership is reckless. Hassan Barari says Jordan has much to fear from the impasse in the peace process. Akiva Eldar says Israel is probably going to release a large group of petty criminals in the second phase of the prisoner swap.

US expects direct Israeli-Palestinian talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Herb Keinon - December 8, 2011 - 1:00am

Both the US and the Quartet expect Israelis and Palestinians to meet in direct talks and exchange comprehensive proposals there on the issue of security and territory, US Ambassador Dan Shapiro said Thursday. Shapiro, at a press conference in Tel Aviv, said that this position has been made clear to both sides. His comments are significant because the Palestinians have said in recent days that while they have presented the Quartet with comprehensive proposals, Israel has refused to do so - casting Israel in the role of peace obstructor.

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Abbas should change his locks before next wave of Palestinian prisoners freed
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Akiva Eldar - (Opinion) December 8, 2011 - 1:00am

In the coming days, as the next wave of Palestinian prisoners are released as part of the Gilad Shalit deal, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas ought to change the locks on his house and car. Contacts between the Egyptians and Israeli mediator David Meidan, a representative of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have made clear that the vast majority of the 550 soon-to-be-released prisoners are car thieves and petty criminals.

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Avoiding the regional ramifications of stalemate
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Hassan Barari - (Opinion) December 8, 2011 - 1:00am

For Jordan, the impasse of the Israeli-Palestinian track could not be more threatening. Time and time again, King Abdullah II has stressed that the failure of a two-state solution would be detrimental to the national security of his country. For this reason, Amman has pushed both Palestinians and Israelis to get their act together and hammer out an historic deal to allay the fears of Jordanians.

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Leadership that makes history
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
by Gershon Baskin - (Opinion) December 8, 2011 - 1:00am

Leading is not easy. Leading Israel is certainly not a simple task. It is not surprising that many leaders of Israel, maybe even most of them, have made decisions in office that go against what they preached and believed in before they sat in the prime minister’s seat. As the saying goes, “what you see from here is not what you see from there.” Real leadership is measured when one is faced with real-life situations that place diametrically opposed values and principles on the scales of decision making. Benjamin Netanyahu faced that in the Gilad Shalit case.

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Testy relationship
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
by Michael Jansen - (Opinion) December 8, 2011 - 1:00am

Israel has reacted angrily to tough US talk about both its regional and domestic policies, risking a fresh breach with the Obama administration which has always had a testy relationship with Israel’s right-wing regime. The first unwelcome comments came from US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta who said Israel must engage with the Palestinians by returning to the “damn” negotiating table and take steps to halt the country’s growing isolation in the region.

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Panetta and Clinton Take Aim at Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Nathan Guttman - (Opinion) December 8, 2011 - 1:00am

Just as the troubled relationship between the Obama administration and the government of Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu seemed to be getting on track, remarks by top American officials have made it clear that frustration still runs deep in Washington over Israel’s policies.

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Revisionism, rejectionism and Arab-Israeli peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Irwin Cotler - (Opinion) December 8, 2011 - 1:00am

While serving as a Canadian delegate to the annual inter-parliamentary hearing at the United Nations, I came across an exhibit marking the annual International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. The central theme of the exhibit is the Nakba – catastrophe – suffered by the Palestinian people, due to the establishment of the State of Israel.

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Israeli court releases 'tortured' Palestinain
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Hugh Naylor - December 8, 2011 - 1:00am

JERUSALEM // In a rare ruling, an Israeli military court has acquitted a Palestinian man because interrogators were found to have brutally forced his guilty confession. All but one of the 17 charges brought against Ayman Hamida, 37, from east Jerusalem's Azariya neighbourhood, were dropped by the military judges, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported yesterday. He was convicted of firing a weapon at Israeli police officers in 2009. The judges concluded that Mr Hamida was subjected to choking, beating and food deprivation during 40 days of interrogation, the newspaper reported.

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A match made in heaven?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Ilan Manor - (Opinion) December 8, 2011 - 1:00am

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in love. Not with a person or an idea, but with a party. The Republican Party. Ever since he took office, Netanyahu has found himself attracted to the GOP. Now, the attraction has blossomed into love. The prime minister has been swept off his feet by the parade of dashing Republican candidates courting him and offering to take care of Iran, an issue he has struggled with for more than two years.It’s like the old song lyrics, “Heaven/ I’m in heaven/ and my heart beats/ so that I can hardly speak...”

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