January 14th, 2008

Gaza Tunnel Smugglers Stay Busy
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Dan Murphy - January 14, 2008 - 5:14pm

A visitor to the Palestinian border with Egypt completely ignorant of the problems of this part of the world might imagine for a moment that the Gaza Strip is home to a species of giant and unusually industrious ant. In dozens of spots along the narrow swath of land between the Palestinian town of Rafah and the metal fence that marks the Egyptian border, the region's sandy soil is piled high in crescents that fan out from holes leading underground.

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January 13th

Reuters looks at the growing success of the slowly redeploying Palestinian police to reestablish law and order in West Bank cities (2.) The Washington Post examines how the issue of illegal Israeli settlement outposts in the West Bank have become the front line in the struggle over withdrawal from occupied land (4.) The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reports on where Israelis are leaning concerning the U.S. presidential election (6.) Americans For Peace Now presents its weekly excerpts from the Israeli press (7.) A Guardian (UK) editorial parses statements made by President Bush during his Israel-Palestine trip to find little substance (9.) The Times (UK) examines how the U.S. drive for Mideast democracy has faltered since it was declared a central theme of American foreign policy three years ago (11.) A Daily Star (Lebanon) opinion by Rami Khouri argues that the combination of citizen disenfranchisement and lack of state sovereignty in the Middle East has contributed to the rise in power of Islamists (12.) Asharq Alawsat (pan Arab) reviews official Palestinian reaction across the political spectrum to President Bush's statements about the Palestinian refugee issue during his Israel-Palestine visit (14.) In Haaretz (Israel) Akiva Eldar urges the Israeli government to consider whether any of its military or political actions regarding the Palestinians serve to strengthen or undermine President Abbas before conducting them (15.) Also in Haaretz, an opinion by Uzi Benziman takes the Israeli public to task for not pushing their leadership to adopt a peace agreement with the Palestinians the parameters of which are known to all (17.)

January 11th

Sharon, Savior Of The Settler, Killer Of Palestine
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Bradley Burston - January 11, 2008 - 4:00pm

Genius in statecraft is often slow to reveal itself. Genius in strategy often masquerades as folly. Consider the case of Ariel Sharon. An opinion poll conducted ahead of the second anniversary of his devastating January 4, 2006 cerebral hemorrhage, showed that 26.8 percent of Israelis believe that Sharon's stroke was punishment for his expulsion of thousands of settlers and soldiers from the Gaza Strip less than half a year before.

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Bush Tells Olmert: End The Occupation
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
January 11, 2008 - 3:59pm

U.S. President George W. Bush implored senior cabinet ministers at a dinner yesterday evening to work to promote the peace process, telling them that the current situation cannot continue and efforts to achieve a peace treaty must be made.

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Arabic Papers React To Bush Tour
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al Jazeera English
January 11, 2008 - 3:57pm

Around the Arab world, newspaper editorials have reacted both positively and negatively to the US president's visit to the region. George Bush himself described his visit as an attempt to "nudge" forward a recently revived peace-process, while some of the papers on Friday expressed a different view. Although Bush spoke of Israel's "occupation" of territory it seized in the 1967 conflict, he was clear that any "mutually agreed adjustments" would still leave Israel with settlements in the West Bank.

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A Palestinian Exploration
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Dar Al Hayat
by Hassan Haidar - (Opinion) January 11, 2008 - 3:54pm

A few years after Lebanon gained its independence in 1943, the Palestinians were hit by what is known as the naqba - or 'catastrophe.' The Israelis seized more than half of their country and several Arab armies were unable to recapture the land. Thus, hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees poured into neighboring Arab countries - including a certain small country barely managing its politics through a delicate sectarian system.

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Welcome, Mr President, To The Misery You've Created
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Jonathan Steele - (Commentary) January 11, 2008 - 3:53pm

It is a well-deserved irony for George Bush that his first presidential visit to Israel coincided this week with the storm of excitement produced by the unexpected outcome of the two New Hampshire primaries. Nothing could better highlight the irrelevance of the final year of the Bush presidency.

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Israel's Bethlehem Settlement Seen As Obstacle
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Telegraph
by Tim Butcher - January 11, 2008 - 3:51pm

The Israeli settlement of Har Homa crowns a hill on the south-eastern approach to Jerusalem and towers over the birthplace of Jesus. It is built on land occupied by Israel in the 1967 war - which makes it a "settlement" in the eyes of the world - and shot up the agenda when Israel announced recently that it planned to build 307 more homes there.

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George Bush Drinks In The Last-chance Casbah
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Economist
January 11, 2008 - 3:49pm

GEORGE BUSH flew in to a fanfare of bugles and cynicism at the start of his tour of the Middle East this week. The cynicism, it must be said, is not misplaced. Although he said in Jerusalem that he detected “a new opportunity for peace”, he has waited too long to make his first visit as president to Israel and the Palestinian territories. Even if he did everything right in his final year, he does not have time to realise his “vision” of a free Palestine alongside an Israel at peace with its neighbours.

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Bush Calls For Fund To Compensate Palestinians
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Financial Times
by Tobias Buck - January 11, 2008 - 3:42pm

US President George W. Bush on Thursday called for a compensation fund for Palestinian refugees as he set out what he said was the “point of departure” for negotiations on a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians this year. At the end of two days of meetings in Jerusalem and the West Bank, Mr Bush sought to highlight his sympathy with the Palestinians more than on previous occasions and to dispel scepticism over the US’s readiness to lean on Israel.

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