A Neocon Bush Middle East Policy? Look Again ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star by Michael Young - (Opinion) December 31, 2007 - 6:44pm Maybe 2008 will be the year when we are finally rid of that vacuous belief that "the neocons" are in control of the Bush administration's foreign policy, particularly in the Middle East. Habits are hard to break, particularly lazy ones, but if anyone bothered to look more closely, they would see that the United States has not really engaged in what we might call a neoconservative approach to the region since at least 2004, when the situation in Iraq took a sudden turn for the worse. » Read more

2008: The Year Of Palestine? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bbc News by Roger Hardy - December 31, 2007 - 6:42pm Will 2008 see the creation of a Palestinian state, or will November's Annapolis peace conference prove another false dawn?   US President George W Bush shows no inclination to become a lame duck, pledging no let-up during his last year in office. He is due to visit the Middle East early in 2008, a sign of his personal commitment to advancing the peace process there. But he will not find it easy to cut through the scepticism that is widespread in the region. » Read more

Tech Startup Bridges Mideast Divide ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Speigel International December 31, 2007 - 6:41pm Zvi Schreiber is a British-born serial entrepreneur who established the headquarters of his latest tech startup, a software company called Global Hosted Operating System (G.ho.st), in Israel last year. G.ho.st has developed a "virtual PC" that saves all of a person's files online so data and programs can be gathered from any computer. As Schreiber sees it, the Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh operating systems that cram applications and documents all inside one physical computer will soon be obsolete. » Read more

Israel Rejects Easing Of West Bank Curbs ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Financial Times by Tobias Buck - December 31, 2007 - 6:39pm Israel said on Sunday it would not ease restrictions on movement and access for Palestinians in the West Bank unless the Palestinian leadership moved more forcefully against armed groups threatening violence against Israelis. » Read more

Challenges 2007-2008: A Prime Minister Hangs On, Just About ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Inter Press Service (IPS) by Peter Hirschberg - December 31, 2007 - 6:38pm At the start of 2007, it seemed that war would cost Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert his job. As he completed the year, still in office, the greatest threat to him staying there now seems to be the prospect of peace. » Read more

Jewish Agency Gives Boardroom Clout To Ally Of Evangelicals ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward by Anthony Weiss - December 31, 2007 - 6:37pm About a decade ago, the head of the Jewish Agency for Israel refused to be photographed taking a check from Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, founder and president of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. This past week, the agency accepted a hefty donation from the evangelical-backed organization and offered Eckstein a seat on two of its most powerful committees. » Read more

Israeli Army, A National Melting Pot, Faces New Challenges In Training Officers ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Steven Erlanger - December 31, 2007 - 6:36pm The young officer candidates, in uniforms and old American helmets, their M-16s slung over their shoulders, were blowing up balloons. Lilac, blue and red balloons. Then they attached them to targets. The balloons were “hostages,” they said. The point was to hit the target but not a hostage. Of course, since some of these young men and women were training for office jobs, their skills were not always so acute. They did not kill any hostages, but sometimes they did not hit the target, either, their bullets piercing the desert hills. » Read more

About That Peace Process ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times (Editorial) December 31, 2007 - 6:35pm It didn’t take long for the glow of the Annapolis peace conference to wear off. Israelis and Palestinians have quickly fallen back into predictable destructive patterns. Arab countries have not done anywhere near enough to support the negotiations. Even the United States is behind on its pledges: because of bureaucratic wrangling and Israeli doubts, it has yet to establish a promised “mechanism” to monitor the two sides’ behavior and pressure them into meeting their commitments. » Read more

Olmert Curbs West Bank Building ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters by Adam Entous - December 31, 2007 - 6:35pm Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has barred new construction work, building planning and occupancy tenders at West Bank settlements without his approval, documents show. The move is meant to bolster U.S.-backed peace talks, soured by disputes over Jewish settlement construction, ahead of a visit by President George W. Bush early next month. » Read more

Israel, Palestinians Seek Elusive Peace ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press by Steven Gutkin - December 31, 2007 - 6:34pm In the afterglow of a high-profile peace conference, Israeli and Palestinian leaders will try in the coming year to resolve issues that have defied solutions for decades. For peace to work, Israel will have to give up most of the West Bank, Palestinians must agree to resettle refugees inside their own state and the two sides must share the holy city of Jerusalem. None of that will come easily _ and prospects for peace are hurt by the growing power of extremists and the weakness of leaders on both sides. » Read more