There Are No Happy Evacuations ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Aluf Benn - December 6, 2007 - 4:46pm The initiative to pay compensation to settlers who live east of the separation fence and want to move to the western "Israeli" side seems both wise and just. Wise, because the "voluntary evacuation-compensation" law would signal to the world that Israel is folding up the West Bank settlement enterprise. Domestically, it would give a message of a soft evacuation, without the orange ribbons, bulldozers and tears of the Gaza disengagement. » Read more

Rebuffs That ‘diminish’ Bush’s Stature ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times December 6, 2007 - 4:44pm The Bush administration has suffered three serious rebuffs since the Annapolis meeting at the end of November. The most dramatic was the rejection, on Monday, by all 16 of the United States’ intelligence agencies of administration claims that Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons. » Read more

Promises Of Annapolis ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News by George S. Hishmeh - (Opinion) December 6, 2007 - 4:33pm Now that the dust has settled on the recent Annapolis conference that promised to try and reach a Palestinian-Israeli settlement by the end of next year, it is time to review the event that was an unprecedented achievement for the lameduck Bush administration, particularly on the decades-old Arab-Israeli conflict that has been virtually neglected in Washington for nearly seven years. » Read more

Politics: Is Iran Nie A Blessing In Disguise For Israel? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Inter Press Service (IPS) by Trita Parsi - (Analysis) December 6, 2007 - 4:32pm The U.S. National Intelligence Estimate's assertion that Iran currently does not have a nuclear weapons programme has caused much frustration in Israel. Deputy Defence Minister Ephraim Sneh referred to the report as a lie at a recent breakfast in New York, and Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer reportedly "doesn't buy" its findings. » Read more

Report On Iran Fuels Arab Fears ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times by Jeffrey Fleishman - December 6, 2007 - 4:31pm The dwindling possibility of a U.S. attack on Iran is changing the dynamics of Middle East politics and raising Arab concern that Tehran may now feel emboldened to strengthen its military, increase its support for Islamic radicals and exert more influence in the region's troubled countries. » Read more

Hamas Urges Talks With Abbas Amid Israeli Attacks ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters by Nidal Al-mughrabi - December 6, 2007 - 4:31pm A Hamas leader on Wednesday renewed his call for dialogue with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's rival Fatah faction a week after Abbas restarted talks with Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Abbas formally relaunched a U.S.-sponsored peace process last week and Israel has since stepped up raids on Hamas-run Gaza to try to curb rocket fire by militants. » Read more

In The Wake Of Annapolis, Other Fronts Develop ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward by Marc Perelman - December 6, 2007 - 4:30pm In a bid to reassert itself in a region where it long held sway, Russia has re-entered the Middle East diplomatic fray by serving as a go-between for Israel and Syria and by offering to host a follow-up meeting to last week’s peace summit in Annapolis, Md. » Read more

More Gazans Turn Away From Hamas As Fatah Heads Toward Peace Talks ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor by Joshua Mitnick - December 6, 2007 - 4:29pm Support for Hamas, the Islamist militant group that has controlled Gaza since June, has frayed as Israel keeps intense pressure on the thin, coastal strip and its chief Palestinian rival is embracing a language of peace. » Read more

Palestinian Entrepreneurs Plan Two Built-from-scratch Cities In The West Bank ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press December 6, 2007 - 4:28pm In this ancient land where communities have grown helter-skelter, the future now looks more like well-tended U.S. suburbia: powerful entrepreneurs are planning two built-from-scratch West Bank cities with thousands of homes as well as malls, high-tech call centers and hotels. The projects, with a total investment of up to $900 million (€610 million), are part of ambitious plans to revive the Palestinian economy, as Israelis and Palestinians talk peace again after seven years of violence. » Read more