December 7th

Olmert Attempts To Bring Presidential Candidates Into Peace Process ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward by Nathan Guttman - December 7, 2007 - 5:31pm Looking to the post-Bush era in American politics, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is attempting to enlist leading presidential candidates to support his renewed push for a settlement with the Palestinians. When Olmert was in the United States for the Annapolis, Md., peace summit, he took the opportunity to call each of the leading presidential candidates to brief them on the plans for engaging in final-status talks with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas. » Read more

Rice Criticizes Israel On Settlement Building ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters by Ari Rabinovitch - December 7, 2007 - 5:29pm Condoleezza Rice criticized Israel on Friday for planning to build new homes on occupied land in the Jerusalem area -- a move Palestinians say could wreck a peace process Rice helped launch last week in Washington. "We are in a time when the goal is to build maximum confidence with the parties and this doesn't help to build confidence," the U.S. Secretary of State said in rare public censure of Washington's closest ally in the Middle East. » Read more

Young Israelis Resist Challenges To Settlements ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Isabel Kershner - December 7, 2007 - 5:27pm SHVUT AMI OUTPOST, West Bank — For two months, Jewish youths have been renovating an old stone house on this muddy hilltop in the northern West Bank. The house is not theirs, however. It belongs to a Palestinian family. And their seizure of it along with the land around it for a new settlement outpost is a violation of Israeli law. The police have evicted the group five times but they keep coming back. » Read more

December 6th

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