December 6th

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

December 5th

Palestinian Civilians As Political Currency ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Jessica Montell - (Opinion) December 5, 2007 - 5:05pm A cancer diagnosis is terrifying, but it does not have to be a death sentence. Hopefully, with the proper care, you will recover and continue with your life. Unless you live in the Gaza Strip. » Read more

A Bad Odor ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Amira Hass - December 5, 2007 - 5:04pm This is most definitely not a pastoral picture: Two village council heads are standing in front of the garbage dump of one of the villages, Beit Liqia, and counting, one by one, all of the environmental hazards. The village's houses are 200 meters away. There are people who burn garbage (mainly to separate metal from old cables or the iron from tires) and then black smoke forms and wafts around the windows of the crowded homes. Around the garbage dump are olive groves. Nobody harvests the olives there any more. At the garbage dump in the village of Beit Anan they burn the waste. » Read more

The Devastation Our Disunity Has Created ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Miftah by Joharah Baker - (Opinion) December 5, 2007 - 5:02pm This morning, Israeli forces killed yet another three Hamas activists in an air strike on Beit Lahiya in the Gaza Strip. Over the past two weeks, some 30 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli military forces, mostly in the Strip, even as Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak insists his army continues to hold out on wide scale military action there. » Read more

Islamist Threat Is Exaggerated ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News by Amir Tehari - (Opinion) December 5, 2007 - 5:00pm Is the Greater Middle East region ready for reforms designed to broaden the decision-making base of the state? The question has been at the heart of a debate triggered in 2002 when the Bush administration launched its plans for the region. Since then, the plan itself has been put on the backburner. But the debate continues. One view is that almost none of the region's 30 states is ready for a political system based on achieving power through elections. » Read more

Problem And Hope ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Asharq Alawsat by Hussein Shobokshi - (Opinion) December 5, 2007 - 4:58pm The troubled Palestinian situation has reached an alarming deadlock with the passage of time, while the chasm continues to widen between Hamas in Gaza on one hand, and government authority and the PLO in the West Bank on the other. » Read more

Israel Questions Us Report Of Nuclear Weapons Freeze ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent by Donald Macintyre - December 5, 2007 - 4:57pm Israel moved quickly yesterday to question the US intelligence report that concluded Iran's nuclear weapons programme was frozen, and called for intensified international pressure on the country. The Israeli Prime Minster, Ehud Olmert, who said the conclusions in the National Intelligence Estimate had already been discussed with Washington, echoed US officials by declaring: "It is vital to pursue efforts to prevent Iran from developing a capability like this." He added: "We will continue doing so along with our friends the United States." » Read more

Israel Fails To Demolish West Bank Buildings ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Telegraph by Carolynne Wheeler - December 5, 2007 - 4:56pm The Israeli army has followed up on only three per cent of its own orders to demolish illegal buildings in Jewish settlements in the West Bank over the last decade, a study says. The report by Peace Now, an Israeli settlement watchdog, follows pledges by the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, to freeze new construction in settlements. Israel also faces increasing pressure to dismantle illegal outposts in preparation for negotiations toward the founding of a Palestinian state. » Read more

Darkness Surrounds Spotlight On Peace Talks ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Inter Press Service (IPS) by William Fisher - December 5, 2007 - 4:54pm Most of those representing Middle East and North African nations at the Nov. 27 conference appear to endorse the idea of a "two-state solution" to the decades-old conflict: a separate and contiguous Palestinian state living in peace alongside Israel. But Arab delegates to Annapolis -- including Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia and Yemen -- have had little to say about the nature of the state that may emerge from negotiations set to begin soon between Israel and the Palestinians. » Read more