What Palestinians Will Do With $7.4 Billion ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor by Ilene Prusher - January 4, 2008 - 2:27pm When donors met in Paris last month and awarded $7.4 billion in aid to the Palestinians, a larger-than-expected package to be distributed over the next three years, many in the international community showed a new readiness to support the new Israeli-Palestinian peace push and provide a safety net for it in the form of economic stability. » Read more

White House Downplays Bush Mideast Trip ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press by Jennifer Loven - January 4, 2008 - 2:26pm President Bush's aides all but ruled out a three-way meeting with Israeli and Palestinian leaders during his upcoming Mideast visit and dampened hopes that the president's high-profile travels would make tangible progress toward peace. "Just his going there is going to advance the prospects," Stephen Hadley, Bush's national security adviser, said Thursday. "We're not looking for headline announcements." » Read more

Israel Settlement Growth An "impediment": Bush ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters by Matt Spetalnick - January 4, 2008 - 2:25pm U.S. President George W. Bush on Thursday called Israeli settlement expansion an "impediment" to revived peace efforts in rare criticism of the Jewish state less than a week before his first presidential visit there. In an interview with Reuters, Bush voiced optimism for securing an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal by the end of 2008, a goal set at November's Annapolis conference that has been viewed with widespread skepticism. He also acknowledged that obstacles remained after decades of Middle East conflict. » Read more

Palestinian Pm Assails Israel Over West Bank Raids ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters by Mohammed Assadi - January 4, 2008 - 2:22pm Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad criticized Israel on Friday for mounting a major military sweep in the West Bank, saying such intervention was ruining a Western-backed internal Palestinian security plan. Hundreds of Israeli troops flooded Nablus on Wednesday, conducting house-to-house searches, detaining at least 6 Palestinians. The move triggered a confrontation with stone-throwing youths in which, hospital officials said, at least 29 people were injured. » Read more

Israeli Operations Kill 9 In Gaza ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post by Jonathan Finer - January 4, 2008 - 2:21pm Israeli forces launched military operations in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank early Thursday, hours before a Katyusha rocket fired from Gaza crashed down harmlessly near the Israeli city of Ashkelon. At least nine Palestinians were killed during Israeli tank and helicopter attacks in Gaza, including five members of a family killed near the central city of Khan Younis, Palestinian officials said. » Read more