January 14th

West Bank's Jewish 'outposts' Dig In ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post by Jonathan Finer - January 14, 2008 - 5:25pm With a pellet gun in his jeans pocket and a hammer in his hand, Dani Landesberg and a crew of teenage Jewish settlers began adding a second story to what has become their new home. They stole occasional glances down the winding access road in case the police came by to evict them, again. » Read more

Still Waiting To Seize The Moment ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times (Editorial) January 14, 2008 - 5:24pm Visiting the Middle East this week, President Bush sounded an unaccustomed note of diplomatic urgency. He insisted that Israel and the Palestinians will conclude a peace agreement before he leaves office in early 2009, and he tried to rhetorically prod the process along. » Read more

Palestinian Police Reclaim West Bank Streets ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters by Wafa Amr - January 14, 2008 - 5:15pm Palestinian police are slowly starting to exert control over some West Bank towns, long the domain of hooded gunmen and their automatic rifles, with the aid of Western-backed funding and training.   The security drive, demanded by many Palestinians and which Israel says is a prerequisite for peace, has seen green-bereted security officers bent on enforcing law and order emerge from the chaos of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. » Read more

Gaza Tunnel Smugglers Stay Busy ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor by Dan Murphy - January 14, 2008 - 5:14pm A visitor to the Palestinian border with Egypt completely ignorant of the problems of this part of the world might imagine for a moment that the Gaza Strip is home to a species of giant and unusually industrious ant. In dozens of spots along the narrow swath of land between the Palestinian town of Rafah and the metal fence that marks the Egyptian border, the region's sandy soil is piled high in crescents that fan out from holes leading underground. » Read more

January 11th

Sharon, Savior Of The Settler, Killer Of Palestine ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Bradley Burston - January 11, 2008 - 4:00pm Genius in statecraft is often slow to reveal itself. Genius in strategy often masquerades as folly. Consider the case of Ariel Sharon. An opinion poll conducted ahead of the second anniversary of his devastating January 4, 2006 cerebral hemorrhage, showed that 26.8 percent of Israelis believe that Sharon's stroke was punishment for his expulsion of thousands of settlers and soldiers from the Gaza Strip less than half a year before. » Read more

Bush Tells Olmert: End The Occupation ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz January 11, 2008 - 3:59pm U.S. President George W. Bush implored senior cabinet ministers at a dinner yesterday evening to work to promote the peace process, telling them that the current situation cannot continue and efforts to achieve a peace treaty must be made. » Read more

Arabic Papers React To Bush Tour ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al Jazeera English January 11, 2008 - 3:57pm Around the Arab world, newspaper editorials have reacted both positively and negatively to the US president's visit to the region. George Bush himself described his visit as an attempt to "nudge" forward a recently revived peace-process, while some of the papers on Friday expressed a different view. Although Bush spoke of Israel's "occupation" of territory it seized in the 1967 conflict, he was clear that any "mutually agreed adjustments" would still leave Israel with settlements in the West Bank. » Read more

A Palestinian Exploration ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Dar Al Hayat by Hassan Haidar - (Opinion) January 11, 2008 - 3:54pm A few years after Lebanon gained its independence in 1943, the Palestinians were hit by what is known as the naqba - or 'catastrophe.' The Israelis seized more than half of their country and several Arab armies were unable to recapture the land. Thus, hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees poured into neighboring Arab countries - including a certain small country barely managing its politics through a delicate sectarian system. » Read more

Welcome, Mr President, To The Misery You've Created ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian by Jonathan Steele - (Commentary) January 11, 2008 - 3:53pm It is a well-deserved irony for George Bush that his first presidential visit to Israel coincided this week with the storm of excitement produced by the unexpected outcome of the two New Hampshire primaries. Nothing could better highlight the irrelevance of the final year of the Bush presidency. » Read more

Israel's Bethlehem Settlement Seen As Obstacle ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Telegraph by Tim Butcher - January 11, 2008 - 3:51pm The Israeli settlement of Har Homa crowns a hill on the south-eastern approach to Jerusalem and towers over the birthplace of Jesus. It is built on land occupied by Israel in the 1967 war - which makes it a "settlement" in the eyes of the world - and shot up the agenda when Israel announced recently that it planned to build 307 more homes there. » Read more