The refugees, still essential to peace ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star by Rami Khouri - December 9, 2009 - 1:00am I have attended hundreds of meetings, conferences and symposia on Arab-Israeli peacemaking all my adult life during the past 40 years, and I am able to report that there is good news and bad news. The good news is that Israelis and Arabs wish to achieve a negotiated, peaceful end to their conflict. The bad news is that this inclination to negotiate peace and coexistence is not being translated into a lasting agreement because of Israel’s refusal to come to grips with the core issue that matters for the Palestinians, which is their status as refugees. » Read more

Obama's hands are tied ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News by Dina Khanat - (Opinion) December 9, 2009 - 1:00am Even before US President Barack Obama gave his inauguration speech, a ray of hope swept the region. Discussions took place regarding Obama's new Middle East policy and hopes that an Israeli-Palestinian deal would be struck under his leadership intensified. Muslims refused to refer to him as anything but Barack Hussain Obama, and the president's "let us embrace one another and forget the past" speech only fuelled even high expectations. » Read more

A Portrait of Nonviolent Resistance in One Palestinian Village ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Huffington Post by Ellen Cantarow - (Opinion) December 8, 2009 - 1:00am At no time since its 1967 West Bank occupation have Israel’s seizures of Palestinian land and water resources seemed as shocking as the ones attending its construction of “the wall,” begun in 2002. Vast, complex, and shifting in form, the wall appears most dramatically as 25-foot-high concrete slabs punctuated by militarized watch towers, supplemented by electronically monitored electrified fences stretching over vast distances. » Read more

Israeli settlers threaten to make Palestinians 'pay the price' on the West Bank ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Telegraph by Adrian Blomfield - December 9, 2009 - 1:00am Mounting discontent over the building ban, announced at the end of November, has already manifested itself in a series of scuffles between egg-throwing settlers and Israeli police officers. But this week hardline Jewish activists have signalled a change of tactic by circulating calls for Palestinian civilians to pay the price for the settlement freeze. » Read more

Who will save Gaza's children? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian by Victoria Brittain - December 9, 2009 - 1:00am Among all the complex and long-term solutions being sought in Copenhagen for averting environmental catastrophe across the world, there is one place where the catastrophe has already happened, but could be immediately ameliorated with one simple political act. » Read more

'West Bank building up despite freeze' ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Elana Kirsh - December 9, 2009 - 1:00am Housing units are being built at a faster rate in Judea and Samaria than in the rest of Israel, according to data released by Peace Now on Wednesday. The Peace Now report, titled 'Construction Freeze?' noted that despite Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's recently announced 10-month freeze on new housing starts in the West Bank, approved settlement construction is still higher than that in the rest of the country. » Read more

Peace Now opens 'snitches' hotline to battle freeze violations ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Efrat Weiss - December 9, 2009 - 1:00am More housing units are being built in the West bank than in any other areas in Israel, even after the government's decision to freeze construction in the settlements, claimed Left wing organization Peace Now during a Wednesday press conference in Jerusalem, as part of a counter assault on the settlers campaign against the freeze. The organization formed an informant hotline that allows citizens to report on violations of the freeze order. Meanwhile, a massive protest organized by the settlers is slated to take place Wednesday night in Jerusalem. » Read more

Gaza sources: Swap deal up to Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Ali Waked - December 9, 2009 - 1:00am The implementation of a prisoner exchange deal between Israel and Hamas is waiting for an Israeli decision, according to Palestinian sources involved in the negotiations. "Our demands are clear. We made them clear to the German mediator and we have done all we can for the deal to executed," one of the Gaza sources told Ynet. Israel continues to keep silent about the deal. On Tuesday, a Palestinian source told Ynet that the German mediator has asked Hamas to refrain from leaking details of the prisoner swap deal to the Arab press. » Read more

Israel has made settlers of all its citizens ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Amira Hass - (Opinion) December 9, 2009 - 1:00am Would any of the settlers who opposed the Civil Administration inspectors this week be living in the territories had the governments of Israel not established and encouraged them? Would the Gush Katif evacuees have moved to mobile homes in Ariel in the expectation of spacious permanent housing had the government clearly declared that this was forbidden - because the settlements will be evacuated in the near future for a peace agreement - and that evacuation-compensation money would not be paid to anyone who moves to the West Bank? » Read more

U.S.: Only Israel, Palestinians should decide Jerusalem's future ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Natasha Mozgovaya, Barak Ravid - December 9, 2009 - 1:00am Shortly after European Union Ministers announced their support for the division of Jerusalem between Israel and a future Palestinian state on Tuesday, the U.S. State Department issued a statement saying that the fate of Jerusalem should only be determined by Israel and the Palestinians in talks. » Read more