Settlement Dispute Stalls Mideast Talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Adam Entous - December 28, 2007 - 2:16pm

Israel is considering easing criteria for freeing Palestinian prisoners, a move one Israeli official said on Monday could pave the way for the release of Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouthi. Israel's deputy defense minister, Matan Vilnai, said Barghouthi, a Palestinian uprising leader from Fatah and a possible successor to President Mahmoud Abbas, could be a candidate for release. Also on Monday, a second round of peace talks between Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams were bogged down in a dispute over settlement building near Jerusalem.

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Start With The Unmanned Roadblocks!
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Daniel Gavron - December 21, 2007 - 3:39pm

This week's request from French President Nicholas Sarkozy, made at the conference of nations donating money to the Palestinian Authority, that Israel remove the roadblocks in the West Bank is hardly new. World Bank reports have been saying for years that the roadblocks are a major impediment to Palestinian economic development. Tony Blair, the Quartet's special envoy, one of whose briefs is to help develop the Palestinian economy, has also made the same point several times.

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Palestinian Statehood Is The Key
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
by Tanvir Ahmed Khan - (Opinion) December 21, 2007 - 3:37pm

Two important events have taken place in quick succession and yet a pall of uncertainty hangs over a possible route to a viable two-state solution in Palestine. Implicit in both events - the largely attended meeting in Annapolis, Maryland on November 26-27 and the just concluded donors conference in Paris - is a fresh recognition by the international community that in the final analysis the denial of Palestinian aspirations for statehood is the real locus of instability in the region.

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(settlement) Blocks To The Roadmap
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Israel Policy Forum
by Sadie Goldman With Jason Proetorius And Ipf Staff - (Analysis) December 21, 2007 - 3:26pm

On the heels of the first meeting of the Israeli-Palestinian negotiating team, Israel announced its approval of the construction of 307 new homes in Har Homa, a settlement south of East Jerusalem. The announcement produced strong and negative responses from the European Union, the United Nations, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, all of whom expressed the concern that Israel’s action was contrary to its Roadmap obligations to freeze settlement construction, as confirmed in the agreements reached at Annapolis.

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Letter To An Israeli In Christmas Time
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arabic Media Internet Network
by Dr. Bernard Sabella - December 20, 2007 - 4:59pm

This is the time of feasts and holidays. We are on our second day of Eid El Adha, the Muslim Feast of Sacrifice; Hanukkah, the Feast of Lights, was celebrated few days ago.   Christmas is around the corner. As we celebrate our separate holidays, it is clear that we have not yet found the middle ground that would enable all of us to genuinely share the celebrations of each other. There are many theories, academic arguments and practical reasons of why we have not yet arrived at the middle ground.

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Looking For A Home In Pisgat Ze'ev
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Danny Rubenstein - December 19, 2007 - 4:07pm

The separation fence surrounding eastern Jerusalem winds north of the city among the crowded houses of the Dahit al-Barid neighborhood. The wall is not finished and, in a few places, there are openings enabling passage (which confirms the graffiti drawn nearby by an Israeli tagger, "Yoram Arbel was right," i.e., this is not how you build a wall).

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Israeli Plan For Homes Near Jerusalem Under Fire
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Adam Entous, Ari Rabinovitch - December 19, 2007 - 3:36pm

Israel's Housing Ministry has drawn up a preliminary proposal to build new homes on occupied land near Jerusalem but Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office said on Wednesday the plan has not been authorised. The issue of Israeli settlement building in the Jerusalem area has clouded renewed peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians launched at a U.S.-sponsored conference last month.

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Har Homa Is Not In Jerusalem
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
by J.r. Almoslino - December 18, 2007 - 12:33pm

Israel announced a plan last week to build 307 new housing units in what most international media are calling "a Jewish neighborhood of East Jerusalem." Har Homa's white apartment blocs are draped on a hillside overlooking the city of Bethlehem, where I work. Like other West Bank settlements, it was erected on high ground, with the intention of intimidating the Palestinian population below. Spatially speaking, Har Homa is no more in Jerusalem than Bethehem itself is.

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Annapolis Unsettled
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Financial Times
(Editorial) December 18, 2007 - 12:30pm

The hopes raised by last month’s Annapolis conference on Middle East peace, at which Israel and the Palestinians undertook to negotiate a solution to the conflict by the end of next year, are already in danger of being dashed. Only days afterwards, the Israeli government gave the go-ahead to complete work on arguably the most contentious of its settlements on occupied Arab land.

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Blair's Uphill Battle To Revive Palestinian Economy
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Ian Black - (Special Report) December 18, 2007 - 12:26pm

It was hard to avoid the obvious seasonal message when Tony Blair, briefly playing the tourist, stayed overnight in Bethlehem recently: yes, there was room at the inn in the little West Bank town, a rare public vote of confidence in prospects for the Palestinian economy. Britain's former prime minister has been travelling incessantly since becoming the representative of the "Quartet" of Middle East peacemakers in the summer, and generally keeping a low profile.

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