Palestinians Demand Halt To Settlements As Peace Talks Begin
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by David Batty - December 12, 2007 - 5:29pm

The first formal Middle East peace negotiations in seven years got off to a tense start today with the Palestinian Authority demanding a halt to Israeli plans to build settlements on disputed territory. Palestinian negotiators said the planned construction in the Har Homa neighbourhood in disputed east Jerusalem, along with Israeli military activity in Gaza, threatened to undermine the new peace talks.

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Creative Approaches Needed In Mideast Peace Talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Philadelphia Inquirer
by Eric Trager - (Opinion) December 12, 2007 - 5:21pm

The Annapolis Conference heralded a new strategy in Middle East peacemaking. Whereas conventional wisdom held that domestically strong Israeli and Arab leaders were a prerequisite for fruitful negotiations, Annapolis attempted to work backward, using negotiations to strengthen two very weak leaders.

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Israel, Palestinians Launch Peace Talks In Discord
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Wafa Amr, Adam Entous - December 12, 2007 - 5:15pm

The first peace talks in seven years between Israel and the Palestinians opened in discord on Wednesday with the Palestinians demanding a halt to settlement building and Israel calling for a crackdown on militants. The tensions, coming just two weeks after a U.S.-sponsored peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland, highlighted the difficulties ahead for negotiators trying to reach agreement on a Palestinian state before U.S. President George W. Bush leaves office in January 2009.

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Building Momentum For Peace
In Print by Ziad Asali - The Washington Times (Opinion) - December 12, 2007 - 1:00am

In the wake of the resuscitation of peace talks on the Middle East achieved at the Annapolis meeting, security issues will be among the most crucial to building on this momentum.

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Hamas Asks Us To Free Gaza 'ghetto'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Australian
by Martin Chulov - December 11, 2007 - 1:45pm

THE Hamas rulers of Gaza have implored the US to bring an end to the crippling boycott of the Gaza Strip, which they have likened to the World War II siege of Warsaw's Jewish Ghetto.

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Siege That Spells Slow Death For The Innocents
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Sunday Herald
by Ed Oloughlin - December 10, 2007 - 7:09pm

FOR three weeks, seven-month-old Mohammed Abu Amra has been lying in Gaza's main paediatric hospital, suffering from immune deficiency and suspected cystic fibrosis. His doctors do not have the drug they need to relieve his symptoms, which include fever and distressed breathing, racking his thin ribs at almost twice the healthy rate of breaths per minute.

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Gaza's Donkeys In Demand As Fuel Crisis Mounts
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent
by Donald Macintyre - December 10, 2007 - 7:07pm

It's not surprising the buyers at yesterday's weekly donkey market here were looking over their prospective purchases with care. They opened the jaws of the tolerant beasts to examine their teeth, and test-drove them, harnessed to a cart, out of the crowded yard to gauge their pulling power.

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Annapolis Outcome "proves Arab Failure"
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Inter Press Service (IPS)
by Khaled Moussa Al-omrani, Adam Morrow - December 10, 2007 - 7:05pm

n the wake of last month's Annapolis conference, some quarters of Arab officialdom express optimism that the talks might yet lead to a settlement of the perennial Israel-Palestine conflict. Many independent analysts, however, saw the event as little more than an exercise in submission. "Annapolis was proof of total Arab failure," Gamal Zahran, political science professor at the Suez Canal University and independent parliamentarian, told IPS. "It confirmed the ability of the Zionist U.S. administration to force its will on Arab capitals."

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December 10, 2007 - Vol. 9, Issue 14
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Americans For Peace Now
by Middle East Peace Report - December 10, 2007 - 7:02pm

ADDING A WALL IN JERUSALEM: Israel issued a tender Tuesday for the construction of 307 new homes in Har Homa, an East Jerusalem neighborhood near Bethlehem. Har Homa, where about 4,000 Israelis now live, lies in territory that Israel de facto annexed in 1967 in an act that also expanded Jerusalem’s municipal boundaries.  

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Made In Palestine
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Yotam Feldman - December 7, 2007 - 5:59pm

RAMALLAH - The streets here were tumultuous on the last Tuesday of November, the day the Annapolis conference opened. The Palestinians who didn't watch the proceedings on television streamed onto the streets, and a small demonstration in Manara Square by opponents of the summit escalated into a violent clash with the Palestinian police, who used truncheons and teargas to disperse the crowd.

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