New face of law and order in the West Bank
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Times
by Mick Hume - December 16, 2008 - 1:00am

The traffic policeman doing Michael Jackson-esque moves outside the Stars and Bucks café in busy Ramallah attracts a lot of attention. To many however, the sight of any Palestinian uniform in the West Bank is still a novelty. The dancing policeman is the face of a new force — trained in Jordan with US and European support — in an attempt to establish Palestinian law and order in the West Bank.

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Wanted: an Israeli peace initiative
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Tony Klug - (Opinion) December 16, 2008 - 1:00am

As any serious observer of the Israeli-Palestinian tragedy can testify, partisan enthusiasts of either side are very good at telling everyone else what they should think, where they are wrong and how they should behave. The Israeli ambassador to London, Ron Prosor is, to be fair, not alone in ploughing this path. I counted a total of 11 such imperatives in his brief article for the Guardian last week.

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Rice cites Mideast peace moves
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
December 16, 2008 - 1:00am

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said at a farewell UN appearance Monday that Israel and the Palestinians had moved much further along the path to peace since US President George W. Bush brought their leaders together a year ago, though they won't clinch an agreement by the end of the year.

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Palestinians celebrate release from Israeli jails
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Ali Sawafta - December 16, 2008 - 1:00am

Israel released 224 prisoners in a goodwill gesture to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday, prompting joyous family reunions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Families sang and danced as prison buses rolled up full of newly freed men, shouting and waving from the windows, and mothers wept as they embraced their children. Abbas greeted them individually with kisses on the cheeks at his office in Ramallah, the seat of his government, but said Israel should release all Palestinians it was holding.

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Q&A with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Asharq Alawsat
by Ali al-Saleh - December 16, 2008 - 1:00am

In this in-depth interview, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas talks to Asharq Al-Awsat on a range of issues including the recent inter-Palestinian talks held in Cairo, Hamas, the Israeli blockade, the Bush administration and the future of the Arab-Israeli peace process. Q) Let us begin with the inter-Palestinian talks in Cairo; did Hamas boycott the talks because some of its members were imprisoned in the West Bank?

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Time to end the settlement project
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Ghassan Khatib - (Opinion) December 15, 2008 - 1:00am

The recent settler violence in Hebron, which was described by Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, as a pogrom, brought to the attention of Israelis and Palestinians the grave danger that settlements and settlers represent.

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Negotiator: Israel wants 6.8 percent of West Bank
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
by Aron Heller - December 15, 2008 - 1:00am

Israel proposed to annex 6.8 percent of the West Bank and to take in a few thousand refugees under a peace deal, but it has not revealed its position on the most contentious issue _ the future of Jerusalem, the chief Palestinian negotiators said Friday night. Ahmed Qureia said the Palestinian side did not consider the ideas presented on annexation and the return of some Palestinians to be acceptable.

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Top US diplomat on the Middle East David Welch Urges Effective Diplomacy on Iran and Continuity on the Peace Process
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Dar Al-Hayat
by Joyce Karam - December 15, 2008 - 1:00am

With less than five weeks left for the Bush administration in office, the top U.S. diplomat to the Middle East, Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs David Welch, speaks to Al-Hayat in an exclusive interview discussing the long journey that Washington has taken in the region over the last eight years. The U.S. official who brokered the U.S.-Libyan comprehensive claims settlement agreement, calls for an effective diplomacy in the face of the increasing Iranian threat, and sees urgency in continuing the peace process and pursuing a two state solution:

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Palestinian PM Fayyad says West Bank settlement must end for peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Ian Black - December 15, 2008 - 1:00am

Settlement activity in the occupied West Bank must stop at once if there is to be any prospect of reaching a two-state peace agreement with Israel, the Palestinian prime minister has warned in a Guardian interview. Salam Fayyad said he found it "devastating" that Israelis were not even debating the settlement issue in their election campaign. He warned that Palestinian support for his policy of reform and negotiation would collapse if prospects for a workable deal faded away. Palestinian PM Salam Fayyad talks to Ian Black Link to this audio

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Israeli settlements are blockage to Middle East peace, says Gordon Brown
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Andrew Sparrow - December 15, 2008 - 1:00am

Israeli settlements on the West Bank represent a "blockage" in the Middle East peace process, Gordon Brown said today. At a news conference in Downing Street with Salam Fayyad, the prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, Brown said he had consistently called for the settlements to be dismantled. Brown and Fayyad spoke before the opening in London of a two-day Palestine trade and investment forum, which is intended to promote Palestinian economic development.

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