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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Israeli Intends To Keep Jerusalem Areas
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
by Mark Lavie - December 10, 2007 - 7:00pm

A key ally of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Sunday that Israel will hold on to all Jewish neighborhoods of Jerusalem but would have to relinquish Arab neighborhoods in a peace agreement with the Palestinians. The comments by Vice Premier Haim Ramon appeared aimed at defusing U.S. criticism of an Israeli plan to expand one of its Jewish neighborhoods in east Jerusalem, the section Palestinians claim as capital of a future state.

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A Jewish Israel Needs A Wholesome, Healed Palestine
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
by Rami G. Khouri - (Opinion) December 7, 2007 - 5:48pm

One of the most complex and confounding elements that emerged during the run-up to the Annapolis meeting was the demand by several senior Israelis, and its parallel rejection by Palestinian officials, that the Palestinians recognise Israel as “a Jewish state” as a precondition for the start of talks.

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Us Criticises Israeli Homes Plan
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bbc News
December 7, 2007 - 5:38pm

The United States has voiced rare criticism of Israel, for its decision to build more homes on occupied land. "This doesn't help build confidence," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said after meeting Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni in Brussels. Israel said on Tuesday it had invited bids to build 300 new homes in Har Homa, a settlement in East Jerusalem. The Palestinians asked the US for help. Israel says it annexed the area in 1967 and so does not regard it as occupied.

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Rice Criticizes Israel On Settlement Building
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Ari Rabinovitch - December 7, 2007 - 5:29pm

Condoleezza Rice criticized Israel on Friday for planning to build new homes on occupied land in the Jerusalem area -- a move Palestinians say could wreck a peace process Rice helped launch last week in Washington. "We are in a time when the goal is to build maximum confidence with the parties and this doesn't help to build confidence," the U.S. Secretary of State said in rare public censure of Washington's closest ally in the Middle East.

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Young Israelis Resist Challenges To Settlements
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Isabel Kershner - December 7, 2007 - 5:27pm

SHVUT AMI OUTPOST, West Bank — For two months, Jewish youths have been renovating an old stone house on this muddy hilltop in the northern West Bank. The house is not theirs, however. It belongs to a Palestinian family. And their seizure of it along with the land around it for a new settlement outpost is a violation of Israeli law. The police have evicted the group five times but they keep coming back.

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Rebuffs That ‘diminish’ Bush’s Stature
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
December 6, 2007 - 4:44pm

The Bush administration has suffered three serious rebuffs since the Annapolis meeting at the end of November. The most dramatic was the rejection, on Monday, by all 16 of the United States’ intelligence agencies of administration claims that Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons.

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Promises Of Annapolis
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
by George S. Hishmeh - (Opinion) December 6, 2007 - 4:33pm

Now that the dust has settled on the recent Annapolis conference that promised to try and reach a Palestinian-Israeli settlement by the end of next year, it is time to review the event that was an unprecedented achievement for the lameduck Bush administration, particularly on the decades-old Arab-Israeli conflict that has been virtually neglected in Washington for nearly seven years.

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The Devastation Our Disunity Has Created
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Miftah
by Joharah Baker - (Opinion) December 5, 2007 - 5:02pm

This morning, Israeli forces killed yet another three Hamas activists in an air strike on Beit Lahiya in the Gaza Strip. Over the past two weeks, some 30 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli military forces, mostly in the Strip, even as Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak insists his army continues to hold out on wide scale military action there.

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