Insubstantial Pageant
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
(Editorial) January 14, 2008 - 5:59pm

After all the supercharged talk of change in the primaries this week, George Bush's trip to the Middle East served as a reminder that America still has a way to go before it can wave goodbye to all that. As with the US summit in Annapolis last year, it is hard, even for the congenital optimist, to find much to cling on to after Mr Bush's first visit to the region as president. In Prospero's words, "the great globe itself, yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve and, like this insubstantial pageant faded, leave not a rack behind".

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January 14, 2008 - Vol. 9, Issue 19
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Americans For Peace Now
by Middle East Peace Report - January 14, 2008 - 5:53pm

EHUD VS. EHUD: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Ehud Barak have been trading barbs over Israel’s failure to evacuate settlement outposts built in violation of Israeli law and Israel’s commitments to the United States. During a media availability with Olmert, U.S. President George W. Bush displayed some impatience over this issue on Wednesday. He said: “Look, I mean, we’ve been talking about it for four years.  The agreement was, get rid of outposts, illegal outposts, and they ought to go.”

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Israel's Bethlehem Settlement Seen As Obstacle
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Telegraph
by Tim Butcher - January 11, 2008 - 3:51pm

The Israeli settlement of Har Homa crowns a hill on the south-eastern approach to Jerusalem and towers over the birthplace of Jesus. It is built on land occupied by Israel in the 1967 war - which makes it a "settlement" in the eyes of the world - and shot up the agenda when Israel announced recently that it planned to build 307 more homes there.

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Differing Opinions Fail To Dent Israel's Love Affair With Bush
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent
by Donald Macintyre - January 10, 2008 - 4:48pm

The Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, declared last night that Israel reserved the right to expand existing Jewish settlements in Arab East Jerusalem and in parts of the West Bank that it hopes to retain in any final peace deal.

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Bush Fails To Gain Concessions On Settlements From Olmert
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Rory Mccarthy - January 10, 2008 - 4:47pm

The Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, last night refused to rule out further settlement building in East Jerusalem and parts of the West Bank, highlighting the deep gulf between Israel and the Palestinians that confronts George Bush on his first visit to Israel and the West Bank as president. Against a backdrop of bristling security that accompanied the presidential visit, the Israeli prime minister said the US and the Palestinians knew there was an Israeli "moratorium" on new settlements and on the new expropriation of Palestinian land in the occupied territories.

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The President Has Arrived
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Miftah
by Joharah Baker - (Opinion) January 9, 2008 - 6:24pm

No doubt, the subject of the hour is US President George W. Bush’s visit to Israel and Palestine, which begins today, January 9. Both Israel and the Palestinians are taking extraordinary measures to ensure that Bush’s visit proceeds without a hitch. In Jerusalem, where the US President will be staying, a reported 8,000 Israeli police and security guards have been stationed for his protection.

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On First Trip To Israel, Bush Hopes To Inject Vigor Into Peace Talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Michael Abramowitz, Jonathan Finer - (Opinion) January 8, 2008 - 6:05pm

In the six weeks since Israeli and Palestinian leaders left Annapolis, Md., pledging to end "bloodshed, suffering and decades of conflict between our peoples," violence has escalated over long-standing territorial disputes and security concerns, leaving little optimism here on the eve of President Bush's visit that the fledgling dialogue will bring peace.

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January 7, 2008 - Vol. 9, Issue 18
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Americans For Peace Now
by Middle East Peace Report - January 8, 2008 - 6:04pm

NO OUTPOST CRACKDOWN, PART I: On the eve of President George W. Bush’s visit to Israel, Peace Now held a demonstration at the site of the largest unauthorized West Bank settlement outpost. This outpost, known as Migron, was constructed on privately-owned Palestinian land and the Israeli government has repeatedly expressed to the High Court of Justice its intention to remove it. At the rally, former Knesset Member and Peace Now leader Mossi Raz said that all illegal outposts “must be evacuated now, and the settlements as well.

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Israel Uses Absentee Land To Build Settlement
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
by Mohammed Mar’i - January 7, 2008 - 6:22pm

The Israeli Housing Ministry expropriated land belonging to residents from West Bank cities of Bethlehem and Beit Sahour in accordance with the “absentee law” for the construction of more than 1,000 housing units in East Jerusalem’s Har Homa settlement in Jabal Abu Ghneim. The ministry’s move is in violation of both an instruction from the Israeli Attorney General Menachem Mazuz to stop applying the absentee law in East Jerusalem and explicit promises by Israel to the United States that it will not apply that law in Jerusalem’s eastern quarters.

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Storm Grows Over Jerusalem District
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bbc News
by Martin Patience - January 7, 2008 - 6:19pm

Yellow cranes swivel in the winter sun on a hill in south-east Jerusalem; occasional bursts of drilling puncture the otherwise peaceful atmosphere. In almost any other part of the world this scene would go largely unnoticed. But for Israelis and Palestinians the issue of construction at Har Homa/Jabal Abu Ghneim has rapidly become a political battleground. The Israeli government announced plans last month to build 300 new apartments at the Har Homa development in occupied East Jerusalem, drawing a furious diplomatic response from the Palestinians.

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