December 20th

Experts: Extreme Rightists Will Use Violence If Settlements Are Evacuated
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Amoss Harel - December 20, 2007 - 4:55pm

Extreme right-wing activists are expected to use severe violence to disrupt any move to evacuate outposts or settlements, even the destruction of a few homes, according to an evaluation recently presented to the government by the security establishment and law enforcement officials in the territories. The evaluation states that the violence during any attempt at evacuation would be more serious than that seen during the evacuation of Amona two years ago.

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Paris Donors Conference For The Palestinian State: The Ball Is In Israel's Court
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Reut Institute
December 20, 2007 - 4:53pm

In light of yesterday's donor conference in Paris, the Reut Institute contends that the key to upgrading the PA's political status lies with Israel rather than with the donor countries. Yesterday, the Donors Conference for the Palestinian State (rather than the Palestinian Authority) was convened in Paris.

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Analysis: Palestinian Aid And Politics
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bbc News
by Jeremy Bowen - December 20, 2007 - 4:50pm

If delegates to the Palestinian donors' conference in Paris felt like a little light shopping after their work was done it was a mere step from their meeting hall to the Champs Elysees. If they had worked up an appetite, there are restaurants where a modest piece of grilled fish can cost more than 60 Euros (US $86).

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Bush To Make First Presidential Visit To Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Ewen Macaskill - December 20, 2007 - 4:48pm

President George Bush is to embark on a week-long tour of the Middle East in the new year to nudge Israelis and Palestinians towards an end to their decades-long conflict and to bolster an Arab coalition against Iran. It will be the first time in his seven years as president that Bush will have visited Israel, the West Bank, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states. Elaborate security planning is already under way in Israel and the Arab countries for the visit, which begins on January 8, given the level of hostility towards Bush in the Middle East over the Iraq war.

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Israeli Operations In Gaza Meet Little Resistance In Washington
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Nathan Guttman - December 20, 2007 - 4:46pm

As Israel stepped up air attacks on Gaza this week, the Bush administration refrained from blocking any measures or criticizing Israel’s activity. The Israeli Air Force last week renewed the practice known as “targeted killing” against members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group in Gaza. Israeli officials have said in recent weeks that if rocket fire against Israeli towns is not stopped, further escalation might be imminent, including a full-scale ground incursion into the Hamas-controlled strip.

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The Israel Lobby Revisited
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Foreign Policy In Focus
by Stephen Zunes - December 20, 2007 - 4:45pm

It has been 21 months since John Mearsheimer and Steve Walt published their article “The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy” in The London Review of Books and four months since their publication of a book by the same name. Their main arguments are that unconditional U.S. support for the Israeli government has harmed U.S. interests in the Middle East and that American organizations allied with the Israeli government have been the primary influence regarding the orientation of U.S. Middle East policy.

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For Israel's Arab Citizens, Isolation And Exclusion
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Scott Wilson - December 20, 2007 - 4:44pm

Fatina and Ahmad Zubeidat, young Arab citizens of Israel, met on the first day of class at the prestigious Bezalel arts and architecture academy in Jerusalem. Married last year, the couple rents an airy house here in the Galilee filled with stylish furniture and other modern grace notes.

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Hamas Calls For Truce With Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
by Sarah El Deeb - December 20, 2007 - 4:43pm

On Islam's most important holiday, the leader of Gaza's Hamas government appealed Wednesday for a cease-fire with Israel and said his people — battered by Israeli military strikes and international sanctions — are greeting this year's feast with "tears in our eyes." Hamas until it renounces violence and recognizes Israel, though one Cabinet minister said Israel might consider outside mediation with the Islamic militants.

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Israelis Cool To An Offer From Hamas On A Truce
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Isabel Kershner - December 20, 2007 - 4:42pm

Officials in the Israeli prime minister’s office reacted coolly on Wednesday to an indirect approach by the Hamas leader in Gaza offering talks on a truce. The offer was relayed through an Israeli reporter, Sleman al-Shafhe, of Channel 2 television. On a news broadcast on Tuesday night, Mr. Shafhe said Ismail Haniya, the leader of the Hamas government in Gaza, had called him earlier in the day to convey a message to the Israelis.

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December 19th

The Associated Press reports on Israeli reaction to the call by Hamas for a ceasefire with Israel (2.) The Washington Post examines the policies of separation and exclusion that Israel's non-Jewish Arab citizens face in a number of different areas (3.) In Foreign Policy In Focus, professor of politics at San Francisco university Stephen Zunes offers a mixed review of the two main arguments put forth by Professors Walt and Mearsheimer in their recently released book on the Israel lobby in the United States (4.) The BBC (UK) analyzes how much difference aid to the Palestinians can make to their daily lives (7.) The Reut Institute (Israel) publishes a post-Annapolis paper whose main contention is that the key to empowering the Palestinian Authority politically lies with Israel rather than with the international donor community (8.) Haaretz (Israel) reports on an Israeli government evaluation that extreme right-wingers in Israel will use violence to counter any illegal outpost or settlement evacuation from the occupied Palestinian territories (9.) Also in Haaretz, Amira Haas details the political jockeying behind the current Palestinian census, suspended in Gaza by Hamas (11.) An Amin (Palestine) opinion by member of the Palestinian National Council Bernard Sabella uses the occasion of the holidays to write an open letter to Israelis (13.)

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