January 4th, 2008

The Tribal Dynamics Of Old Play Out Again In The Middle East ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward by Yossi Alpher - (Opinion) January 4, 2008 - 2:29pm The system of Middle East states as we know it today was largely imposed upon the wreckage of the Ottoman Empire by England and France, the victorious European powers of World War I. Judging by the current state of affairs, they did not do a very good job. » Read more

Inside Track: Spoiling To Spoil ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National Interest by Barbara Slavin - (Opinion) January 4, 2008 - 2:28pm On his first—and probably last—major trip to the Middle East, President Bush has a final chance to reorient and reinvigorate U.S. diplomacy in the region. If the past is any guide, however, Bush will miss another opportunity to reach out to U.S. adversaries and diminish their motivation to play the spoiler. » Read more

What Palestinians Will Do With $7.4 Billion ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor by Ilene Prusher - January 4, 2008 - 2:27pm When donors met in Paris last month and awarded $7.4 billion in aid to the Palestinians, a larger-than-expected package to be distributed over the next three years, many in the international community showed a new readiness to support the new Israeli-Palestinian peace push and provide a safety net for it in the form of economic stability. » Read more

White House Downplays Bush Mideast Trip ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press by Jennifer Loven - January 4, 2008 - 2:26pm President Bush's aides all but ruled out a three-way meeting with Israeli and Palestinian leaders during his upcoming Mideast visit and dampened hopes that the president's high-profile travels would make tangible progress toward peace. "Just his going there is going to advance the prospects," Stephen Hadley, Bush's national security adviser, said Thursday. "We're not looking for headline announcements." » Read more

Israel Settlement Growth An "impediment": Bush ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters by Matt Spetalnick - January 4, 2008 - 2:25pm U.S. President George W. Bush on Thursday called Israeli settlement expansion an "impediment" to revived peace efforts in rare criticism of the Jewish state less than a week before his first presidential visit there. In an interview with Reuters, Bush voiced optimism for securing an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal by the end of 2008, a goal set at November's Annapolis conference that has been viewed with widespread skepticism. He also acknowledged that obstacles remained after decades of Middle East conflict. » Read more

Palestinian Pm Assails Israel Over West Bank Raids ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters by Mohammed Assadi - January 4, 2008 - 2:22pm Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad criticized Israel on Friday for mounting a major military sweep in the West Bank, saying such intervention was ruining a Western-backed internal Palestinian security plan. Hundreds of Israeli troops flooded Nablus on Wednesday, conducting house-to-house searches, detaining at least 6 Palestinians. The move triggered a confrontation with stone-throwing youths in which, hospital officials said, at least 29 people were injured. » Read more

Israeli Operations Kill 9 In Gaza ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post by Jonathan Finer - January 4, 2008 - 2:21pm Israeli forces launched military operations in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank early Thursday, hours before a Katyusha rocket fired from Gaza crashed down harmlessly near the Israeli city of Ashkelon. At least nine Palestinians were killed during Israeli tank and helicopter attacks in Gaza, including five members of a family killed near the central city of Khan Younis, Palestinian officials said. » Read more

January 3rd

Bush's Final Effort ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz (Editorial) January 3, 2008 - 5:46pm President George Bush will complete his second term in the White House in one year and two weeks, at his successor?s inauguration. Bush?s final year in office is already under the shadow in the battle over succession. Because of this, the U.S. media is expected to focus during his visit to the region next week on the first formal stages of the nominating process of the two main parties in Iowa and in New Hampshire, rather than on Bush?s meetings with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. » Read more

Pa Takes Back The Keys To A Key City ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Avi Issacharoff - January 3, 2008 - 5:45pm Four young women from the Nablus neighborhood of Rafidiyeh went into a shop yesterday near the clock square in the center of Nablus. Dressed in the trendiest jeans and blouses, they were looking for fashionable leather bags. Two minutes later they came out empty-handed, disappointed at not finding what they wanted. » Read more

Our Violent Presence ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Amira Hass - January 3, 2008 - 5:40pm There is no Israeli whose presence in the West Bank is neutral. Civilian or armed, soldier or woman settler, resident of a quality-of-life settlement or a nearby outpost, MahsomWatch activist or guest at a settlement, Bezek worker or client at a Palestinian garage. All of them, all of us, are in this Palestinian territory, in the West Bank, because our state occupied it in 1967. » Read more