December 28th

The View From Bethlehem ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times by Jonathan Power - (Opinion) December 28, 2007 - 4:41pm Perhaps the biggest single irony of Western history is best understood by standing in the town square of Bethlehem, allowing one’s gaze to pass over the rooftop of the church that covers the stable where Jesus was supposedly born, and let one’s eye drift into the blue sky beyond and thinking: how on earth could it be that the Christians, whose belief in the divine centre around Jesus’ crucifixion carried out by Roman soldiers but done at the behest of the Jewish populace, could turn round nearly two millennia later and say to the Jews in effect: we buy the argument that yo » Read more

Backward, Christian Soldiers, Marching As To Peace ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Miftah by Daoud Kuttub - December 28, 2007 - 4:40pm During the run-up to the 1998 Christmas celebrations, U.S. president Bill Clinton, along with his wife, Hillary, and daughter, Chelsea, visited the Palestinian town of Bethlehem to light up the Christmas tree in Manger Square, outside the Church of the Nativity. With that symbolic visit, and the understanding that Mr. Clinton was showing to the needs of the region, Palestinians of all faiths had high hopes that the decades-long Arab-Israeli conflict might soon end. It didn't. » Read more

West Bank Houses "killing Peace Process" ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Times by Sheera Frenkel - (Opinion) December 28, 2007 - 4:33pm A meeting between Ehud Olmert, the Israeli Prime Minister, and Mahmoud Abbas, the President of the Palestinian Authority, failed yesterday to resolve a growing crisis over the construction of Jewish settlements that has stalled peace negotiations since the Annapolis summit last month. The meeting at Mr Olmert’s Jerusalem residence was the first between the two leaders since the talks in Maryland, where they set the goal of reaching a statehood agreement before President Bush leaves office in January 2009. » Read more

Olmert, Abbas Try To Revive Talks ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bbc News December 28, 2007 - 4:31pm Palestinian and Israeli leaders have pledged to press on with peace talks despite a continuing row about Jewish settlement activity. Mahmoud Abbas urged Ehud Olmert to stop building homes for Jews in occupied East Jerusalem, officials said. Israel has said the hundreds of new homes in the Har Homa settlement are within existing boundaries. Follow-up peace efforts since the US-sponsored Annapolis summit last month have been paralysed by the issue. » Read more

Building Roadblocks To Peace ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Middle East Times (Editorial) December 28, 2007 - 4:27pm More roadblocks have sprung up on the Middle East road map to peace since the grand reunion organized by U.S. President George W. Bush at Annapolis just a few weeks ago, and where Israeli and Palestinian leaders promised to work toward a peaceful settlement of the 60-year conflict. » Read more

Challenges 2007-2008: Gates Led Realist Resurgence In ‘07 ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Inter Press Service (IPS) by Jim Lobe - (Opinion) December 28, 2007 - 4:26pm 2007 will likely go down in U.S. history as the year in which the balance of power in the long-running struggle between hawks and realists in the administration of President George W. Bush shifted decisively in favour of the latter. » Read more

Soft Drink Fizz Goes Flat In Gaza ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Time by Tim Mcgirk - December 28, 2007 - 4:25pm Every closed factory has its own kind of unbearable silence. The Yazegi Group's soft-drink plant in Gaza, with its maze of metal tubes and conveyor belts all switched off, has the hush of a futuristic mausoleum. Marketing manager Ammar Yazegi pauses beside empty 7Up bottles stacked in perfect emerald-green cubes up to the rafters and says, "I miss the music of the machines and workers. It's a beautiful noise. This silence drives me crazy." » Read more

Gop Leader Calls For Revisions To Fatah Movement’s Outdated Charter ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward by Nathan Guttman - December 28, 2007 - 4:23pm A push by right-wing American Jewish activists to change the constitution of the governing Palestinian party is gaining momentum in Congress, even as Israelis are dismissing the document as “irrelevant,” and the umbrella body of American Jewish organizations has voted against taking up the issue. » Read more

Israeli And Palestinian Leaders Meet To Ease Tensions ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Steven Erlanger - December 28, 2007 - 4:19pm The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, and the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, met here on Thursday to try to dispel the tensions of recent days, and they recommitted themselves to refrain from acts that would prejudice a final peace treaty while they try to negotiate one, officials from both sides said. » Read more

Olmert Seeks To Tighten Grip On West Bank Building ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters by Ari Rabinovitch - December 28, 2007 - 4:15pm Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has ordered the Housing Ministry not to unilaterally issue any additional building permits on occupied land in the West Bank, Israeli officials said on Friday. Olmert was caught off guard by a series of Housing Ministry announcements on settlements that have opened a rift in month-old peace talks with the Palestinians, the officials said on condition of anonymity. » Read more