December 28th

The Right To Explode In Anger ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Amira Hass - December 28, 2007 - 4:01pm The negotiations over the future of our land, from the sea to the river, and the two peoples living in it, are proceeding along two parallel channels. It has been that way since the Madrid and Oslo talks for 17 years now. One channel is between the Palestinians and Israelis - such as Tuesday's meeting in Jerusalem between chief Palestinian negotiator Ahmed Qureia and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. The other is being conducted between the Israelis and themselves. Will the only genuine point of contact between these two channels be another explosion of blood, as occurred in 1996 and 2000? » Read more

Declaration Of Fatigue ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Yonatan Yavin - (Opinion) December 28, 2007 - 3:59pm Many decades from now, when Palestinians and Israelis, Jews and Arabs, will be living side by side, our grandchildren and great grandchildren will be comforting each other over their fathers’ folly and stubbornness. When the cursed regional “situation” will stabilize, and a Jew will sit down for coffee with his Arab neighbor, both of them will rub their eyes with amazement and ask: What was the commotion all about? » Read more

Settlements Have To Go ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Miftah by Joharah Baker - (Opinion) December 28, 2007 - 3:56pm Unsurprisingly, the newly resumed peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians stalled yet again, this time over the highly-charged issue of Israeli settlements, which despite past commitments, Israel has continued to expand. On December 24, the two sides met for the second time since the Annapolis peace conference in November, but came out of the meeting empty handed, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat describing the meeting as “very difficult.” » Read more

Negotiating Solutions ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times (Editorial) December 28, 2007 - 3:54pm It is fine that the Palestinian delegation to the bilateral negotiations with Israel should refuse to negotiate anything other than a freeze on settlement building. It is a shame that the Palestinian side should have granted Israel the diplomatic victory of Annapolis before such a principled stand could be reached. » Read more

Israel Needs To Act Like A Partner, Not A Policeman ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star (Editorial) December 28, 2007 - 3:52pm Israel's accusation that Egypt is not doing enough to control its border with Gaza and stem the flow of weapons into the Hamas-controlled territory is nothing short of absurd. The suggestion that Egypt is secretly colluding with Hamas in Gaza is laughable, not least of all because of the long-standing animosity between the Egyptian regime and Islamists. » Read more

Palestinian Gas Project "is Wrecked By Israel" ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Telegraph by Tim Butcher - December 28, 2007 - 3:51pm An offshore gas project in the Mediterranean, which could have earned desperately needed revenue for the Palestinian economy, is in ruins after negotiations to sell the fuel to Israel collapsed. Industry sources blamed Israel for the failure of negotiations with the British multinational BG Group after the Jewish state repeatedly reduced its offer price for the gas. "This meant that from the off the project would struggle to be economic," one source told The Daily Telegraph. » Read more

Glimmers Of Mideast Peace Rise From Ashes ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Star by Oakland Ross - December 28, 2007 - 3:47pm Where would the Middle East be without another war? No one knows, because every passing year seems to bring with it a new armed conflict, and 2007 was no exception, producing a brief but bloody outbreak of fraternal killing that has sharply divided some 3 million Palestinian people, while plunging the inhabitants of the Gaza Strip into even greater depths of misery. Paradoxically, however, the five-day shootout that splintered Palestinians this past June also ignited the first glimmers of peace this region has known in seven years. » Read more

A West Bank Struggle Rooted In Land ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times by Richard Bourdreaux - December 28, 2007 - 3:25pm From his hilltop farm, Daoud Nassar can see the sun rise over the Jordan Valley and set in the Mediterranean, an arc that spans the territorial breadth of his people's conflict with Israel. He also can see the neighbors whose rival claim has drawn the idyllic 100-acre plot deeply into that fight. The only large Palestinian property to occupy high ground in this part of the West Bank, it is ringed by expanding Jewish settlements and coveted by the one perched on the nearest hill, 800 yards away. » Read more

If I Forget Thee...’ ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward (Editorial) December 28, 2007 - 3:23pm It always happens when Israel approaches a peace agreement with the Palestinians: Noisy voices of protest arise within the American Jewish community, arguing that Israel misjudges the Palestinians, doesn’t understand the terrain, doesn’t understand the Middle East as well as rabbis in Brooklyn or lawyers and electronics salesmen in Philadelphia. So it is today. » Read more

Middle East Bog ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post (Editorial) December 28, 2007 - 3:20pm IT'S BEEN one month since Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met in Annapolis to launch the first Middle East peace negotiations in seven years. When they meet again today, they will have cause to reflect on how much can go wrong when the world's most notoriously difficult "peace process" is taken over by official negotiators, government bureaucrats and military commanders. Far from beginning to hammer out the two-state settlement that Mr. Olmert and Mr. » Read more