October 22nd

Jericho Meeting ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News (Editorial) October 22, 2007 - 11:11am When Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert meet in the West Bank town of Jericho today to “try to narrow some of their differences,” there are not many in either of the camps or among their well-wishers outside who expect a spectacular breakthrough. » Read more

Elections One Way Out Of Impasse ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons by Hanan Ashrawi - (Interview) October 22, 2007 - 11:09am bitterlemons: President Mahmoud Abbas has called for early elections. Do you support the idea of early elections? Ashrawi: I support the idea of elections. I think elections are an absolutely necessary instrument of democracy and therefore the only way to settle disputes and allow the public to elect representatives and hold their representatives accountable. Elections are an essential tool for the creation of a responsible system of good governance. » Read more

Palestinians Struggle With 'three-state Solution' ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Financial Times by Harvey Morris - October 22, 2007 - 11:04am A gaggle of officious but otherwise friendly Hamas militiamen in smart camouflage-blue fatigues has replaced the solitary Fatah recruit who used to snooze at the first Palestinian checkpoint inside the Gaza Strip. With them and thousands of their fellow Executive Force personnel deployed throughout the Strip, a measure of calm has returned after the violence that marked the Islamists’ power struggle with the secular Fatah party. » Read more

Award-winning Film-maker's Death Divides Uk And Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent by Eric Silver - October 22, 2007 - 11:02am Britain and Israel face a diplomatic and legal showdown this week over the death of James Miller, an award-winning British film-maker who was shot by Israel soldiers while working on a documentary in the Gaza Strip more than four years ago. Israel has failed to respond to an ultimatum issued by Lord Goldsmith, the former attorney general, to his opposite number, Meni Mazuz, on 26 June to launch a criminal investigation within six weeks against the officer suspected of firing the fatal shot. The deadline expires tomorrow. » Read more

Gaza Voices ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bbc News October 22, 2007 - 11:01am MOHAMMED OMER, 23, JOURNALIST, RAFAH There have been some minor clashes between Islamic Jihad and Hamas in Rafah, but today all of Gaza is busy with the secondary school exam results, which have just come out. The Egyptian and Gaza border near the Rafah crossing The girl with the best results in all of the Gaza Strip is here in Rafah; she's one of my neighbours. But with the economic situation, I doubt she can do much. The Hamas government has said it will sponsor 10 students through university. » Read more

To Get On The Same Page ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Newsweek by Joanna Chen - October 22, 2007 - 10:59am Sami Adwan is the very model of a soft-spoken professor. He measures his words, and listens carefully to what others have to say. Yet while pursuing an education Ph.D. at the University of San Francisco in the 1980s, Adwan not only refused to listen to Jewish students, he says he dropped out of classes if he knew they included Jews. A Palestinian born in the village of Surif, near Hebron, Adwan had grown up under the shadow of the Israeli occupation, hearing tales from his father and grandfather of how Jews had seized the family's orange groves and wheat fields in 1948. » Read more

A Sort Of Peace In Gaza ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Time by Andrew Lee Butters - October 22, 2007 - 10:57am On Patrol in Shijaiyah, the toughest neighborhood in Gaza City, Lieut. Naim Ashraf Mushtaha, 31, an officer of the Hamas Executive Force, spots a man in civilian clothes carrying an M-16 assault rifle and walking through the street suqs in broad daylight. His officers quickly encircle the suspect and demand that he identify himself and turn over the weapon. The man turns out to be a member of one of the neighborhood's most powerful clans, and he refuses to give up his gun. "What's my name, boys?" he shouts to the gathering crowd of curious onlookers. » Read more

Israel's Intrepid Peacemakers ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Nation by Neve Gordon - October 22, 2007 - 10:54am Over the past five years the Israeli peace camp has dwindled. Last month marked the occupation's fortieth anniversary, but no more than 4,000 people reportedly gathered in Tel Aviv to protest Israel's longstanding military rule. Of the demonstrators who did show up, only a few hundred are what one could call ardent activists--people who have dedicated their life to peace and justice » Read more

Analysis-us Peace Effort Faces Middle East Credibility Gap ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters by Alistair Lyon - October 22, 2007 - 10:52am A U.S. plan to host a Middle East peace conference is intended to signal a new commitment to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But many in the region doubt President George W. Bush can muster the perseverance and evenhandedness in his last 17 months in office to deliver the two-state solution he evoked in 2002. Others fear an exercise in futility if the idea is to forge peace between Israel and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction without the consent of the elected government led by Hamas Islamists who have seized control of the Gaza Strip. » Read more

The Rush For A Legacy ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post by Jackson Diehl - October 22, 2007 - 10:48am In a speech to a meeting of democratic freedom fighters in Prague on June 5, President Bush announced a concrete mission for his State Department. "I have asked Secretary Rice," he said, "to send a directive to every U.S. ambassador in an unfree nation: Seek out and meet with activists for democracy. Seek out those who demand human rights." » Read more