Date
Type

October 16th

Us 'wants Palestinian State Now'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bbc News
October 16, 2007 - 12:48pm

The US secretary of state has said it is time for a Palestinian state to be founded, and that the US will put its full weight behind such efforts. Condoleezza Rice said reaching a two-state solution was a priority for her and US President George Bush. Ms Rice was speaking from the West Bank, where she has been trying to get agreement for a peace summit in the US. Meanwhile the Israeli PM has hinted he may consider giving up Palestinian districts in Jerusalem in a peace deal.

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Us Presses Palestinians And Israel To Find Common Ground
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Ian Black - (Special Report) October 16, 2007 - 12:46pm

 The US yesterday urged Israel and the Palestinians to work to overcome their differences before an international conference next month even as a top UN expert lambasted the "Quartet" of Middle East peacemakers for failing to promote Palestinian rights.

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Politics: Another Mideast Envoy Fed Up With Quartet
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Inter Press Service (IPS)
by Haider Rizvi - October 16, 2007 - 12:45pm

The United Nations has come under strong criticism from one of its own top human rights officials for failing to take effective action to check the ongoing Israeli abuses in the occupied Palestinian territories. Expressing his anger and frustration at the fast-deteriorating human rights situation in Gaza and the West Bank, John Dugard, the U.N. special rapporteur on human rights for the Palestinian territories since 2001, has suggested that the world body quit the Middle East Quartet.

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How About A Peace Lobby?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from International Herald Tribune
by Daniel Levy - (Opinion) October 16, 2007 - 12:42pm

After seven lean years, Israeli-Palestinian peace talks are back on the agenda for a planned summit meeting next month in Annapolis, Maryland. Intriguingly, the return of the peace process coincides with an unusual public debate taking place in America regarding the U.S.-Israel relationship following the attention received by a book about the Israel lobby.

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Rice Seeks To Marginalize Hamas
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Ashraf Khalil - October 16, 2007 - 12:39pm

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Monday expressed hope that a successfully negotiated vision of a Palestinian state would marginalize the militant group Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip.

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The Israeli Right Has A Peace Plan
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Letter From Israel/antiwar.com
by Ran Hacohen - (Blog) October 16, 2007 - 12:36pm

While the world holds its breath in anticipation of the Mideast Summit in Annapolis – which, no doubt, will constitute a historic landmark, giving a most significant boost to the economy of that small town in Maryland – the Israeli right wing comes up with a new peace initiative, launched by MK Benny Elon, chairman of the National Union and the Moledet Party, as "The Israeli Initiative," "a new way of thinking about the conflict, in learning from our mistakes, and in rereading the regional map toward a revitalized and genuine quest to achiev

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Rice Pushes Mideast Parties On Plan To Revive Peace Talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Michael Abramowitz - October 16, 2007 - 12:26pm

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pressed Israelis and Palestinians on Monday to compromise on a plan to jump-start peace negotiations, describing the ending of their long conflict as one of the top goals of President Bush in the 15 months he has left in office.

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Rice Hints At Timing Of Mideast Talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Steven Lee Myers - October 16, 2007 - 12:24pm

It has officially been a secret of American diplomacy, if not a particularly well-kept one: the time and place of the international conference called by President Bush to begin negotiating peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians.   Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice with the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, in Ramallah. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Monday lifted the secrecy and, perhaps, nudged the process forward.

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Mideast Summit Faces Huge Challenges
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
by Steven Gutkin - October 16, 2007 - 12:22pm

Israel keeps building settlements, Islamic militants are in control in Gaza and both the Israelis and the Palestinians have politically vulnerable leaders. All that will make it difficult to implement an agreement even if the two sides agree on a path to peace at a summit next month. Weighing heavily on the U.S.-brokered summit is memory. Everyone remembers the steep price paid for the failure of the last round of peacemaking in 2001: thousands killed in years of Israeli-Palestinian fighting that broke out months after the talks fell apart.

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October 15th

The Associated Press looks at how the memory of the failed Camp David talks in 2001 is weighing heavily on the parties to the Mideast fall meeting (2.) The Washington Post examines the efforts by Secretary Rice to bridge the gap between Israelis and Palestinians during her current trip to the region (4.) In his periodic 'Letter From Israel' Ran Ha Cohen looks at the newly released 'peace initiative' by the Israeli far Right (5.) An International Herald Tribune opinion by Century Foundation and New America Foundation senior fellow Daniel Levy urges the construction of an alliance of peace camp groups to counter the hawkish right-wing constituency in the U.S. (7.) In BitterLemons (Israel/Palestine) Israeli professor of government Galia Golan looks at the confluence of factors making the fall Mideast meeting a genuine opportunity for furthering Israeli-Palestinian peace (11.) Haaretz (Israel) presents the latest Peace Index Project polling of the Israeli people on the fall meeting (13.) Also in Haaretz, Akiva Eldar analyzes the three alternatives available to President Bush regarding the substance of the fall meeting and each alternative's supporters (15.)

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