October 10th

So That Annapolis Will Not Be A Failure ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star by Rami Khouri - (Opinion) October 10, 2007 - 2:04pm The November Arab-Israeli peace-making meeting that US President George W. Bush has called for replays several similar moments in the past quarter-century, when gatherings were convened but did not achieve their full promise - at Madrid, Camp David, Taba and Oslo, among others. Will this year be any different? I hope so in my heart, but I do not think so, to judge by current political realities. » Read more

Israel Allows 3,500 Palestinians To Stay In Wb ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Deutsche Presse Agentur October 10, 2007 - 1:57pm The Israeli government has granted official residency status to 3,500 Palestinians who in the last decade entered the West Bank on Israeli-issued visitors’ visas but never left, Palestinian officials said Wednesday. Israel however did not grant official residency status to another 1,500 Palestinians residing illegally in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. » Read more

Mid-east Diary: Summit Prospects ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bbc News by Jeremy Bowen - October 10, 2007 - 1:53pm Another Middle East peace summit is coming up in the United States, but there are risks in holding summits on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and one of the main parties to the conflict, Hamas, is being excluded.  At the moment, the summit looks likely to start in Annapolis, Maryland, on 15 November. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas are having regular meetings about it. They are trying to produce an agreed document about the future. Mr Abbas wants more detail. Mr Olmert wants something pretty vague. » Read more

Palestinian Goes To Court To Challenge Arms Sales To Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Times October 10, 2007 - 1:52pm A Palestinian man today launched a High Court challenge to the legality of the Government’s grant of export licences for arms sales to Israel. Saleh Hasan, who claims Israel uses military equipment bought in Britain to repress Palestinians in violation of their human rights, has travelled to London for the case before Mr Justice Collins, expected to last two days. His counsel, Michael Fordham, QC, told the judge that the issue raised was one of significant and “wide public interest”. » Read more

Israeli Army Orders Confiscation Of Palestinian Land In West Bank ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian by Conal Urquhart - October 10, 2007 - 1:49pm The Israeli army has ordered the seizure of Palestinian land surrounding four West Bank villages apparently in order to hugely expand settlements around Jerusalem, it emerged yesterday. The confiscation happened as Israeli and Palestinian negotiators met to prepare the ground for a meeting hosted by President George Bush in the United States aimed at reviving a diplomatic solution to the conflict. » Read more

Pressure In Israel For Missile Defense ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor by Ilene Prusher - October 10, 2007 - 1:44pm The firing of a long-range Katyusha rocket into Israel from Gaza on Sunday has ratcheted up concerns here for the increased threat of missiles against the Jewish state. The weapon of choice of Palestinian militants in Gaza has been the Kassam rocket, which has relatively poor aim and short range, but has nonetheless caused damage and killed 14 Israelis and injured hundreds more, according to an Israeli government tally. » Read more

Abbas Wants Return To Pre-1967 Borders ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press by Mohammed Daraghmeh - October 10, 2007 - 1:42pm Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday laid out his most specific demands for the borders of a future independent state, calling for a full Israeli withdrawal from all territories captured in the 1967 Mideast war. Abbas' claim comes as Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams are trying to hammer out a joint vision for a future peace deal in time for a U.S.-hosted conference next month. » Read more

An Israeli Strike On Syria Kindles Debate In The U.s. ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Mark Mazzetti And Helene Cooper - October 10, 2007 - 1:37pm A sharp debate is under way in the Bush administration about the significance of the Israeli intelligence that led to last month’s Israeli strike inside Syria, according to current and former American government officials. At issue is whether intelligence that Israel presented months ago to the White House — to support claims that Syria had begun early work on what could become a nuclear weapons program with help from North Korea — was conclusive enough to justify military action by Israel and a possible rethinking of American policy toward the two nations. » Read more

Israel's Rising Right Wing ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Salon.com by Gregory Levey - October 10, 2007 - 1:33pm One of this year's nominees for Israeli TV's "Man of the Year in Politics" award doesn't speak Hebrew. He has vast wealth and a shady past. He was once a circus worker. He isn't even a politician, at least not yet. » Read more

Twin Mideast Peace Concerts Rouse Skepticism, Rancor ATFP World Press Roundup Article from McClatchy News by Dion Nissenbaum - October 10, 2007 - 1:28pm It might sound like an inspirational convergence along the lines of John Lennon's antiwar ballad "Give Peace a Chance": twin concerts in which thousands of Israelis join thousands of Palestinians to call for an end to a demoralizing conflict that often looks as if it will go on forever. Except that this is the Middle East, where even a peace concert can become a raucous political battleground. » Read more