Date
Type

November 9th

Olive Branch Blossoms Amid Harvest Of Fear
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Times
by James Hider - November 9, 2007 - 6:04pm

In an olive grove on the edge of Nablus, Fuad Amr and his sons keep one eye on the branches they are stripping and the other warily on the Jewish settlement that overlooks their land from a hilltop. The settlers could descend at any time to intimidate them or even beat them and steal the fruit of their labour, as happens every year across the West Bank in the olive season. The Palestinian farmers, however, have found unlikely allies - Jewish activists, some of them Orthodox rabbis, who risk violence to protect them.

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Has Hamas Split?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Economist
November 9, 2007 - 6:01pm

JUST how divided is Hamas? Since the Islamist party took over the Gaza Strip in June, after months of violent clashes with the rival, secular-minded Fatah faction, Israel and the rest of the world have imposed an economic siege on the strip. Many perceive signs that Hamas is splitting under the pressure. That, in turn, has raised the prospect of Hamas becoming a busted flush—or of a moderate wing emerging that could do business with Fatah, rebuild a broader Palestinian front and perhaps even agree to the conditions that would enable it to negotiate with Israel.

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Boosting The Slim Chances For Mideast Breakthrough
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Baltimore Sun
by Shibley Telhami - (Opinion) November 9, 2007 - 5:58pm

Should the imminent Israeli-Arab meeting in Annapolis inspire optimism? Critics of the Bush administration who have urged active peace diplomacy are hard-pressed to gainsay its seeming turnaround after years of neglect. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has convincingly projected seriousness, and many want to support her new activism. Even if the prospects for peace seem small, most breakthroughs in history come unexpectedly, often through surprising acts of leadership.

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High Stakes For Annapolis Peace Meet
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Inter Press Service (IPS)
by Ali Gharib - November 9, 2007 - 5:55pm

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas joined U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Ramallah Monday to express optimism that progress towards a Palestinian state could be made in the upcoming talks sponsored by the George W. Bush administration between Israeli and Palestinian leaders in Annapolis, Maryland. But many critics fear that the hastily thrown-together meeting has greater inherent risks than the participants are willing to acknowledge.

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The Jewish Lobby Israel Needs
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Akiva Eldar - (Opinion) November 9, 2007 - 5:51pm

The next few weeks may determine the future of Zionism. This is not an exaggeration. If the upcoming Annapolis peace conference ends the same way as the Camp David summit of 2000, the future of the Jewish state will be in jeopardy.

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Israel Flouts Pledge To Curb Settlements
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Richard Bourdreaux - November 9, 2007 - 5:47pm

Israel is enlarging 88 of its 122 West Bank settlements despite an agreement to halt the spread of Jewish communities in Palestinian territory, the watchdog group Peace Now said Wednesday. A report by the group, which documented the construction of new homes with aerial photography and on-site visits, heated up the debate here over a key issue for the U.S.-sponsored peace summit planned by year's end.

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Cheerleaders For Assassination
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Israel Policy Forum
by M.J. Rosenberg - (Opinion) November 9, 2007 - 5:46pm

Something terribly ugly is happening in Israel. It started during Yitzhak Rabin's term as prime minister when right-wing extremists and religious fanatics joined in calling for his death and it would seem to have culminated with his assassination. But the ugliness continues. Yigal Amir, Rabin's assassin, turned out to have been no "lone lunatic," no Lee Harvey Oswald or Sirhan Sirhan who acted for reasons that were perhaps psychological and not political.

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Palestinians Ease Demands For Conference
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
by Josef Federman - November 9, 2007 - 5:45pm

Encouraged by a conciliatory speech by Israel's prime minister, Palestinian negotiators have eased their demands that an upcoming U.S.-hosted peace conference lay out a plan for statehood, officials said Thursday. The Palestinians said they were pleased with Israeli pledges to resume peace talks after the conference this month — and were now less concerned with a pre-summit understanding that had bogged down earlier negotiations.

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Israel And Palestinians Turn To U.s. As Talks Hit Snag
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Wafa Amr - November 9, 2007 - 5:43pm

Palestinian and Israeli negotiators are turning to U.S. mediators to bridge serious gaps in drafting a common approach to peace negotiations, officials on both sides said on Thursday. A senior Palestinian negotiator told Reuters the two sides sought U.S. intervention on Tuesday after negotiators failed to resolve differences over a document they hope to present at a conference in the coming weeks in Annapolis, Maryland, that aims to set terms for relaunching peace talks.

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November 8th

The Associated Press examines the positive shift in tone by the Israelis and Palestinians regarding expectations for the upcoming Annapolis meeting (2.) The Los Angeles Times looks at the report by the Israeli group Peace Now concerning Israel's continuing settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank despite an agreement not to do so (4.) A Forward opinion by Israeli journalist Akiva Eldar warns that a failure of the Annapolis meeting will put the future of Israel in danger (5.) A Baltimore Sun opinion by Anwar Sadat professor of peace and development at the University of Maryland Shibley Telhami identifies the two factors that could adversely impact Mideast peacemaking (7.) The Economist (UK) looks into reports of discord within Hamas (8.) A Middle East Times editorial refers to the American Task Force on Palestine's approach of articulating the U.S. national interest in achieving Mideast peace through a two-state solution (10.) A Jordan Times (Jordan) opinion by George Hishmeh addresses the issue of Arab Jews who moved to Israel, in the context of the Palestinian refugee issue (11.) A Daily Star (Lebanon) opinion by Council on Foreign Relations president Richard Haass, published in collaboration with Project Syndicate, identifies five steps to take regarding the Mideast conflict in order to avoid failure at Annapolis (12.) Haaretz (Israel) reports on Israeli-Palestinian agreement that any future agreement between them will be conditional on implementation of Phase 1 of the Roadmap (14.)

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