November 30th

A Payoff For Syrians: Seats At The Table, At Least
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Helene Cooper - November 30, 2007 - 4:51pm

For almost three years, Syria has been in the diplomatic doghouse, shunned by the United States, disrespected by France, bombed by Israel and even scolded by its fellow Arab governments for cozying up to Iran. But now, in the post-Annapolis let’s-make-peace-in-the-Middle-East world, the kitchen door may have cracked slightly open to allow Syria back in the house.

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November 29th

The New York Times examines the changing attitudes towards Syria by the U.S. in light of Syrian attendance at Annapolis (1.) A Forward editorial draws hope for the future from the Annapolis meeting (3.) Reuters looks at the post-Annapolis challenges facing Palestinian president Abbas in terms of the question of Hamas (5.) The Guardian reports on frank statements by Israeli PM Olmert linking Israel's future survival with the two-state solution (8.) An Economist (UK) editorial is critical of President Bush for not offering more detail of his vision for a Palestinian state at Annapolis (9.) A Daily Star (Lebanon) opinion by Brandeis University visiting senior fellow and Palestinian economist Mohammed Samhouri stresses the importance of movement on the political front in facilitating Palestinian economic and development reform (11.) A Khaleej Times (UAE) opinion by Claude Salhani emphasizes the need for serious U.S. engagement and for both Israelis and Palestinians to compromise if Annapolis will result in success (12.) An Asharq Alawsat (pan Arab) opinion by editor-in-chief Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed argues that current peacemaking efforts hinge on President Bush (13.) A Haaretz (Israel) editorial draws a link between the Israeli settlement project and increasing parallels between Israel and South African apartheid (14.) In a Jerusalem Post (Israel) opinion, Israeli government minister Ami Ayalon sees the significance of Annapolis as being a critical juncture between the diminishing or strengthening of Hamas (16.)

Olmert To Haaretz: Two-state Solution, Or Israel Is Done For
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Aluf Benn, David Landau, Barak Ravid, Shmuel Rosner - November 29, 2007 - 5:11pm

"If the day comes when the two-state solution collapses, and we face a South African-style struggle for equal voting rights (also for the Palestinians in the territories), then, as soon as that happens, the State of Israel is finished," Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told Haaretz Wednesday, the day the Annapolis conference ended in an agreement to try to reach a Mideast peace settlement by the end of 2008.

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Peace Talks Are Likely To Fail, Just As The 'road Map' Did
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
by Rami Khouri - (Opinion) November 29, 2007 - 5:09pm

The Annapolis conference on Tuesday was full of lofty rhetoric, intriguing new promises, a few bold commitments, and a tantalizing cast of characters - alongside plenty of rehashed rhetoric, rigid positions, and regurgitated, failed diplomatic mechanisms. It left us with as many questions as answers about whether this was a serious Arab-Israeli peace-making endeavor, or a hoax garnished with Chesapeake Bay clam cakes.

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Time To Abandon Sectarianism
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
by George S. Hishmeh - (Opinion) November 29, 2007 - 5:07pm

The presence of a senior Syrian official at the Annapolis meeting that launched a new round of Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations has had a positive effect on the desperate search in Lebanon for a leader to assume the presidency after it was unceremoniously vacated last Friday. The attraction was not in the focus of the conclave but in at least one participant.

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Robert Fisk: A Different Venue, But The Pious Claims And Promises Are The Same
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent
by Robert Fisk - (Opinion) November 29, 2007 - 5:07pm

Haven't we been here before? Isn't Annapolis just a repeat of the White House lawn and the Oslo agreement, a series of pious claims and promises in which two weak men, Messrs Abbas and Olmert, even use the same words of Oslo. "It is time for the cycle of blood, violence and occupation to end," the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Tuesday. But don't I remember Yitzhak Rabin saying on the White House lawn that, "it is time for the cycle of blood... to end"?

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Still Waiting For Peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Leader - (Special Report) November 29, 2007 - 5:03pm

Serious negotiations do not normally take place at international conferences. They happen before or after them. If negotiations beforehand have been fruitful, a conference is a venue to publicise and formalise what has been agreed, or sometimes to settle one or two very difficult matters beyond the competence of the advance teams. On that test, Annapolis has not been a success. Palestinians and Israelis could not agree on a detailed joint document to put before the meeting.

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Us Takes Ownership Of Peace Process
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Financial Times
by Harvey Morris - November 29, 2007 - 5:02pm

When George W. Bush this week read out the words of what historians will no doubt come to call the Annapolis Declaration, the Israeli and Palestinian leaders peered over his shoulder as if trying to read for the first time the terms of the contract they had just signed. Low down in the fine print was a clause that handed the US president ownership of the peace process as monitor and judge of their performance during the remaining year of his term.

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Can Hope Triumph Over Mideast Experience?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from McClatchy News
by Dion Nissenbaum, Warren P. Strobel - November 29, 2007 - 5:01pm

The Wednesday morning newspapers trumpeting the latest fresh start toward peace between Israelis and Palestinians hadn't hit American doorsteps when the first crude Qassam rocket of the day soared out of the Gaza Strip and into southern Israel. Before lunch, Palestinian Authority police in the West Bank were using truncheons to break up angry mourners trying to bury a demonstrator who was killed a day earlier while protesting the new peace initiative.

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Grasp The Promise Of Annapolis
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Daniel Levy - (Opinion) November 29, 2007 - 4:58pm

Even the most hardened of Middle East cynics could be excused for momentarily feeling a fluttering of hope after witnessing the scenes at this week’s peace conference in Annapolis, Md.

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