November 29th

Mideast Peacemaking: Hard Work Begins
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
by Anne Gearan - November 29, 2007 - 4:57pm

President Bush savored his Rose Garden moment Wednesday, celebrating the beginning of a new Mideast peace push with smiling Israeli and Palestinian leaders. It might be a long time until he gets another such opportunity. The old bugaboos of Mideast peacemaking remain unsolved and there are fresh obstacles that will make Bush's job as shepherd even harder. The U.S. role in new negotiations is deliberately vague, but Bush and his envoys are expected to prod and monitor both sides and intervene directly if talks founder.

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In Mideast Peace Process, How Big A Role Will Bush Play?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Howard Lafranchi - November 29, 2007 - 4:57pm

After President Bush's high-profile speech Tuesday at the Annapolis meeting on Middle East peace and Wednesday's scheduled Rose Garden appearance with the Israeli and Palestinian leaders, there are still questions about just how involved the United States will be in the relaunched negotiations. How intense a role will Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who has logged more than 100,000 miles this year addressing the conflict, now play? Will the administration name a special envoy to monitor progress in specific areas?

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Arabs Return From Summit Uneasy And Skeptical
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Jeffrey Fleishman - November 29, 2007 - 4:56pm

This week's Middle East conference in Annapolis, Md., has highlighted Arab unease over the ability and will of a weak U.S. president to deliver peace. At the same time, it has stoked fears that Israel has scored a public relations coup while refusing to concede on such core issues as Palestinian refugees and the fate of Jerusalem.

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Annapolis Talks Prompt Much Doubt, A Few Jokes, In Mideast
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Ellen Knickmeyer, Scott Wilson - November 29, 2007 - 4:55pm

A day after their leaders announced a new push for peace, Israelis and Palestinians returned Wednesday to a familiar and deadly routine, deeply skeptical over the timetable set for the talks and whether an end to the conflict is achievable at all in the current political climate. In cafes and blogs in the Arab world, the Annapolis conference prompted little more than wisecracks. Commentators made much of a linguistic coincidence: In Arabic, "ana polis" means "I am the police."

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Palestinian State Crucial For Israel, Olmert Says
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Rebecca Harrison, Ori Lewis - November 29, 2007 - 4:53pm

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said after peace talks in Washington that failure to negotiate a two-state solution with the Palestinians could threaten Israel's long-term survival. A day after Israel and the Palestinians formally relaunched negotiations, Olmert's comments appeared in Thursday's Haaretz newspaper on the 60th anniversary of the passing of a U.N. resolution to partition British-run Palestine between Jews and Arabs -- a two-state solution that still eludes them.

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An Opportunity For Peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Boston Globe
by Rafi Dajani - (Opinion) November 29, 2007 - 4:38pm

THE IMPORTANCE of the Annapolis meeting on Middle East peace was not in the joint statement it produced, or in the speeches of the American, Israeli, and Palestinian leaders. Rather, it is in the real opportunity that the meeting has created for peace.

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Rice’s Way: Restraint In Quest For Peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Helene Cooper - (Analysis) November 29, 2007 - 4:37pm

Three weeks ago, in a windowless conference room in the David Citadel Hotel in Jerusalem, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice confidently dismissed the Middle East peacemaking attempts of her predecessors. “It hasn’t worked,” she told reporters traveling with her. “So, with all due respect, I’ll try it my way.”

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Bush Promotes Middle East Peace Dialogue
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Steven Erlanger, Steven Lee Myers - November 29, 2007 - 4:37pm

A day after Israeli and Palestinian leaders committed themselves to negotiating a peace treaty, the Bush administration sought Wednesday to give practical and symbolic impetus to their reinvigorated peace process. President Bush on Wednesday with the Palestinian Authority leader, Mahmoud Abbas, left, and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel.

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November 28th

The New York Times provides a wrap-up of the re-launched peace process resulting from the Annapolis meeting (1.) A Boston Globe opinion by ATFP executive director Rafi Dajani identifies the achievements at Annapolis that lay the groundwork towards progress in achieving Israeli-Palestinian peace (3.) The Washington Post examines skeptical Mideast reaction to the Annapolis talks (5.) The Christian Science Monitor looks at how different observers on Israel-Palestine stresses the importance of an active U.S. arbitration role in a future negotiation process (7.) A Forward opinion by New America and Century Foundation senior fellow Daniel Levy urges Israel to reciprocate to the Arab consensus over peace based on an end to the Israeli occupation begun in 1967 (9.) McClatchy newspapers reports on how experience is tempering Israeli and Palestinian public reaction to Annapolis (10.) A Guardian (UK) editorial finds that Annapolis has changed the environment of Arab-Israeli peacemaking in significant ways (12.) A Gulf News (UAE) opinion by George Hishmeh analyzes the Syrian attendance at Annapolis and its impact on the Lebanese presidential election crisis (14.) In a Haaretz (Israel) interview, Israeli PM Olmert equates the demise of the two-state solution with Israel's future existence (16.) Also in Haaretz, an opinion by Aluf Benn looks at why the American role in Arab-Israeli peacemaking as essential (17.)

The Palestinians / Two Out Of Three Ain't Bad
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Avi Issacharoff - (Opinion) November 28, 2007 - 4:15pm

Minutes after Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert finished their speeches, Palestinian spokesmen rushed to the press room at Annapolis to lower expectations. Being well-versed in peace conferences that end with glorious fanfares but lead nowhere in practice, they warned that it is necessary to see whether the promises made at the conference are implemented on the ground.

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