November 5th

Fatah Targets Mosques In Latest Anti-hamas Campaign
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Rory Mccarthy - November 5, 2007 - 2:30pm

The Palestinian Fatah-led government has mounted a crackdown on preachers from the rival Hamas movement, arresting or sacking clerics accused of spreading political dissent. The Fatah campaign, which is being enforced across the West Bank, is a reaction to the violent Hamas takeover of Gaza in June and marks a widening divide between the two factions and territories.

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Rice Expects Little From Mideast Trip
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Ashraf Khalil - November 5, 2007 - 2:28pm

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice returned to Israel on Sunday for the third time in six weeks, seeking to nudge the Israeli and Palestinian sides before an upcoming U.S.-sponsored peace conference. But after a day of meetings with Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Rice acknowledged that her two-day visit was unlikely to get the two sides to agree on the joint pre-conference statement of goals that the U.S. has sought.

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Rice Seeks Mideast Peace Deal While Bush In Office
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Sue Pleming - November 5, 2007 - 2:27pm

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice joined Israeli and Palestinian leaders on Monday in voicing hope they could reach a peace agreement before President George W. Bush leaves office in January 2009. But wrapping up two days of talks in the region, she again gave no date for a U.S.-led conference which all parties have said would serve as a launching pad for statehood negotiations. Rice said only that the meeting, in Annapolis, Maryland, would take place "before the end of the year."

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Restive Nablus Challenges Fatah's Abbas
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Joshua Mitnick - November 5, 2007 - 2:25pm

Over the course of the second Palestinian intifada, this city became the West Bank's capital for car thefts, kidnappings, and suicide bombers. Now, with 300 security officers from the Palestinian Authority (PA) freshly deployed around Nablus, the city has become a testing ground for an embattled Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas.

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In Mideast, Rice Pushes Annapolis Talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Karen Deyoung - November 5, 2007 - 2:23pm

Israel is ready to put "all basic questions, all the substantive problems, all the historical questions" about Palestinian statehood on the table in a U.S.-hosted peace conference later this month in Annapolis, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Sunday. "It is time," Olmert said in an impassioned speech. "All questions are on the agenda. We won't run away from any of them."

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Carter's Clarity, Bush's Befuddlement
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Robert Novak - (Opinion) November 5, 2007 - 2:22pm

The timing of the release of the new documentary "Jimmy Carter: Man From Plains" was not intentional. The movie is arriving in theaters just before the Bush administration's proposed Middle East conference in Annapolis, scheduled for the end of this month. But the former president's clarity on the Palestinian question contrasts sharply with George W. Bush's refusal to face reality, casting a pall over hopes to conclude his presidency with a diplomatic triumph.

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Olmert Backs Mideast Peace Conference
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Helene Cooper - November 5, 2007 - 2:19pm

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel issued his strongest and most vocal support yet on Sunday for Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s efforts to forge a Middle East peace plan, raising the possibility of making peace with the Palestinians before the conclusion of the Bush administration.

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That Promised Peace Conference
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
(Editorial) November 5, 2007 - 2:18pm

One month before President Bush’s Mideast peace conference — the administration’s first serious effort in six years — it’s still not clear what will be on the agenda or who, beyond the Americans, Israelis and Palestinians, will show up. Even the date is still up in the air.

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November 4th

A New York Times editorial stresses the need for serious and sustained U.S. engagement at the Annapolis meeting and beyond if there is to be any chance of an Israeli-Palestinian peace settlement (1.) A Washington Post opinion by Robert Novak contrasts the former President Carter's 'clarity' on the Palestinian issue with that of President Bush and Congress (3.) The Christian Science Monitor examines how the deployment of Palestinian police in Nablus is a test of the ability of the Palestinian president and could bolster his position in upcoming talks with Israelis (5.) The Guardian (UK) reports on the campaign by the Palestinian Authority (PA) to prevent clerics affiliated with Hamas from preaching dissent at West Bank mosques (8.) The Independent (UK) reports from Nablus on reaction to the deployment of PA forces in an effort to improve security (10.) A Gulf News (UAE) editorial urges that the upcoming Annapolis meeting address the 'core issues' if there is to be any serious progress towards peace (11.) A Haaretz (Israel) opinion by Akiva Eldar makes the case for a nuclear-free Middle East (12.)

November 2nd

The Enemy Within
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by David Kimche - (Opinion) November 2, 2007 - 5:20pm

Our worst enemies do not live in Ramallah, nor even in Gaza. No, they can be found in Tel Aviv, in Jerusalem, in Haifa. They live in our midst. They are motivated by greed, by avarice. They wear expensive suits, don the latest in ties. The high cost lawyer with, oh, such refined cultural taste who swindled tens of millions of dollars from Holocaust survivors without batting an eyelid, is one of them. In my book he rates high up, at the top of the list of the worst of the worst.

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