October 18th

Rice Wins No Firm Mid-east Vows
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bbc News
October 18, 2007 - 5:38pm

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has ended a Middle East tour without firm commitments to a conference on the Israel-Palestinian conflict. But she said the talks, due to be held in the US by the end of the year, still had a "reasonable chance of success". Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas accused Israel of holding up a joint document with the Palestinians. He said time was running out and the Palestinians could opt out of the conference without the document. The Israelis are pushing for a more general framework.

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Gates In The Lion’s Den
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Inter Press Service (IPS)
by Jim Lobe - (Blog) October 18, 2007 - 5:35pm

Monday night’s speech by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to the ultra-hawkish Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA) must have deeply disappointed most of his audience, particularly when it came to his brief discussion of Iran. While Gates repeated the adminstration’s mantra that “all options are on the table,” the degree to which he emphasized diplomacy and omitted any mention of the growing list of charges by other U.S. military and administration officials regarding Tehran’s alleged “proxy war” against U.S.

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Rice Upbeat On Mideast, Heading Back Soon
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Arshad Mohammed - October 18, 2007 - 5:33pm

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Thursday she was encouraged by her talks in Israel and the Palestinian territories this week and a U.S. official said she planned to return in about two weeks. White House National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley plans to visit the region next week to prepare for a U.S.-hosted peace conference later this year, said the U.S. official who spoke on condition that he was not identified.

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Breaking The Taboo: Why We Took On The Israel Lobby
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Alternet
by Eric Chinski - (Opinion) October 18, 2007 - 5:30pm

Why did your article "The Israel Lobby," which was published in the London Review of Books in 2006, provoke such heated discussion around the world? James Traub wrote in The New York Times Magazine: " 'The Israel Lobby' slammed into the opinion-making world with a Category 5 force." How would you describe the reaction?

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Gop Candidates Use Jewish Forum To Knock Bush’s Push For Peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Nathan Guttman - October 18, 2007 - 5:24pm

In an appearance before Jewish voters Tuesday, all five Republican presidential candidates expressed skepticism about the Bush administration’s current push for peace between the Israelis and Palestinians. The event, hosted by the Republican Jewish Coalition, featured the leading contenders for the GOP nomination: Rudy Giuliani, Sam Brownback, John McCain, Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson.

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Bush Optimistic On Mideast Peace Despite Discord
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Steven Lee Myers - October 18, 2007 - 5:16pm

President Bush expressed optimism on Wednesday that the Israelis and Palestinians could negotiate a peace agreement as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice ended four days of talks here with a spasm of discord between the sides. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, right, ducked to enter the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem during a visit Wednesday.

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Rice 'encouraged' By Mideast Trip
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
by Matthew Lee - October 18, 2007 - 5:15pm

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday she was encouraged by a round of furious Mideast diplomacy to prepare a U.S.-hosted peace conference in the fall despite divisions between Israel and the Palestinians that could derail it. With tensions running high and time running out to plan the meeting, a senior U.S. official said Rice would return to the region at the end of October or early November after National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley goes there next week to press the two sides to launch formal peace talks.

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Rice Hears Palestinians' Grievances
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Michael Abramowitz - October 18, 2007 - 5:13pm

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice paid an emotional visit Wednesday to the church revered as marking the birthplace of Jesus, before hearing from prominent Palestinians that failure of her new peace initiative could worsen their conflict with Israel.

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October 17th

The Washington Post reports on the visit by Secretary Rice to the occupied Palestinian territories and her listening to the grievances of Palestinians (1.) The Forward looks at skepticism voiced about the current Bush administration push for Israeli-Palestinian peace by all five GOP presidential candidates at an event hosted by the Republican Jewish Coalition (4.) AlertNet features an interview with 'The Israel Lobby' authors Walt and Mearshiemer on why they decided to speak out about the special U.S.-Israeli relationship (5.) In his LobeLog blog, journalist Jim Lobe looks at the speech by Secretary of Defense Gates at his Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs award dinner in which he placed a higher priority as a U.S. objective for achieving a two-state solution than containing Iran (7.) A Financial Times (UK) opinion by former Israeli negotiator Moshe Amirav draws lessons for the fall Mideast meeting from the failed Camp David conference in 2001 (10.) A Jordan Times (Jordan) editorial urges the U.S. to use its influence with Israel to freeze Israeli settlement activity in the occupied territories (12.) Haaretz (Israel) reports on Israeli willingness to commit to a joint document at the fall meeting addressing the core issues of Jerusalem, refugees and permanent borders (13.)

One Mistake In The Fall
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Shmuel Rosner - October 17, 2007 - 10:56am

We can start from the end: It was a mistake. Not necessarily the decision to convene an Israeli-Palestinian peace summit in Annapolis or a "meeting," as the Americans insist on calling the event, but the early announcement of the planned timetable.

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