October 16th

How About A Peace Lobby?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from International Herald Tribune
by Daniel Levy - (Opinion) October 16, 2007 - 12:42pm

After seven lean years, Israeli-Palestinian peace talks are back on the agenda for a planned summit meeting next month in Annapolis, Maryland. Intriguingly, the return of the peace process coincides with an unusual public debate taking place in America regarding the U.S.-Israel relationship following the attention received by a book about the Israel lobby.

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Rice Seeks To Marginalize Hamas
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Ashraf Khalil - October 16, 2007 - 12:39pm

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Monday expressed hope that a successfully negotiated vision of a Palestinian state would marginalize the militant group Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip.

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The Israeli Right Has A Peace Plan
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Letter From Israel/antiwar.com
by Ran Hacohen - (Blog) October 16, 2007 - 12:36pm

While the world holds its breath in anticipation of the Mideast Summit in Annapolis – which, no doubt, will constitute a historic landmark, giving a most significant boost to the economy of that small town in Maryland – the Israeli right wing comes up with a new peace initiative, launched by MK Benny Elon, chairman of the National Union and the Moledet Party, as "The Israeli Initiative," "a new way of thinking about the conflict, in learning from our mistakes, and in rereading the regional map toward a revitalized and genuine quest to achiev

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Rice Pushes Mideast Parties On Plan To Revive Peace Talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Michael Abramowitz - October 16, 2007 - 12:26pm

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pressed Israelis and Palestinians on Monday to compromise on a plan to jump-start peace negotiations, describing the ending of their long conflict as one of the top goals of President Bush in the 15 months he has left in office.

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Rice Hints At Timing Of Mideast Talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Steven Lee Myers - October 16, 2007 - 12:24pm

It has officially been a secret of American diplomacy, if not a particularly well-kept one: the time and place of the international conference called by President Bush to begin negotiating peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians.   Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice with the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, in Ramallah. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Monday lifted the secrecy and, perhaps, nudged the process forward.

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Mideast Summit Faces Huge Challenges
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
by Steven Gutkin - October 16, 2007 - 12:22pm

Israel keeps building settlements, Islamic militants are in control in Gaza and both the Israelis and the Palestinians have politically vulnerable leaders. All that will make it difficult to implement an agreement even if the two sides agree on a path to peace at a summit next month. Weighing heavily on the U.S.-brokered summit is memory. Everyone remembers the steep price paid for the failure of the last round of peacemaking in 2001: thousands killed in years of Israeli-Palestinian fighting that broke out months after the talks fell apart.

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October 15th

The Associated Press looks at how the memory of the failed Camp David talks in 2001 is weighing heavily on the parties to the Mideast fall meeting (2.) The Washington Post examines the efforts by Secretary Rice to bridge the gap between Israelis and Palestinians during her current trip to the region (4.) In his periodic 'Letter From Israel' Ran Ha Cohen looks at the newly released 'peace initiative' by the Israeli far Right (5.) An International Herald Tribune opinion by Century Foundation and New America Foundation senior fellow Daniel Levy urges the construction of an alliance of peace camp groups to counter the hawkish right-wing constituency in the U.S. (7.) In BitterLemons (Israel/Palestine) Israeli professor of government Galia Golan looks at the confluence of factors making the fall Mideast meeting a genuine opportunity for furthering Israeli-Palestinian peace (11.) Haaretz (Israel) presents the latest Peace Index Project polling of the Israeli people on the fall meeting (13.) Also in Haaretz, Akiva Eldar analyzes the three alternatives available to President Bush regarding the substance of the fall meeting and each alternative's supporters (15.)

Only Bush Can
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Akiva Eldar - (Opinion) October 15, 2007 - 3:41pm

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice insists that the Annapolis declaration will detail the principles of the permanent settlement, so yesterday's newspaper headlines proclaimed. Prior to her arrival in the region, her aides had said that the United States would not issue invitations to the peace conference before Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas succeed in drafting a clear and mutually agreed upon document. In practice, this means that the peace summit initiated by President George W. Bush will not convene next month. Nor next year.

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Declarations Of A United Jerusalem Are Just Empty Slogans In A De Facto Divided Jerusalem
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Yossi Beilin - (Opinion) October 15, 2007 - 3:39pm

Two weeks ago a young journalist, Daniel Ofir, reported a story on "Hot News" that ought to have created quite a storm: The Palestinian Authority is paving a highway inside Israel's sovereign territory in "united" Jerusalem, our eternal capital. The highway begins in the Atarot area and passes through the Kafr Akab neighborhood in Jerusalem along 2.6 kilometers inside the sovereign territory of united Jerusalem, and ends in Ramallah.

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Editorial: Positive Signs
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
(Editorial) October 15, 2007 - 3:22pm

The two biggest problems straddling the Palestinian fence today — Israel on one side and the Palestinian divisions on the other — are currently undergoing treatment with possible remedy in sight. For one, Hamas has said it is ready to hold reconciliation talks with the rival Fatah group of President Mahmoud Abbas, hinting it might be willing to relinquish control of Gaza.

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