Olmert says time running out for two-state solution ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters November 9, 2008 - 8:00pm Outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Monday time was running out for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. At an annual memorial ceremony for Yitzhak Rabin, the Israeli prime minister killed by an ultranationalist Jew in 1995, Olmert again advocated a peace deal under which Israel would withdraw from nearly all of the occupied West Bank. » Read more

Row over Jerusalem Muslim cemetery ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News by Wyre Davies - November 7, 2008 - 8:00pm Religious leaders in Jerusalem are warning of dangerous consequences after a decision by Israel's Supreme Court to allow the destruction of part of an ancient Muslim cemetery. The graveyard has not been used for more than 50 years, but contains the bodies of some important Islamic figures. Many of those bodies will now be disturbed to make way for a new Jewish "Museum of Tolerance". Earlier this week hundreds of Muslims - young and old - marched through the centre of Jerusalem towards the city's Mamilla cemetery. » Read more

Israel demolishes homes for 'City of David' heritage site ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent by Donald MacIntyre - November 6, 2008 - 8:00pm Israel has been accused of demolishing Palestinian houses in Arab East Jerusalem while international attention was focused on the election of Barack Obama. » Read more

Gaza shut to fuel and journalists ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News by Aleem Maqbool - November 9, 2008 - 8:00pm Over the last six days, Israel has all but closed its crossings with the Gaza Strip. No fuel (paid for by foreign donors) has been allowed into Gaza for its power station, no food has been allowed in for the United Nations' aid distribution centres on which most Gazans rely. No journalists are being allowed into Gaza to cover the story. The one crossing through which people can get into Gaza, if they have Israeli permission, is at the northern tip of the territory, at Erez. » Read more

'America's Role Is Central' ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Der Spiegel November 9, 2008 - 8:00pm SPIEGEL ONLINE: Mr. Minister, what do you think of the vote that America has cast? Moallem: I am happy about the result of the American election and I congratulate President-elect Barack Obama. I hope that he will help us make a dream come true: a Middle East of peace, of stability and prosperity. There is no way around it: To achieve this, America’s role is central. SPIEGEL ONLINE: Syria is a neighbor of Iraq, Israel, the Palestinian territories -- and it is Iran's best friend. Which Middle East conflict would you like to see Obama tackle first? » Read more

Secretary Rice fights peace-process inertia ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor by Ilene Prusher - November 9, 2008 - 8:00pm Inertia, history shows, can be a dangerous thing in the Middle East. It leaves room for radicals and rockets to reset the agenda. That's why US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice – and members of The Quartet – were in Egypt Sunday: To keep the peace train running, or at least to keep its engine warm. "I believe that the Annapolis process is now the international community's answer and the parties' answer to how we finally end the conflict between the Palestinians and the Israelis," Rice told reporters afterward. » Read more

Rice Visits West Bank City; U.S. Announces Aid ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Isabel Kershner - November 7, 2008 - 8:00pm In the first visit by an American secretary of state to the city of Jenin, a once-infamous hub of Palestinian militancy, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice sought to strike a positive chord at the close of what will probably be her last official trip to Israel and the Palestinian territories. Ms. Rice has acknowledged that the Israeli-Palestinian peace process is unlikely to achieve its goal of an agreement by the end of the year and has devoted this trip to other aspects of the process, chiefly the building of reliable Palestinian institutions in preparation for a state. » Read more

One state definitely not an option ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons by Yossi Alpher - August 17, 2008 - 8:00pm On both sides of the green line and, indeed, wherever people think about solutions to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a lot of old/new thinking is taking place. Old, because there is really nothing new under the sun when it comes to solutions for Israelis and Palestinians. But new, because after 15 years of concentrated and largely fruitless efforts to solve the conflict with a negotiated two-state solution, we now encounter more and more discussion of alternatives. » Read more

The only alternative to two states is conflict ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons by Ghassan Khatib - August 17, 2008 - 8:00pm With Palestinians facing greater and greater difficulties in their struggle to achieve an independent state in the territories occupied by Israel in the war of 1967, a serious debate has been sparked over the viability of the two-state solution. » Read more

Israel to free prisoners in gesture to Abbas ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times August 17, 2008 - 8:00pm Israel confirmed on Sunday it would release 200 of some 11,000 Palestinians it holds prisoners in the hope of shoring up support for President Mahmoud Abbas and the peace talks he is conducting with the Jewish state. "The idea is to strengthen the process of dialogue, to strengthen the hand of the moderates, to strengthen the peace process," a spokesman for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said before the Cabinet agreed to his proposal to free about 200 people. » Read more