May 14th

Bush Arrives In Israel For Start Of Middle East Trip
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
May 14, 2008 - 5:12pm

US President George W Bush has opened a celebratory visit to Israel where he'll make a new push for peace in the long-troubled Middle East. The president arrived in Tel Aviv and was flying by helicopter to Occupied Jerusalem for events marking the 60th anniversary of Israel's birth in the wake of the Nazi genocide of 6 million Jews.  Bush says the Mideast is "the center of anti-Americanism and hatred" and that those who attacked the US on September 11 "came from this part of the world."

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Five Palestinians Killed, Two Wounded In Israeli Airstrikes In Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
May 14, 2008 - 5:11pm

Two Palestinian civilians and three militants were killed Wednesday in Israeli military raids on the Gaza Strip, Palestinian medical officials said. One was a 17-year-old riding his bike, doctors added. At dawn Israeli troops pushed into southern Gaza to target rocket-launching squads, the army said. Two Palestinian militants were killed in airstrikes near the town of Khan Younis, Palestinian doctors said.

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Gaza Rocket Strikes Israeli City, 14 Wounded
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
by Karin Laub - May 14, 2008 - 5:09pm

A rocket fired from Gaza exploded in a shopping center in this southern Israeli city Wednesday, wounding at least 14 people, as President Bush wrapped up talks in Jerusalem with Israel's prime minister. The attack raised the chances that Israel will send large numbers of ground forces into the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip - something the army chief has reportedly decided he wants to do.

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Peace Struggles Cloud Israel's Birthday
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Times
by Joshua Mitnick - May 14, 2008 - 5:08pm

When asked to assess Israel's geopolitical standing on its 60th birthday, lawmaker Yuval Steinitz crowed. By nearly every measure — military, economic, demographic — Israel's position has improved exponentially.

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Latest Scandal Could Topple Olmert
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Richard Bourdreaux - May 14, 2008 - 5:08pm

Near the end of a visit to Israel in January, President Bush had some parting advice for senior members of its government: "Take care of Olmert." He had reason to worry. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, his partner in pursuing peace with the Palestinians, is the unpopular and vulnerable leader of a fractious coalition. "Israeli politics is like karate," Bush observed, according to participants at the private dinner. "You never know when the next chop will come."

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May 13th

Joshua Mitnick looks at the State of Israel on its 60th birthday in the first of a two part story (2) in the Washington Times. Bloodshed continues as a rocket attack wounds Israelis in an Ashkelon mall (3) and several Palestinians are killed during an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip (4). The Associated Press reports that Israel will soon approve more home construction in the West Bank (6). Hamas leader Mahmoud Al-Zahar questions Israeli military supremacy (9).

Obama Advisor: Jerusalem Must Be Included In Peace Talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Anshel Pfeffer - May 13, 2008 - 6:13pm

Daniel Kurtzer, former ambassador to Israel and advisor of U.S. presidential hopeful Barack Obama, said Tuesday that Jerusalem must be included in peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. "It will be impossible to make progress on serious peace talks without putting the future of Jerusalem on the table," Kurtzer said in a conference organized by the Jewish People Policy Planning Institute (JPPPI).

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Right Of Reply: We Simply Support Peace Negotiations
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Seymour D. Reich And Peter A. Joseph - (Opinion) May 13, 2008 - 6:12pm

Isi Leibler does not miss an opportunity to misrepresent the positions or purpose of the Israel Policy Forum (IPF), as he has done once again in his April 29 Candidly Speaking column, "With Friends like These..."

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America's Elusive Search For Arab-israeli Peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Aaron David Miller - (Opinion) May 13, 2008 - 6:11pm

My book The Much Too Promised Land had a very strange origin in that I really never intended to write it. I "resigned" from the State Department in January 2003 because I had concluded - and nothing has changed my mind in the past five years - that the road to Arab-Israeli peace was going to be a long and bumpy one. It had come time for me to take a break after 25 years of providing varying degrees of advice - some good, some bad - to a number of secretaries of state.

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Abbas Is A Viable Peace Partner
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by David Horovitz - May 13, 2008 - 6:10pm

US President George W. Bush said on Monday that he could not envisage the Middle East evolving "without a Palestinian state that's free and democratic." Bush, who flies to Israel on Tuesday, told The Jerusalem Post that he remains convinced that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is a partner for peace. And he went on to say, at a briefing with the Post and three other Israeli journalists in the Oval Office, that he was still convinced that an accord on Palestinian statehood was attainable this year.

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