May 5th

Is The Middle East State System About To Disintegrate?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
by Joschka Fischer - (Opinion) May 5, 2008 - 5:27pm

  President George W. Bush's Middle East policy undeniably managed to achieve one thing: It has thoroughly destabilized the region. Otherwise, the results are not at all what the United States had hoped to accomplish. A democratic, pro-Western Middle East is not in the cards.

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Olmert Probe Clouds Abbas Talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al Jazeera English
May 5, 2008 - 5:24pm

A corruption investigation by Israeli police is overshadowing a planned meeting between Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, and Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister. The pair are set to meet on Monday amid fears the inquiry into Olmert's conduct while he was finance minister could end hopes of a peace deal by the end of the year. 

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Denying Palestinians Free Movement
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Palestine Chronicle
by Stephen Lendman - (Opinion) May 5, 2008 - 5:20pm

This article summarizes an August 2007 B'Tselem report now available in print. It's one of a series of studies it conducts on life in Occupied Palestine to reveal what major media accounts suppress. This one is titled: "Ground to a Halt - Denial of Palestinians' Freedom of Movement in the West Bank."

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A Strangled People
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Sami Abdel-shafi - (Opinion) May 5, 2008 - 5:17pm

It is a strange feeling: after working as a productive professional in Gaza for five years, I have become a black market junkie. I make several phone calls a day hunting for fuel for my car, diesel for the electricity generator waiting on standby to power the house, even cigarettes and vitamins. The only way to get hold of these things, to buy life-saving medicines, to purchase the essentials for a life of basic dignity, is through the black market, if at all.

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U.s. Monitors To Study West Bank Roadblocks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Arshad Mohammed - May 5, 2008 - 5:16pm

The United States said on Monday it would send monitors to study whether the removal of Israeli roadblocks was making life easier for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. Flying home from a two-day trip to Israel and the Palestinian territories, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she was confident the two sides were trying hard to resolve their six-decade conflict.

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Abbas Despairs On Foils To Peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Times
by Nicholas Kralev - May 5, 2008 - 5:15pm

Aides to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said yesterday that he is "depressed" by the lack of progress in negotiations with Israel and views President Bush's summit with Arab leaders this month as a crucial test for U.S.-brokered peace efforts. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, meanwhile, fought for his political life amid speculation he might be forced to resign. Mr. Olmert, the subject of at least two corruption inquiries, was questioned by police investigators Friday.

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Palestinian Festival Of Dance – And Debate
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Joshua Mitnick - May 5, 2008 - 5:14pm

Though they were delayed eight hours at the Israeli border, dancers from Belgium's Les Ballets C. De La. B. company eventually made their way to Ramallah's Al Kasba Theatre where they writhed, staggered, and lunged across the stage.

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War Of The Rockets
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Jackson Diehl - (Opinion) May 5, 2008 - 5:07pm

Last Tuesday, Israel faced the fallout from a Palestinian family of five perishing in the Gaza Strip during an Israeli strike against militants firing rockets at an Israeli town. On Wednesday, the Bush administration woke to a front-page picture in The Post of a 2-year-old Iraqi boy killed in a U.S. airstrike in Baghdad aimed at Shiite militiamen launching rockets at the city's Green Zone. The similarity of these tragic and politically costly episodes was anything but a coincidence.

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May 4th

The Christian Science Monitor examines growing cultural competition between Fatah and Hamas (2). Sami Abdel-Shafi takes the Guardian’s readers inside the Gaza humanitarian crisis (5). In last week’s Bitter Lemons, Ghassan Khatib called for the U.S. to monitor Israeli roadblocks (9); it seems that someone was listening (4). Political turmoil embroils Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert (7, 12). In the Jerusalem Post, David Kimche defends J-Street from charges of anti-Zionism (13)

May 2nd

U.s. Envoy Cuts Short Hebron Trip After Clash With Settlers
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
May 2, 2008 - 5:56pm

The American bodyguards of a Bush administration envoy who was dispatched to the region to monitor the implementation of the road map engaged in a violent confrontation with right-wing Israelis who sought to disturb a visit to Hebron on Friday, Israel Radio reported. One of the rightists is reported to have driven his jeep into the convoy accompanying General William Fraser. Subsequently, one of the vehicles in the convoy heavily collided with the jeep, according to Israel Radio.

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