April 18th

Carter Meets Hamas Chief In Syria
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
by Bassem Mroue - April 18, 2008 - 6:19pm

Former President Carter defied U.S. and Israeli warnings and met Friday with the exiled leader of Hamas and his deputy, two men the U.S. government has labeled terrorists and Israel accuses of masterminding attacks that have killed hundreds of civilians. Carter is the most prominent American to hold talks with Khaled Mashaal, whose Palestinian militant group claimed new legitimacy from the meeting along with two other sessions the Nobel laureate held with Hamas leaders in the Middle East this week.

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Carter Calls Israel Treatment Of Palestinians A Crime
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Jeffrey Fleishman - April 18, 2008 - 6:17pm

Former President Carter told a university audience here Thursday that the treatment of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip by the Israeli military was "a crime" but that there were "officials in Israel quite willing to meet with Hamas" and that may happen "in the near future."

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Palestinian Official Says Talks With Israelis Yield Little
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Isabel Kershner - April 18, 2008 - 6:17pm

The Palestinian Authority’s foreign minister on Thursday offered an unusually bleak assessment of the negotiations with Israel and said President Mahmoud Abbas would seek more active American intervention when he meets with President Bush in Washington this month. Riad Malki, the foreign minister and minister of information in the West Bank-based government, told the Foreign Press Association here that the talks on the core issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict had so far yielded “no results.”

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Israel Oks Pa West Bank Police Stations
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from United Press International (UPI)
April 18, 2008 - 6:16pm

Israel has agreed to allow the Palestinian Authority to open 20 police stations in the West Bank under Palestinian civilian control, officials said. It is the first time since 2001 that Israel has given the green light to such a move. The facilities will be permitted to deal with criminal matters in villages near Nablus, Hebron and Bethlehem, Israel's Haaretz newspaper reported Friday. The development followed a meeting between the head of Israel's Civil Administration and the chief of the Palestinian Authority's Civil Affairs Ministry.

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April 17th

Israel allows the PA to open 20 civilian police stations (1). President Jimmy Carter’s trip to the region continues to grab national headlines (3,4). M.J. Rosenberg discusses the launch of the J-Street Project (5)while Jeremy Ben-Ami makes a case for a different meaning of “Pro-Israel (6).” Haaretz is critical of recent fighting in Gaza(10).

What's Sauce For The Goose...
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arabic Media Internet Network
by George S. Hishmeh - (Opinion) April 17, 2008 - 6:11pm

When told that the leaders of Germany, Britain and, most likely, France would boycott the opening Olympic ceremonies in Peking because of China's recent crackdown in Tibet, the US President George W. Bush's National Security Adviser, Stephen Hadley, described their decision as "a cop out" and offered a surprising response that seemed to run counter to the US stance in other regions, particularly the Middle East where some governments and groups remain untouchable.

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A Blast Still Reverberating
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by David Ignatius - (Opinion) April 17, 2008 - 6:10pm

It is April 18, 1983, and I am visiting the American Embassy in Beirut as a reporter for the Wall Street Journal. It is a coolish morning, a day to wear the winter-weight suit one last time. By the time I reach the embassy, a bright sun is beginning to cut the haze. Approaching the front entrance on the Corniche, grand and all but unguarded, I look across the shimmering Bay of Beirut to the slopes of Mount Lebanon, where there is still a trace of snow at the peak. The moist, sweet air of Lebanon is on my face like a phantom kiss.

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No Peace Without Hamas
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Mahmoud Al- Zahar - (Opinion) April 17, 2008 - 6:08pm

President Jimmy Carter's sensible plan to visit the Hamas leadership this week brings honesty and pragmatism to the Middle East while underscoring the fact that American policy has reached its dead end. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice acts as if a few alterations here and there would make the hideous straitjacket of apartheid fit better.

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Mr. Zahar And Mr. Carter
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
(Editorial) April 17, 2008 - 6:07pm

ON THE OPPOSITE page today we publish an article by the "foreign minister" of Hamas, Mahmoud al-Zahar, that drips with hatred for Israel, and with praise for former president Jimmy Carter. We believe Mr. Zahar's words are worth publishing because they provide some clarity about the group he helps to lead, a group that Mr. Carter contends is worthy of being included in the Middle East peace process. Mr. Carter himself is holding what appears to be a series of meetings with Hamas leaders during a tour of the Middle East.

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Jimmy Carter: A Fool On A Fool's Errand
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
by Michael Young - (Opinion) April 17, 2008 - 6:06pm

Say what you will about Jimmy Carter, he has a way of transforming moments of plodding gravitas into uproarious comedy. Remember that moment during the 1980 Democratic convention when Carter stood up, and in a phrase paying tribute to Hubert Humphrey, instead praised "Hubert Horatio Hornblower," confusing the late vice president with the character from the C.S. Forester novels?

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