February 12th, 2008

Tom Lantos' Israel-palestine Shift
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Talking Points Memo
by Steve Clemons - (Opinion) February 12, 2008 - 7:19pm

House Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Tom Lantos (D-CA) died today after a battle with cancer. Lantos was one of the Congress' last real characters of an age mostly gone in which eccentricity, a hybrid of vanity and humility, purpose, passion, and gentility packaged together was a winning path to leadership positions like the one he held for so long.

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Encountering Peace: The Way Forward
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Gershon Baskin - (Opinion) February 12, 2008 - 7:17pm

There is a very curious news black-out both in Israel and in Palestine regarding what President Bush read in the Olmert-Abbas joint statement in Annapolis: "We agree to engage in vigorous, ongoing and continuous negotiations and shall make every effort to conclude an agreement before the end of 2008." Are those negotiations taking place? We don't really know. Not only the politicians aren't talking, most of the media is not reporting, the international community is silent and I have even heard that Tony Blair has instructed members of his staff to keep quiet.

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Gaza, Stripped
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New Republic
by Dennis Ross - (Opinion) February 12, 2008 - 7:15pm

In the wake of Hamas blowing up the border fence between Egypt and Gaza the images of Palestinians from Gaza streaming across the border into Egypt were unsettling to the Israelis, Egyptians, Palestinian Authority, and Bush Administration. Only Hamas benefited from the images. In breaking down the wall sealing the Sinai from Gaza, Hamas seemed to liberate Palestinians besieged in Gaza and outmaneuvered all those trying to build pressure on it to change its behavior.

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Palestinian Questions Peace Progress
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
by Anne Gearan - February 12, 2008 - 7:15pm

The U.S.-backed Palestinian prime minister said Monday that time is running short to demonstrate progress in the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks President Bush launched to fanfare last fall. "Unless there is tangible progress in the period immediately ahead" on a list of pledges made by Israel, "I think, honestly, it would require that we begin to really call this for what it is," Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said. Fayyad did not write off the peace effort, but said there is good reason for skepticism.

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Palestinians Ask U.s. To Intervene In Suits Over Terrorist Attacks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Glenn Kessler - February 12, 2008 - 7:14pm

The State Department is considering supporting the Palestinian Authority in its quest to avoid paying hundreds of millions of dollars in judgments won by American victims of Palestinian terrorist attacks in Israel, according to Palestinian officials and defense lawyers involved in the cases.

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Israeli Casts Doubt On Pact This Year
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Steven Erlanger - February 12, 2008 - 7:13pm

A senior Israeli minister said Monday that his country hoped to reach agreement with the Palestinians on a “declaration of principles” for peace by the end of the year, but not on a detailed peace treaty.

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The Us Helps Itself By Helping Palestine
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
by Samir Abdullah - February 12, 2008 - 7:13pm

In his final State of the Union address, US President George W. Bush said he believed that a Palestinian-Israeli peace deal would be a reality by the end of his term. Despite the optimism that his remarks generated in the Palestinian government, the goal of reaching a Palestinian-Israeli agreement by the end of 2008 - which Bush set at the Annapolis summit last year and again during his visit to Ramallah last month - remains subject to question, and this is a matter that merits immediate attention.

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February 11th

An opinion by Samir Abdullah in the Daily Star contends that salvaging the two state solution could be President Bush’s greatest legacy, (1) while Steve Erlanger reports in the New York Times that Israeli vice prime minister Ramon sees no peace deal by year end (2). The Associated Press reports on Prime Minister Fayyad’s remarks to ATFP at the National Press Club (4). A New Republic opinion by Dennis Ross discusses the role the US can play in the current Gaza situation (5). Gershon Baskin wonders why we are not hearing about updates to the peace negotiations in a Jerusalem Post opinion (6).

Hamas Leaders Go Into Hiding As Israel Plans Targeted Killings
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Amos Harel, Barak Ravid, And Avi Issacharoff, Haar And News Agencies - February 11, 2008 - 9:42pm

Leaders of the ruling Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip have scaled back their public appearances and stepped up other security measures, fearing Israeli assassination attempts in response to a wave of Palestinian rocket attacks on southern Israel, Hamas officials said Monday. The Israel Defense Forces and the Shin Bet internal security service are preparing to step up assassinations against key Hamas figures in the Gaza Strip in response to the continued Qassam rocket attacks against Sderot.

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Palestinians Still Reject Hamas Actions In Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Angus Reid Global Monitor
February 11, 2008 - 9:39pm

The vast majority of Palestinians continue to think negatively of Hamas’ forceful takeover of the Gaza Strip last year, according to a poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research. 72 per cent of respondents oppose the group’s actions, down two points since December.

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