January 15th, 2008

Threat To Cut U.s. Aid Opens Rift With Egypt
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Nathan Guttman - January 15, 2008 - 5:39pm

Pro-Israel advocates in Washington refrained from contesting a congressional decision last month to withhold part of American military aid to Egypt, in what appears to be a departure from a 30-year-old unwritten understanding that Israel would help Cairo fight off any efforts to cut American assistance to Egypt.

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Mideast Peace Talks Get Underway
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Richard Bourdreaux - January 15, 2008 - 5:39pm

Israeli and Palestinian negotiators began addressing the most difficult issues of their decades-old conflict Monday, keeping a promise to President Bush but putting Israel's coalition government under strain. Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and former Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ahmed Korei emerged from a two-hour session at a Jerusalem hotel with little to say about what they had discussed. Israeli officials said the two lead negotiators planned to meet at least once a week.

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Olmert Is Cautious As Talks With Palestinians Begin
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Isabel Kershner - January 15, 2008 - 5:38pm

Top Israeli and Palestinian negotiators began talks on core issues on Monday, as Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel sought to lower expectations of reaching a final peace agreement within a year. “I’m not sure we can reach an agreement, and I’m not sure we can reach its implementation,” Mr. Olmert told Parliament’s foreign affairs and defense committee on Monday, an official who had attended the meeting said.

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January 14th

The LA Times reports on how renewed Israeli-Palestinian final status negotiations are causing tensions within Israel's governing coalition (2.) The Jewish Telegraphic Agency gives an Israeli perspective on what significance the Bush Mideast visit has (4.) A Middle East Times opinion by Maria Appakova gauges the possibility of reaching a Mideast peace deal by the end of 2008, spurred on by President Bush's professed zeal in achieving this goal (6.) A Financial Times (UK) editorial stresses the importance for President Bush's wider Mideast foreign policy agenda in achieving Israeli-Palestinian peace (7.) Der Spiegel (Germany) examines the resonance of the Bush democracy agenda during his current Mideast visit (9.) A Daily Star (Lebanon) opinion by UK secretary of state for international development Douglas Alexander, published in collaboration with Common Ground News Service, stresses the importance of the international community's financial and political support for the Palestinians in order to capitalize on the momentum of Annapolis and the Paris donor conference (11.) An Arab News (Saudi Arabia ) editorial is critical of the Bush attempt to rally and Arab coalition against Iran as heavy on threats and light on diplomacy (13.) Haaretz (Israel) reports on clarification regarding U.S. opposition to both settlement 'natural growth' and expansion in East Jerusalem and the West Bank (14.) Also in Haaretz, an opinion by Amir Oren analyzes how Secretary Rice has prepared a team of U.S. officials to push for Israeli actions that yield positive results on the ground (15.)

Making Do With Foreplay
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Uzi Benziman - January 14, 2008 - 6:12pm

The new term in the Israeli diplomatic lexicon is "shelf agreement." President George W. Bush begged Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to redouble their efforts to create the outline of a final-status agreement, and the two sounded as if they intended to carry out the task. The new effort's starting assumption is that even if the redeeming formulas are found and understandings are reached on all the controversial issues, an agreement will not be signed due to the political difficulties each leader faces.

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Believing Olmert
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Gideon Levy - January 14, 2008 - 6:11pm

After listening to many of his statements, some of them very impressive, one comes to recognize that Ehud Olmert perhaps truly desires peace with the Palestinians. The fact that he has not zigzagged, not even once, that he only reiterates the same things, speaking like Uri Avnery (even if 40 years late), that he does not backtrack or stutter - only reinforces this feeling. It is permissible, therefore, to succumb to the temptation and believe that the man who told Haaretz on November 28, "two states, or Israel is finished," indeed has undergone a profound change.

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Abbas Should Be Safeguarded
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Akiva Eldar - January 14, 2008 - 6:10pm

President George W. Bush, who came to jump-start the peace talks, is fading in the distance, and the large-scale military action in Gaza is getting closer. It is as if there are two peoples: The people of the West Bank and the people of Gaza. With the first we make peace and with the second we go to war.

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Palestinians Collectively Reject Bush Proposal
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Asharq Alawsat
by Ali El-saleh - January 14, 2008 - 6:10pm

The proposal by US President George Bush during his visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories of laying down an international mechanism to compensate the Palestinian refugees has aroused Palestinian reactions that could be described as homogenous in their content, whether at the official, unofficial, or opposition levels.

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Bush Tells Us The Old, Old Story
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
(Editorial) January 14, 2008 - 6:09pm

President George W. Bush made a disappointing speech on Sunday in Abu Dhabi when he sought to summarise the key points of his new Middle East strategy in the keynote address of his current trip to the region. He failed to offer any specific policies, preferring to repeat a simplistic insistence on the introduction of democracy, freedom and justice in the region. It was very disappointing that there was little that had not been said before, and that Bush's vision does not include any genuine policies. He does not have anything new to offer to the region.

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Disempowering Arabs Empowers Islamists
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
by Rami Khouri - (Opinion) January 14, 2008 - 6:08pm

I thought the most intriguing aspect of US President George W. Bush's call in Jerusalem this week for a Palestinian state that was "viable, contiguous, sovereign and independent" was the simultaneous use of the words "sovereign" and "independent." This tells us nothing new about American rhetoric on resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but it is intriguing for how it can help clarify crucial political sentiments in other parts of the Arab world.

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