November 29th, 2007

Time To Abandon Sectarianism ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News by George S. Hishmeh - (Opinion) November 29, 2007 - 5:07pm The presence of a senior Syrian official at the Annapolis meeting that launched a new round of Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations has had a positive effect on the desperate search in Lebanon for a leader to assume the presidency after it was unceremoniously vacated last Friday. The attraction was not in the focus of the conclave but in at least one participant. » Read more

Robert Fisk: A Different Venue, But The Pious Claims And Promises Are The Same ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent by Robert Fisk - (Opinion) November 29, 2007 - 5:07pm Haven't we been here before? Isn't Annapolis just a repeat of the White House lawn and the Oslo agreement, a series of pious claims and promises in which two weak men, Messrs Abbas and Olmert, even use the same words of Oslo. "It is time for the cycle of blood, violence and occupation to end," the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Tuesday. But don't I remember Yitzhak Rabin saying on the White House lawn that, "it is time for the cycle of blood... to end"? » Read more

Still Waiting For Peace ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian by Leader - (Special Report) November 29, 2007 - 5:03pm Serious negotiations do not normally take place at international conferences. They happen before or after them. If negotiations beforehand have been fruitful, a conference is a venue to publicise and formalise what has been agreed, or sometimes to settle one or two very difficult matters beyond the competence of the advance teams. On that test, Annapolis has not been a success. Palestinians and Israelis could not agree on a detailed joint document to put before the meeting. » Read more

Us Takes Ownership Of Peace Process ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Financial Times by Harvey Morris - November 29, 2007 - 5:02pm When George W. Bush this week read out the words of what historians will no doubt come to call the Annapolis Declaration, the Israeli and Palestinian leaders peered over his shoulder as if trying to read for the first time the terms of the contract they had just signed. Low down in the fine print was a clause that handed the US president ownership of the peace process as monitor and judge of their performance during the remaining year of his term. » Read more

Can Hope Triumph Over Mideast Experience? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from McClatchy News by Dion Nissenbaum, Warren P. Strobel - November 29, 2007 - 5:01pm The Wednesday morning newspapers trumpeting the latest fresh start toward peace between Israelis and Palestinians hadn't hit American doorsteps when the first crude Qassam rocket of the day soared out of the Gaza Strip and into southern Israel. Before lunch, Palestinian Authority police in the West Bank were using truncheons to break up angry mourners trying to bury a demonstrator who was killed a day earlier while protesting the new peace initiative. » Read more

Grasp The Promise Of Annapolis ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward by Daniel Levy - (Opinion) November 29, 2007 - 4:58pm Even the most hardened of Middle East cynics could be excused for momentarily feeling a fluttering of hope after witnessing the scenes at this week’s peace conference in Annapolis, Md. » Read more

Mideast Peacemaking: Hard Work Begins ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press by Anne Gearan - November 29, 2007 - 4:57pm President Bush savored his Rose Garden moment Wednesday, celebrating the beginning of a new Mideast peace push with smiling Israeli and Palestinian leaders. It might be a long time until he gets another such opportunity. The old bugaboos of Mideast peacemaking remain unsolved and there are fresh obstacles that will make Bush's job as shepherd even harder. The U.S. role in new negotiations is deliberately vague, but Bush and his envoys are expected to prod and monitor both sides and intervene directly if talks founder. » Read more

In Mideast Peace Process, How Big A Role Will Bush Play? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor by Howard Lafranchi - November 29, 2007 - 4:57pm After President Bush's high-profile speech Tuesday at the Annapolis meeting on Middle East peace and Wednesday's scheduled Rose Garden appearance with the Israeli and Palestinian leaders, there are still questions about just how involved the United States will be in the relaunched negotiations. How intense a role will Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who has logged more than 100,000 miles this year addressing the conflict, now play? Will the administration name a special envoy to monitor progress in specific areas? » Read more

Arabs Return From Summit Uneasy And Skeptical ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times by Jeffrey Fleishman - November 29, 2007 - 4:56pm This week's Middle East conference in Annapolis, Md., has highlighted Arab unease over the ability and will of a weak U.S. president to deliver peace. At the same time, it has stoked fears that Israel has scored a public relations coup while refusing to concede on such core issues as Palestinian refugees and the fate of Jerusalem. » Read more

Annapolis Talks Prompt Much Doubt, A Few Jokes, In Mideast ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post by Ellen Knickmeyer, Scott Wilson - November 29, 2007 - 4:55pm A day after their leaders announced a new push for peace, Israelis and Palestinians returned Wednesday to a familiar and deadly routine, deeply skeptical over the timetable set for the talks and whether an end to the conflict is achievable at all in the current political climate. In cafes and blogs in the Arab world, the Annapolis conference prompted little more than wisecracks. Commentators made much of a linguistic coincidence: In Arabic, "ana polis" means "I am the police." » Read more