October 8th

The Stakes At Mideast Summit ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Boston Globe (Editorial) October 8, 2007 - 1:44pm THERE ARE many reasons to be skeptical about next month's Mideast peace conference in Annapolis, Md. The political frailty of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's government, the fractured condition of the Palestinian Authority, the six years President Bush wasted refusing to emulate Bill Clinton's attempts to broker an Israel-Palestinian agreement - these are only some of the most obvious grounds for doubting that anything of value will come from the conference. » Read more

Israel May Ok Division Of Jerusalem ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press October 8, 2007 - 1:38pm Senior Israeli officials expressed support Monday for the transfer of Arab parts of Jerusalem to Palestinian control, offering a concession on one of the most contentious issues in the Mideast conflict. The offer appeared to fall short of Palestinian calls for a full Israeli withdrawal from key areas of the holy city. The officials spoke as Israeli and Palestinian negotiators were to begin talks in Jerusalem to work out a joint document they hope to issue at a U.S.-sponsored peace conference next month. The meetings were closed. » Read more

As Lebanon Goes . . . ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post by Jackson Diehl - (Opinion) October 8, 2007 - 1:37pm Lebanon has long been described as a theater where the larger tensions and conflicts of the Middle East are played out in miniature, and in the past three years its drama has seemed particularly representative. When the Bush administration's push for democracy appeared to be gaining momentum in 2005, Lebanese responded to the assassination of their prime minister with a classic "people power" revolution, and a relatively democratic election installed a pro-Western government. » Read more

Palestinians See Rifts With Israel On Peace Draft ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters by Wafa Amr - October 8, 2007 - 1:33pm Israeli and Palestinian negotiators are deeply divided over the content of a joint document they are drafting for next month's U.S.-sponsored statehood conference, Palestinian officials said on Sunday. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, both weakened by internal crises, have avoided formal discussion of agenda issues in a series of pre-conference summits. They appointed top aides to find common ground instead. » Read more

Neocons Converge Around Giuliani Campaign ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Newsweek by Michael Hirsch - October 8, 2007 - 1:26pm Neocons can't help but slink around Washington, D.C. The Iraq War has given the neoconservatives—who favor the assertive use of American power abroad to spread American values—something of a bad name, and several of the Republican candidates seem less than eager to hire them as advisers. But Rudy Giuliani apparently never got that memo. One of the top foreign-policy consultants to the leading GOP candidate is Norman Podhoretz, a founding father of the neocon movement. » Read more

October 5th

All's Quiet On The Golan Heights, For Now ATFP World Press Roundup Article from McClatchy News by Dion Nissenbaum - October 5, 2007 - 4:21pm   Deep, freshly carved military trenches cut through rocky pastures filled with Israeli cows. Green Israeli army jeeps zip along the narrow mountain roads that parallel the Syrian border. United Nations patrols in white SUVs rumble along uneven dirt roads that run among empty Israeli tank positions and rolling fields stretching northeast toward Damascus. For decades, this 45-mile border has been one of Israel's quieter ones. These days, however, many Israelis are wondering if this is where the next war will start. » Read more

Pre-summit Accord To Cover Only Points Of Clear Agreement ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Avi Issacharoff, Barak Ravid, Aluf Benn - October 5, 2007 - 4:19pm The joint statement to be formulated by Israel and the Palestinians ahead of the regional meeting in Annapolis next month may include references to the core issues of the final-status agreement. However, such references would be non-committal, and the statement will deal only with issues that enjoy clear agreement. Israeli sources say the conference has been set for November 26. Sources in Jerusalem said the joint statement will be "significant enough but general enough to avoid a blow-up and a crisis." » Read more

Order Of Things ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times (Editorial) October 5, 2007 - 4:13pm The Syrian president said that his country will not attend the November peace conference on the Palestinian question, called for by US President George Bush, unless the occupation of the Golan Heights is also an item on the agenda. On the one hand this is understandable, since an end to the Arab-Israeli conflicts cannot be reached as long as peace efforts are not comprehensive; in other words, talks must be extended to the occupied Syrian territory for any regional peace agreement to be lasting. » Read more

Here We Go Again: Making Much Noise But Very Little Sense ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star (Editorial) October 5, 2007 - 4:10pm The US government announced a few days ago that anyone invited to a planned Middle East peace conference next month will have to abide by a set of conditions (without stating that those rules are largely written by the United States and Israel). A few days later, a Syrian government daily, Tishrin, charged that Washington seeks to destabilize the Middle East and said a US-sponsored conference was unlikely to make any progress toward peace. » Read more

Palestinians Struggle In Dire Straits ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bbc News by Martin Asser - October 5, 2007 - 4:07pm Hassan is 53, but the lines on his face suggest a man at least 20 years older; when asked to describe what his life is like he uses a single word: "al-mawt" (death). He is a charcoal-burner in the blackened, smoke-filled valleys around Yabad, in the northern West Bank. It takes two weeks of low-oxygen incineration to make charcoal from the carefully packed mounds of citrus wood covered in cinders. The burners must constantly tend the mounds, applying wet straw to maintain the temperature for producing charcoal. » Read more