November 5th

Rice Seeks Mideast Peace Deal While Bush In Office ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters by Sue Pleming - November 5, 2007 - 2:27pm Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice joined Israeli and Palestinian leaders on Monday in voicing hope they could reach a peace agreement before President George W. Bush leaves office in January 2009. But wrapping up two days of talks in the region, she again gave no date for a U.S.-led conference which all parties have said would serve as a launching pad for statehood negotiations. Rice said only that the meeting, in Annapolis, Maryland, would take place "before the end of the year." » Read more

Restive Nablus Challenges Fatah's Abbas ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor by Joshua Mitnick - November 5, 2007 - 2:25pm Over the course of the second Palestinian intifada, this city became the West Bank's capital for car thefts, kidnappings, and suicide bombers. Now, with 300 security officers from the Palestinian Authority (PA) freshly deployed around Nablus, the city has become a testing ground for an embattled Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas. » Read more

In Mideast, Rice Pushes Annapolis Talks ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post by Karen Deyoung - November 5, 2007 - 2:23pm Israel is ready to put "all basic questions, all the substantive problems, all the historical questions" about Palestinian statehood on the table in a U.S.-hosted peace conference later this month in Annapolis, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Sunday. "It is time," Olmert said in an impassioned speech. "All questions are on the agenda. We won't run away from any of them." » Read more

Carter's Clarity, Bush's Befuddlement ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post by Robert Novak - (Opinion) November 5, 2007 - 2:22pm The timing of the release of the new documentary "Jimmy Carter: Man From Plains" was not intentional. The movie is arriving in theaters just before the Bush administration's proposed Middle East conference in Annapolis, scheduled for the end of this month. But the former president's clarity on the Palestinian question contrasts sharply with George W. Bush's refusal to face reality, casting a pall over hopes to conclude his presidency with a diplomatic triumph. » Read more

Olmert Backs Mideast Peace Conference ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Helene Cooper - November 5, 2007 - 2:19pm Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel issued his strongest and most vocal support yet on Sunday for Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s efforts to forge a Middle East peace plan, raising the possibility of making peace with the Palestinians before the conclusion of the Bush administration. » Read more

That Promised Peace Conference ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times (Editorial) November 5, 2007 - 2:18pm One month before President Bush’s Mideast peace conference — the administration’s first serious effort in six years — it’s still not clear what will be on the agenda or who, beyond the Americans, Israelis and Palestinians, will show up. Even the date is still up in the air. » Read more

November 2nd

The Enemy Within ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by David Kimche - (Opinion) November 2, 2007 - 5:20pm Our worst enemies do not live in Ramallah, nor even in Gaza. No, they can be found in Tel Aviv, in Jerusalem, in Haifa. They live in our midst. They are motivated by greed, by avarice. They wear expensive suits, don the latest in ties. The high cost lawyer with, oh, such refined cultural taste who swindled tens of millions of dollars from Holocaust survivors without batting an eyelid, is one of them. In my book he rates high up, at the top of the list of the worst of the worst. » Read more

Pa Infighting / Blood Brothers ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Avi Issacharoff - (Opinion) November 2, 2007 - 5:13pm The Palestinian organizations responsible for the massive firing of Qassam rockets and mortar rounds at Israel over the past few days may harbor hostility toward one another, but they share a common goal: Dragging Israel into a massive activity in the Gaza Strip. Yesterday, it was the Fatah-affiliated Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades that fired a heavy salvo of rockets at Sderot. But despite their affiliation, the men who launched the rockets are not taking orders from Fatah chief and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. » Read more

Disorder In The Ranks Of Hamas? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Miftah by Caelum Moffatt - (Opinion) November 2, 2007 - 5:10pm Last Sunday, Hamas government spokesperson, Ghazi Hamad, was alleged to have issued a five page letter in which he criticized and questioned Hamas’ takeover of the Gaza Strip in June. The former editor-in-chief of the Hamas-affiliated weekly Al-Risala has denied the letter’s existence in which he ostensibly declared that the events in June, which resulted in the current duopoly of Palestine, was a “serious strategic mistake that burdened the movement more than it can bear”. » Read more

Lessons From The Failed Peace Talks At Camp David ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star by Moshe Amirav - (Opinion) November 2, 2007 - 5:05pm This month US President George W. Bush proposes to host an international conference in Annapolis, near Washington, in the hope of advancing a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians. The failures of previous attempts - in Madrid in 1991, in Oslo in 1993 and at Camp David in 2000 - highlight the difficulties. What have we learned from these failures to suggest that the same errors in judgment will recur? » Read more