April 18th

Palestinian Official Says Talks With Israelis Yield Little ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Isabel Kershner - April 18, 2008 - 6:17pm The Palestinian Authority’s foreign minister on Thursday offered an unusually bleak assessment of the negotiations with Israel and said President Mahmoud Abbas would seek more active American intervention when he meets with President Bush in Washington this month. Riad Malki, the foreign minister and minister of information in the West Bank-based government, told the Foreign Press Association here that the talks on the core issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict had so far yielded “no results.” » Read more

Israel Oks Pa West Bank Police Stations ATFP World Press Roundup Article from United Press International (UPI) April 18, 2008 - 6:16pm Israel has agreed to allow the Palestinian Authority to open 20 police stations in the West Bank under Palestinian civilian control, officials said. It is the first time since 2001 that Israel has given the green light to such a move. The facilities will be permitted to deal with criminal matters in villages near Nablus, Hebron and Bethlehem, Israel's Haaretz newspaper reported Friday. The development followed a meeting between the head of Israel's Civil Administration and the chief of the Palestinian Authority's Civil Affairs Ministry. » Read more

April 17th

What's Sauce For The Goose... ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arabic Media Internet Network by George S. Hishmeh - (Opinion) April 17, 2008 - 6:11pm When told that the leaders of Germany, Britain and, most likely, France would boycott the opening Olympic ceremonies in Peking because of China's recent crackdown in Tibet, the US President George W. Bush's National Security Adviser, Stephen Hadley, described their decision as "a cop out" and offered a surprising response that seemed to run counter to the US stance in other regions, particularly the Middle East where some governments and groups remain untouchable. » Read more

A Blast Still Reverberating ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post by David Ignatius - (Opinion) April 17, 2008 - 6:10pm It is April 18, 1983, and I am visiting the American Embassy in Beirut as a reporter for the Wall Street Journal. It is a coolish morning, a day to wear the winter-weight suit one last time. By the time I reach the embassy, a bright sun is beginning to cut the haze. Approaching the front entrance on the Corniche, grand and all but unguarded, I look across the shimmering Bay of Beirut to the slopes of Mount Lebanon, where there is still a trace of snow at the peak. The moist, sweet air of Lebanon is on my face like a phantom kiss. » Read more

No Peace Without Hamas ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post by Mahmoud Al- Zahar - (Opinion) April 17, 2008 - 6:08pm President Jimmy Carter's sensible plan to visit the Hamas leadership this week brings honesty and pragmatism to the Middle East while underscoring the fact that American policy has reached its dead end. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice acts as if a few alterations here and there would make the hideous straitjacket of apartheid fit better. » Read more

Mr. Zahar And Mr. Carter ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post (Editorial) April 17, 2008 - 6:07pm ON THE OPPOSITE page today we publish an article by the "foreign minister" of Hamas, Mahmoud al-Zahar, that drips with hatred for Israel, and with praise for former president Jimmy Carter. We believe Mr. Zahar's words are worth publishing because they provide some clarity about the group he helps to lead, a group that Mr. Carter contends is worthy of being included in the Middle East peace process. Mr. Carter himself is holding what appears to be a series of meetings with Hamas leaders during a tour of the Middle East. » Read more

Jimmy Carter: A Fool On A Fool's Errand ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star by Michael Young - (Opinion) April 17, 2008 - 6:06pm Say what you will about Jimmy Carter, he has a way of transforming moments of plodding gravitas into uproarious comedy. Remember that moment during the 1980 Democratic convention when Carter stood up, and in a phrase paying tribute to Hubert Humphrey, instead praised "Hubert Horatio Hornblower," confusing the late vice president with the character from the C.S. Forester novels? » Read more

Brothers At Bay ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Economist (Analysis) April 17, 2008 - 6:05pm Egypt's government battles with the Muslim Brotherhood » Read more

The Gulf Is Not Persian ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz (Editorial) April 17, 2008 - 6:04pm The foreign minister of the Sultanate of Oman, Yusef Bin Alawai Bin Abdulla, agreed to hold a short photo-op at the beginning of his meeting with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on Monday at the Sheraton Doha hotel. In the last eight years, since the Al-Aqsa intifada led to severing of relations between the two countries, Israeli and Omani foreign ministers have met mostly in secret, in European capitals or on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. » Read more

Gaza Op Possible After Bush Visit ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Herb Keinon - April 17, 2008 - 5:59pm There is a heightened sense in the security establishment that a broad-scale ground incursion inside the Gaza Strip is necessary this summer to deal a severe blow to Hamas's infrastructure, sources in Jerusalem said Wednesday, following the death of three soldiers in a Gaza ambush. » Read more