May 19th

Unknown Assailants Detonate Bomb Outside Gaza Cafe ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times May 19, 2008 - 5:50pm Assailants detonated a bomb outside a popular cafe in Gaza City early Sunday morning, apparently part of a campaign by shadowy extremists to eliminate perceived symbols of Western influence. The pre-dawn blast smashed the cafe's windows and damaged its door. No one was hurt. Cafe owner Khalid Harbid said another bomb went off outside his cafe last month. He charged that Gaza's Islamic Hamas rulers are not protecting his business. » Read more

The Road Map Revisited ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Middle East Times by Naomi Chazan - (Opinion) May 19, 2008 - 5:50pm The "Performance-Based Road Map to a Permanent Two-State Solution to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict" highlights both the good intentions and the misplaced conceptions of its promulgators. Five years after its adoption, it lingers not as a tool for the achievement of a sustainable agreement but as a burdensome impediment to its realization. » Read more

Obama And Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from International Herald Tribune by Thomas L. Friedman - (Opinion) May 19, 2008 - 5:49pm Pssst. Have you heard? I have. I heard that Barack Obama once said there has to be "an end" to the Israeli "occupation" of the West Bank "that began in 1967." Yikes! Pssst. Have you heard? I have. I heard that Barack Obama said that not only must Israel be secure, but that any peace agreement "must establish Palestine as a homeland for the Palestinian people." Yikes! » Read more

Israel's 'american Problem' ATFP World Press Roundup Article from International Herald Tribune by Jeffrey Goldberg - (Opinion) May 19, 2008 - 5:48pm When the prime minister of Israel, Ehud Olmert, arrived at a Jerusalem ballroom in February to address the grandees of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, he was pugnacious, as is customary, but he was also surprisingly defensive, and not because of his relentlessly compounding legal worries. » Read more

Bush Wraps Up Mideast Trip With A Thud, Analysts Say ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Usa Today by Charles Levinson - May 19, 2008 - 5:47pm President Bush wrapped up his five-day Mideast tour Sunday with little visible progress on either of the main issues he highlighted: rising oil prices and the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Instead, Bush was subjected to a wave of criticism as he delivered a lecture to the Arab world on the benefits of democracy. "This trip was an exclamation point on the fact that the mystique about American power is no longer there," said Steve Clemons, an analyst at the New America Foundation, a think tank in Washington. » Read more

Bin Laden: Arab Leaders Sacrificing Palestinians ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press May 19, 2008 - 5:46pm Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden lashed out at Arab leaders for "sacrificing" the Palestinians in a new message released Sunday and he called on Muslim terrorists in Egypt to help break the blockade of Gaza. Bin Laden called Arab leaders "agents of the crusaders" and "wolves" in the audio message posted on an Islamic militant Web site where al-Qaida leaders issue their statements. He portrayed the citizens of Arab nations as herds of sheep who have been handed over to the wolves to look after them. » Read more

Palestinians Hope To Draw Investment At Conference ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press by Karin Laub - May 19, 2008 - 5:45pm The West Bank is open for business after years of bloody turmoil. At least that's the intended message of this week's international investors conference, where the Palestinians are seeking backing for nearly $2 billion in development projects, from fish farms to a new city of 25,000. » Read more

The Limits Of War In Lebanon ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Boston Globe (Editorial) May 19, 2008 - 5:45pm THE ARMED confrontation in Lebanon between the government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and the Shi'ite movement Hezbollah is ending. Hezbollah fighters are withdrawing from the Sunni neighborhood of West Beirut, opening roads once again, and allowing the airport to function. » Read more

May 16th

Arabs Slam Bush's Warm Rhetoric Towards Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews May 16, 2008 - 7:33pm   While it remains unclear if US President George W. Bush's visit will yield any political gains in the race to achieve an agreement of any sort between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, it has certainly been an » Read more

'yes...but' ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al- Ahram by Dina Ezzat - May 16, 2008 - 7:31pm Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is expected to visit Egypt for talks with President Hosni Mubarak early next month, Egyptian sources say, in confirmation of an Israeli account. The visit, they added, should cover recent developments on the ground in the Gaza Strip, and Egypt's immediate and troubled backyard, including Egypt's efforts to strike a full truce between Israel and Hamas. » Read more