Hamas conditions dim unity gov’t prospects ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times March 12, 2009 - 12:00am Hamas said on Wednesday it would demand the right to choose the next Palestinian prime minister and a majority of Cabinet seats in any unity government with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' secular Fateh faction. Hamas' opening position in Egyptian-mediated reconciliation talks in Cairo appeared to dim chances of a deal on a unity government acceptable to the United States and other Western powers, which shun the Islamist group for refusing to recognise Israel and renounce violence. » Read more

Israel Stance Was Undoing of Nominee for Intelligence Post ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Helene Cooper, Mark Mazzetti - March 11, 2009 - 12:00am WASHINGTON — When Dennis C. Blair, the director of national intelligence, announced that he would install Charles W. Freeman Jr. in a top intelligence post, the decision surprised some in the White House who worried that the selection could be controversial and an unnecessary distraction, according to administration officials. » Read more

Dramatic Shift In Diplomacy Draws Muted React, So Far ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward by J.J. Goldberg - (Analysis) March 11, 2009 - 12:00am It is an Obama revolution that has gone by virtually unremarked. In the space of one week, President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton have knocked down no fewer than five long-standing pillars of American foreign policy from the Bush years and earlier, leaving Israel and other countries affected to confront a transformed world of diplomacy. Between March 2 and March 7, the Obama administration: • Sent two senior envoys to Damascus for high-level negotiations with Syria, ending Washington’s years-long effort to isolate the country. » Read more

Dramatic Shift In Diplomacy Draws Muted React, So Far ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward by J.J. Goldberg - (Analysis) March 11, 2009 - 12:00am t is an Obama revolution that has gone by virtually unremarked. In the space of one week, President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton have knocked down no fewer than five long-standing pillars of American foreign policy from the Bush years and earlier, leaving Israel and other countries affected to confront a transformed world of diplomacy. Between March 2 and March 7, the Obama administration: • Sent two senior envoys to Damascus for high-level negotiations with Syria, ending Washington’s years-long effort to isolate the country. » Read more

Mideast Peace Can Start With Economic Growth ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Wall Street Journal by Daniel Doron - March 12, 2009 - 12:00am Last week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told Israeli Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu that the U.S. does not want to be restricted by "old formulas" when it comes to the peace process. As she works on a new approach, she may want to ask why costly diplomatic efforts have not led to Israeli-Palestinian peace but to ongoing war. » Read more

An open debate on Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times (Editorial) March 12, 2009 - 12:00am When John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt wrote about "The Israel Lobby" in 2006, many supporters of Israel were outraged. How, they wanted to know, could anyone say that the United States offered "unwavering support" to Israel? Worse yet, how did these two misguided professors dare suggest that there was a cabal of die-hard Zionists in the media, in Congress, in the Pentagon and in neocon think tanks working to ensure that U.S. policy did not deviate from the pro-Israel party line? » Read more

Gideon Levy / Everyone agrees: War in Gaza was a failure ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Gideon Levy - March 12, 2009 - 12:00am Suddenly we're all in consensus: The recent war in Gaza was a failure. The bon ton now is to list its flaws. Flip-floppers say its "achievements" were squandered; leftists say the war "should never have started" and rightists will say the war "should have lasted longer." But on this they all agree: It was a blunder. Because we consider the war to have been almost cost-free, with just 13 Israeli dead, it will be the first in 36 years without a Commission of Inquiry formed in its wake. » Read more

Clinton: U.S. Gaza aid tied to recognition of Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Barak Ravid - March 12, 2009 - 12:00am Some $900 million pledged by the United States to the Palestinians will be withdrawn if the expected Palestinian Authority coalition government between Fatah and Hamas does not recognize Israel's right to exist, Western and Israeli diplomats said Wednesday. During her visit to the region last week Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas against forming a coalition with Hamas that will not meet the expectations of the Quartet. » Read more

Hamas condemns Gaza rocket strikes on Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press March 12, 2009 - 12:00am Gaza's Hamas rulers issued rare criticism Thursday of Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel from the strip, saying now is the wrong time for such attacks. The Islamic militant group has fired thousands of rockets at southern Israel in recent years. But Hamas said Thursday that it was not behind recent attacks and that it was investigating who was responsible. It apparently fears that new rocket fire could disrupt the reconciliation talks currently underway in Cairo. » Read more

The Country's Loss ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post by David Broder - March 12, 2009 - 12:00am The Obama administration has just suffered an embarrassing defeat at the hands of the lobbyists the president vowed to keep in their place, and their friends on Capitol Hill. The country has lost an able public servant in an area where President Obama has few personal credentials of his own -- the handling of national intelligence. Charles Freeman, the man who was slated to be chairman of the National Intelligence Council, the high-level interagency group that prepares evaluations for the president and other senior officials, suddenly withdrew his name Tuesday night. » Read more