We Need Real Peace, Not A Shelved Piece Of Paper
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
by Walid Awad - (Opinion) April 9, 2008 - 8:50am

Unconfirmed reports circulating in the media say that Israel’s Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is now busy with Palestinians drafting a preamble to a comprehensive peace agreement, a sort of another “declaration of principles”. A shelved document that will spell out all the core issues, and be adopted by the Quartet, the Security Council, and “moderate” Arab countries, to be signed by President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, witnessed and co-signed by President George W. Bush in West Jerusalem during his visit to Israel next month.

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Olmert And Abbas Resume Meetings After Hiatus
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
April 9, 2008 - 8:49am

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert met for the first time in nearly two months on Monday with Palestinians cautioning that settlement expansion undercut the chances of a peace deal. Abbas’ aide Saeb Erekat described differences over building in Jewish settlements, especially around Jerusalem, as "very deep", but Israeli officials said the leaders agreed not to allow such issues to interrupt the US-brokered negotiations.

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Settlement Bloc Expansion Is The Most Destructive
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Yariv Oppenheimer - (Opinion) April 9, 2008 - 8:46am

Recently, the Israeli and international media has featured reports on progress in peace negotiations. Chief negotiators Ahmed Qurei and Tzippi Livni maintain silence about the details, but allow that the talks are ongoing, detailed and purposeful. Now of all times, when the core issues never before discussed appear to be on the agenda, the negotiating theater seems to be infinitely distant from the reality unfolding on the ground.

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The Lie Of Peace And The Nonsense Of Security
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Akiva Eldar - (Opinion) April 4, 2008 - 6:29pm

Presumably there is a strange but legitimate dispute between a leader who comes from the right, who believes that if Israel continues to hold on to the territories the Jewish state will be in danger, and a leader who comes from the left, who claims that if Israel stops holding on to the territories Jewish lives will be in danger. Ostensibly one proposes a reaching a quick solution to the conflict by negotiating with Fatah, and the other prefers long-term resolution via a military struggle with Hamas.

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Settlement Freeze
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
(Editorial) April 4, 2008 - 6:21pm

A rash of reports coming out of Israel indicates that a spurt of new construction is under way in Israeli settlements in the West Bank. The development should be alarming to anyone who cares about Israel’s welfare. It’s a violation of Israel’s public commitments, most of all to the Bush administration. It’s damaging to Israel’s international standing and harmful to its security, both short and long term.

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Arab Home Razed In Jerusalem
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Star-telegram
by Karin Laub - April 4, 2008 - 6:13pm

An Israeli wrecking crew knocked down Shadi Hamdan's home in an Arab neighborhood of Jerusalem in just a couple of hours, reducing the upholsterer's savings to a pile of gray rubble. The demolition of the home, which Israel claims was illegally built, vividly illustrate the toughest issue facing negotiators in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks: conflicting claims over Jerusalem.

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Tiny Party Shows Large Clout On Settlements
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Griff Witte - April 2, 2008 - 6:27pm

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice left Israel on Monday having failed to persuade leaders here to halt settlement construction on occupied Palestinian land. But the setback for Rice was a victory for Rabbi Ovadia Yossef, the spiritual leader of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party. Within hours of Rice's departure, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was on the phone with Yossef to tell him that plans for building 800 new homes in the West Bank settlement of Betar Illit had been approved, according to two Shas officials, just as Shas had requested.

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Olmert Pours Cold Water On Peace Process
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
March 27, 2008 - 6:47pm

  Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Wednesday that he expected that only a framework of a peace deal could be reached with Palestinians by the end of the year, not an actual agreement. The Israeli premier also announced that Israel would continue construction in large settlement blocs in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

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Of Yarmulkes And Epithets
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from United Press International (UPI)
by Arnaud De Borchgrave - (Opinion) March 27, 2008 - 12:12pm

To understand the chasm between mainstream media and the blogosphere, Lewis Carroll's "Through the Looking Glass" is a helpful guide. Tweedledum and Tweedledee, they are not. But they are frequently fact and factoid (an invented fact that is taken to be true because of its appearance in print). And many blogs have achieved the status of print by virtue of the fact that countless millions get their news online. The average age of a newspaper reader is 55. Onliners? Try 30.

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Israelis Oppose Withdrawal From West Bank
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Angus Reid Global Monitor
March 25, 2008 - 5:55pm

The majority of people in Israel are against continuing a process of dismantling Israeli settlements in Palestinian territory, according to a poll by the Mutagim Institute published in the Jerusalem Post. 64.9 per cent of respondents oppose withdrawing from Judea and Samaria, also known as the West Bank.

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