Peres attends rare dinner with Arab leaders
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
November 11, 2008 - 8:00pm

Arab leaders, including the Saudi king and President Shimon Peres attended the same dinner, a rare encounter that the head of the United Nations hopes will promote understanding and talks. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon hosted the dinner Tuesday night for leaders attending a two-day UN conference to promote a global dialogue about religions, cultures and common values that starts Wednesday. "It's quite unique when you expect President Peres of Israel ... and many kings and leaders from the Arab world ... (sitting) down together and having dinner," Ban told reporters.

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Israel allows fuel into Gaza as UN warns food aid in peril
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Agence France Presse (AFP)
November 11, 2008 - 8:00pm

Israel Tuesday reopened the terminal that handles all fuel supplies to Gaza to allow delivery of diesel to the Palestinian territory's sole power plant one day after it shuddered to a halt. A UN agency, meanwhile, warned it would have to suspend food distribution on which a majority of Gaza's 1.5 million population depends unless Israel also allows in vital foodstuffs. The Nahal Oz terminal used for oil deliveries "opened at 8:30 a.m. for the transfer of diesel for the power station," said Israeli Army spokesman Peter Lerner.

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Obama urged to make peace top priority - Ban
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
November 11, 2008 - 1:00am

The main players in the Middle East peace process hope Barack Obama will make the issue a top priority when he takes over the US presidency in January, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said on Tuesday. Last weekend the Quartet of Middle East peace mediators - the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States - met in Egypt to keep alive Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, even though political uncertainty in Israel has scotched hopes for a deal this year.

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Secretary Rice fights peace-process inertia
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Ilene Prusher - November 9, 2008 - 8:00pm

Inertia, history shows, can be a dangerous thing in the Middle East. It leaves room for radicals and rockets to reset the agenda. That's why US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice – and members of The Quartet – were in Egypt Sunday: To keep the peace train running, or at least to keep its engine warm. "I believe that the Annapolis process is now the international community's answer and the parties' answer to how we finally end the conflict between the Palestinians and the Israelis," Rice told reporters afterward.

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Livni, after Quartet meet: I’m not repeating mistakes of Camp David
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Barak Ravid - November 9, 2008 - 8:00pm

Israel and the Palestinian Authority presented the Quartet for Mideast peace with several agreements on Sunday on the way negotiations will proceed next year on the conflict's core issues. Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who updated the Quartet at Sharm el-Sheikh with PA President Mahmoud Abbas, said she was convinced she has not repeated the mistakes of Camp David in 2000. She said although no deal was reached this year, both sides are determined to continue talks. Livni and Abbas stressed "the need for continuous, uninterrupted, direct bilateral negotiations."

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Rice Visits West Bank City; U.S. Announces Aid
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Isabel Kershner - November 7, 2008 - 8:00pm

In the first visit by an American secretary of state to the city of Jenin, a once-infamous hub of Palestinian militancy, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice sought to strike a positive chord at the close of what will probably be her last official trip to Israel and the Palestinian territories. Ms. Rice has acknowledged that the Israeli-Palestinian peace process is unlikely to achieve its goal of an agreement by the end of the year and has devoted this trip to other aspects of the process, chiefly the building of reliable Palestinian institutions in preparation for a state.

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Bush punts unfinished Mideast peace deal to Obama
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
by Matthew Lee - November 6, 2008 - 8:00pm

The Bush administration has conceded that an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal is no longer possible by the end of its term and is preparing to hand the fragile, unfinished U.S.-backed peace effort to President-elect Obama. Obama may not want it, at least as designed by the Republican Bush administration, seen as slow to embrace the role of honest Mideast broker. Many of Obama's foreign policy advisers were players in the Clinton administration's extensive Mideast peace efforts and are unenthusiastic about President Bush's hands-off approach.

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Rice insists peace attainable, despite deadline miss
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Deutsche Presse Agentur (DPA)
November 6, 2008 - 8:00pm

Faced with the failure of Israelis and Palestinians to meet an end of year deadline for a peace deal, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice nonetheless insisted Friday that a final settlement of the dispute between the sides was attainable. President George W Bush's vision of a Palestinian state living alongside Israel 'will not come in a single dramatic moment, but it will come,' she told a news conference in Ramallah.

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Israel demolishes homes for 'City of David' heritage site
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent
by Donald MacIntyre - November 6, 2008 - 8:00pm

Israel has been accused of demolishing Palestinian houses in Arab East Jerusalem while international attention was focused on the election of Barack Obama.

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P.A.- Israeli File to ‘Move Smoothly’ to Obama
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Media Line
by Abd el-Raouf Arnaout - November 5, 2008 - 8:00pm

An American committee headed by Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs David Welch is preparing a detailed file on the ongoing negotiations between the Palestinians and the Israelis ahead of submitting it to the new United States administration, The Media Line (TML) has learned. Yassir ‘Abd Rabboh, top aide to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud ‘Abbas, said that U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had informed the Palestinians of this development at their meeting with her in New York in September.

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