Giving peace in Palestine no chance
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
by Michael Young - December 11, 2008 - 1:00am

Rarely a day goes by without someone offering new advice to the incoming Obama administration on how to deal with the Middle East. This advice is usually based on a simple principle: If George W. Bush pursued a specific policy, Barack Obama must do the opposite.

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Obama team's warring Middle East views
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Politico
by Ben Smith - December 6, 2008 - 1:00am

President-elect Barack Obama and his presumptive secretary of state, Hillary Rodham Clinton, both pledged during the campaign to press for peace in the Middle East. But the Middle East conflict is, perhaps unsurprisingly, already playing out on a small scale within Obama’s own transition. Top policy jobs haven’t been filled — the org chart, insiders say, hasn’t even been drawn — but Middle East politics watchers, and Obama backers concerned with Israel, are carefully eyeing the interplay between two of his most important advisers on the Middle East.

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Is an Israeli-Palestinian Confederation Feasible?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Middle East Times
by Rachelle Kliger - December 5, 2008 - 1:00am

JERUSALEM -- With time running out on the U.S. George W. Bush administration and without a settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian dispute having been reached, as was hoped, the idea of a Palestinian-Israeli confederation is gradually replacing that of a two-state solution. The notion has been floating around for several years now, in various forms. Josef Avesar, an Israeli-born attorney now based in California, is the founder of the Israeli Palestinian Confederation committee (IPC).

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Obama's 'Palestinian friend' laments catastrophic U.S. policy in Mideast
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Akiva Eldar - December 5, 2008 - 1:00am

No one stopped Rashid Khalidi, the Columbia University professor of Modern Arab Studies, at Ben-Gurion airport. Having just landed after the long flight from New York, the professor was anticipating the traditional reception from airport security personnel reserved for visitors with "suspicious" names. To his surprise, he entered the airport like anyone else, with no problems or delays. Perhaps word had gotten around at Ben-Gurion that he was the Palestinian friend of United States President-elect Barack Obama.

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Obama's New Foreign Policy Team Looks Toward Syria
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Nathan Guttman - December 4, 2008 - 1:00am

Breaking with the Bush administration, the incoming foreign policy team of President-elect Barack Obama is expected to embrace Israeli–Syrian peace talks and might actively take part in negotiations that until now the Americans have shunned. This assessment is shared by Middle East experts trying to gauge the foreign policy priorities of the incoming administration based on statements from the transition team. The negotiations on an accord between Israel and Syria would run parallel to efforts to secure a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.

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Abbas says may call for Palestinian elections
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Wafa Amr - November 23, 2008 - 8:00pm

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Sunday he would call for elections in 2009 if his secular Fatah movement and its Islamist rivals Hamas do not reconcile by the end of this year. "If the dialogue does not begin, and if we fail, I will issue a presidential decree early next year calling for simultaneous presidential and parliamentary elections," Abbas told members of the Palestine Liberation Organization. He did not name a date. Elections could be held 90 days after his decree, but there was no hint of when that might be.

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West Bank alone could go to polls
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
by Jumana Al Tamimi - November 23, 2008 - 8:00pm

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas could hold elections in the occupied West Bank alone if Hamas prevents the ballot from taking place in Gaza, an Abbas aide said on Monday. "If Hamas forcibly prevents them from preparing for elections in Gaza, this is not going to stop the elections from being held. We will hold the elections in the West Bank and Hamas will be responsible for preventing the elections in Gaza," senior Abbas adviser Nimer Hammad said.

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Fatah and Hamas in unity government talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Rory McCarthy - November 6, 2008 - 8:00pm

The rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah will meet in Cairo on Sunday for the first time in more than a year in an Egyptian-led effort to agree a unified government and end their divisions. Egyptian officials have prepared an outline deal that would include a "national reconciliation government", but it is short on details and could take weeks of negotiation. The last effort at a unity government, arranged by the Saudis in February 2007, collapsed and the factions reverted to a near civil war until Hamas seized full control of Gaza months later.

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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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A direct and immediate impact
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Ghassan Khatib - November 2, 2008 - 8:00pm

The domestic Israeli political scene and balance of powers have a very strong effect on the peace process and the domestic Palestinian scene. The Israeli balance of power is in turn deeply influenced by Israeli public opinion. The latter sets the limits for how far negotiators can go as well as for how far Israeli bulldozers may reach.

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