Legitimizing Hamas: Carter's Visit Sends The Wrong Message
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Weekly Standard
by Matthew Levitt - (Opinion) April 16, 2008 - 5:57pm

Imagine the Alice in Wonderland scene that will take place later this week, when U.S. Secret Service agents entrusted with protecting former president Jimmy Carter stand guard over a meeting with the head of a designated terrorist group responsible for near daily attacks targeting civilians, including numerous attacks in which American citizens have been injured and killed. The former president may have altruistic motives, but his meeting with Hamas leader Khaled Mishal is both imprudent and dangerous.

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How Many West Bank Barriers Will Israel Forgo?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Joshua Mitnick - April 16, 2008 - 5:55pm

This crossroads used to be a daily battle for Palestinian motorists, with traffic stretching a half-mile and wait time before inspection by Israeli soldiers longer than an hour. Now, as a small step toward peace that included Israel's removal of 60 security barriers throughout the Palestinian territories, soldiers are gone from the road, and traffic between the northern West Bank and Jericho glides through the junction.

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Jitters At A West Bank Junction
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Week
by Joshua Mitnick - April 10, 2008 - 1:55pm

Rimonim Junction, West Bank — The crossroads is set among idyllic hilltops that feed herds of sheep on the edge of the Judean desert. There is a steady rhythm of Palestinian minivan taxis shuttling between the West Bank’s northern half and the center. Occasionally, the sedan of an Israeli settler swooshes by. At the side of the road leading toward the Christian village of Taiybeh, a booth of concrete cubes sits empty.

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The Palestinians Are Under Inner And Outer Siege
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Bassem Eid - (Opinion) April 9, 2008 - 8:54am

Before Oslo, Palestinians primarily desired unity and an end to the occupation. But as soon as the first intifada began to fade, divisions among Palestinians emerged. Throughout the Oslo years, these rifts continued to widen. While scores of Palestinians took to the streets, armed with stones and kitchen appliances, during the first intifada, the present uprising is increasingly characterized by the deadly firepower of small arms.

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Gazans' Latest Crisis: Fuel Cuts
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
by Ibrahim Barzak - April 9, 2008 - 8:43am

Muin Abdul Ghani sleeps in his car, parked among dozens of other vehicles at a gas station, unwilling to give up his place in line in his desperate scramble for gasoline. It's one way Gaza's embattled 1.4 million residents are adjusting to their newest crisis: a protest by gas station owners who have refused to sell the small amounts they have in stock or accept future shipments after months of restricted Israeli fuel supplies.

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Israel's Tough Choice
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Nimrod Novik - (Opinion) April 7, 2008 - 5:42pm

For several decades now, Israeli policy toward the Palestinians has been all too frequently governed by false assumptions. These include the presumption to "produce" an alternative Palestinian leadership that is more amenable to Israeli preferences and an equally condescending claim to "reeducate" Palestinians to alternative thinking.

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Olmert, Abbas To Meet Again After Seven Weeks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Agence France Presse (AFP)
April 7, 2008 - 5:38pm

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas meet on Monday for the first time in six weeks as Middle East peace talks get back on track under heavy US pressure. Abbas, who suspended his bi-weekly meetings with Olmert at the beginning of March after an Israeli military operation in Gaza killed more than 130 people, said on Sunday that he would not accept a peace deal at any price.

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Road Map To A Gaza War
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Jackson Diehl - (Opinion) April 7, 2008 - 5:32pm

Seven years ago George W. Bush's incoming foreign policy team blamed the Clinton administration for an eleventh-hour rush for a Middle East peace agreement that ended with the explosion of the second Palestinian intifada. Now, with less than 10 months remaining in office, Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice are engaged in a similar last-minute push -- yet they don't seem to recognize the growing risk that their initiative, too, will end with another Israeli-Palestinian war.

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Israel Tries To Cool Predictions Of Impending War With Syria
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Agence France Presse (AFP)
by Charly Wegman - April 4, 2008 - 6:18pm

Israel on Thursday played down media reports of heightened tension along the Syrian border, insisting there was little likelihood of military confrontation between the two countries. "Israel has no intention of attacking Syria, and the latter says only it is ready to respond to any attack, so the risk of a military confrontation is very low," said Deputy Prime Minister Haim Ramon.

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Rice's Roadmap Achievement & Ipf Letter
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Israel Policy Forum
by Sadie Goldman With Jason Proetorius And Ipf Staff - April 4, 2008 - 6:11pm

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice may have brokered the first tangible achievement in the Israeli-Palestinian negotiating process since the Annapolis peace conference four months ago.

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