Bush's Arab World Tour Is Significant For Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
by Leslie Susser - January 15, 2008 - 5:40pm

With its focus on strengthening the moderate Arab coalition against Iran, President Bush’s tour of the Persian Gulf countries, Saudi Arabia and Egypt could prove extremely significant for Israel. From an Israeli perspective, the three key elements were isolating Iran, coaxing moderate Arab countries into moving toward normalization with Israel and getting oil-rich Arab states to honor their financial pledges to the Palestinians. Progress on all or some of these issues would significantly boost Israeli foreign policy goals.

»

Threat To Cut U.s. Aid Opens Rift With Egypt
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Nathan Guttman - January 15, 2008 - 5:39pm

Pro-Israel advocates in Washington refrained from contesting a congressional decision last month to withhold part of American military aid to Egypt, in what appears to be a departure from a 30-year-old unwritten understanding that Israel would help Cairo fight off any efforts to cut American assistance to Egypt.

»

Abbas Should Be Safeguarded
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Akiva Eldar - January 14, 2008 - 6:10pm

President George W. Bush, who came to jump-start the peace talks, is fading in the distance, and the large-scale military action in Gaza is getting closer. It is as if there are two peoples: The people of the West Bank and the people of Gaza. With the first we make peace and with the second we go to war.

»

January 14, 2008 - Vol. 9, Issue 19
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Americans For Peace Now
by Middle East Peace Report - January 14, 2008 - 5:53pm

EHUD VS. EHUD: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Ehud Barak have been trading barbs over Israel’s failure to evacuate settlement outposts built in violation of Israeli law and Israel’s commitments to the United States. During a media availability with Olmert, U.S. President George W. Bush displayed some impatience over this issue on Wednesday. He said: “Look, I mean, we’ve been talking about it for four years.  The agreement was, get rid of outposts, illegal outposts, and they ought to go.”

»

Differing Opinions Fail To Dent Israel's Love Affair With Bush
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent
by Donald Macintyre - January 10, 2008 - 4:48pm

The Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, declared last night that Israel reserved the right to expand existing Jewish settlements in Arab East Jerusalem and in parts of the West Bank that it hopes to retain in any final peace deal.

»

In Exclusion, Hamas Counts
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Inter Press Service (IPS)
by Mohammed Omer - (Opinion) January 10, 2008 - 4:44pm

Leaders from the Palestinian party Hamas that won the elections in Gaza two years back have inevitably not been invited to meet Bush. The U.S. considers Hamas a terrorist organisation. Hamas took control of Gaza by force from the Fatah party headed by Abbas in June last year, about a year and a half after it swept the polls in January 2006. As Hamas leaders and supporters see it, Bush's talks with Abbas can count for little if they are kept out. And so with Abbas's talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert just ahead of Bush's visit.

»

On Mideast Trip, Bush Hopes To Propel Historic Israeli-palestinian Peacemaking
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Ilene Prusher - January 10, 2008 - 4:40pm

The patriotic tunes that greeted President Bush as he arrived in Israel Wednesday for the first time in his presidency set the tone for a historic visit. But given the laudatory remarks of Mr. Bush and his Israeli counterparts on the airport tarmac, the visit seemed focused on celebrating and strengthening the US-Israel relationship, throwing into question whether Bush would be equally welcomed Thursday in the West Bank.

»

Hopeless In Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Times
by Stefanie Marsh - January 9, 2008 - 6:21pm

We were in east Jerusalem, the day before we were due in the Jordan Valley to document the plight of Palestinian farmers, when the man from Oxfam burst in to the room. This was last week, when I spent five days in the occupied territories – Gaza, Hebron, the Jordan Valley and Bethlehem – inspecting living conditions in anticipation of President George Bush’s visit to Israel today.

»

Analysis: Bush Could Find Time Running Out For Peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Times
by Richard Beeston - (Analysis) January 9, 2008 - 6:19pm

When President Bush set foot in Israel today for the first time in a decade, he may have been tempted to believe that peace could finally be at hand in that tortured land. On the apron of Ben Gurion Airport, Israeli leaders and dignitaries turned out in force to pay their respects to the man regarded as the Jewish state’s most powerful supporter. Tomorrow, Mr Bush will receive a no less respectful reception when he travels to the West Bank to be greeted by President Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian leadership.

»

In Isolation, Gazans Dismiss Bush's New Push For Peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Dan Murphy - January 9, 2008 - 6:11pm

As Israel and the Palestinian Authority gear up for President Bush's first visit to the Jewish state and the West Bank, in which the president is expected to nudge along a hoped-for peace deal between the two sides, many residents of the isolated Gaza Strip are looking on with anger and cynicism. This densely populated coastal territory has been largely shut off from the outside world since Hamas, the Islamist militant group that the US and Israel consider terrorists, seized control from their rival Fatah here in June.

»


American Task Force on Palestine - 1634 Eye St. NW, Suite 725, Washington DC 20006 - Telephone: 202-262-0017