Mideast Leaders Vow To Refocus On Talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Richard Bourdreaux - January 9, 2008 - 6:09pm

As President Bush headed to the Middle East to check on their peace talks, Israeli and Palestinian leaders agreed Tuesday to launch them in earnest, six weeks late. It was that long ago that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas stood beside Bush at an international conference in Annapolis, Md., and announced the start of full-scale negotiations with the aim of creating a Palestinian state by the end of 2008.

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Bush's Trip To Mideast To Test His Credibility
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Usa Today
by Charles Levinson - January 9, 2008 - 6:06pm

President Bush is due in the Middle East on Wednesday to try to rekindle hope for a lasting peace, but first he'll have to win over skeptics such as Ghazi Bustami. "For seven years, Bush served Israel and made war," says Bustami, 31, the portly, soft-spoken Palestinian owner of a TV repair shop in this West Bank city. "Now with a few months left in his presidency he thinks of the Palestinians. But it's too late."

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Neither Carrot Nor Stick
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
(Editorial) January 8, 2008 - 6:16pm

It is illogical to wait for the day a rocket falls on a kindergarten in Sderot and claims many victims. Every Qassam rocket is a strike on a kindergarten avoided by chance, and every rocket that falls in Israeli territory is a strike against the sovereignty of the state. When the fortification of Sderot against rockets becomes the fortification of Ashkelon against rockets, the lack of logic in the tactic of fortification becomes clear.

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Baby Steps
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New Republic
by Dennis Ross - (Commentary) January 8, 2008 - 6:08pm

To: President George W. Bush From: Dennis Ross Subject: This week's visit with the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority Mr. President, no doubt you have received many briefings on this topic, but having negotiated with everybody you will be seeing this week and having just returned from the area, I would like to convey a few impressions that I hope will be of use to you.

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Politics & Policies: Mideast More Unstable
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Middle East Times
by Claude Salhani - (Opinion) January 8, 2008 - 6:07pm

It is under a cloud of heavy pessimism that U.S. President George W. Bush leaves for the Middle East, a region that one former administration official described as today being more dangerous, unstable and problematical for the United States than since before the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the former high-ranking member of the Bush administration said that most of the trends are bad and are not likely to get better anytime soon. "That's the context under which the president departs," he said.

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Bush To Visit An Ambivalent Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Richard Bourdreaux - January 8, 2008 - 6:06pm

For seven years, President Bush has been a distant defender of Israel, working from Washington to tilt America's policies in the Middle East more firmly behind its longtime ally. When he arrives here Wednesday on his first presidential visit, however, Bush will find an ambivalent Israeli public. It is appreciative of his efforts, yet critical of U.S. setbacks that have made the region feel more threatening.

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On First Trip To Israel, Bush Hopes To Inject Vigor Into Peace Talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Michael Abramowitz, Jonathan Finer - (Opinion) January 8, 2008 - 6:05pm

In the six weeks since Israeli and Palestinian leaders left Annapolis, Md., pledging to end "bloodshed, suffering and decades of conflict between our peoples," violence has escalated over long-standing territorial disputes and security concerns, leaving little optimism here on the eve of President Bush's visit that the fledgling dialogue will bring peace.

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Israel "committed To Dismantling West Bank Settlements"
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Fred Attewill - January 7, 2008 - 6:18pm

Israel today said it was committed to acting "expeditiously" to dismantle unauthorised West Bank settlement outposts and would tell that to President George Bush when he arrives for talks on Wednesday. A spokesman for the prime minister, Ehud Olmert, did not set a deadline for the removal of the outposts, which are typically makeshift encampments often set up by hardline settlers.

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Surprising Lessons From Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from International Herald Tribune
by Emily Schaeffer - January 7, 2008 - 6:12pm

Six years after Sept. 11th and the ensuing war on terror, what seemed a temporary situation has become a protracted conflict, with everyone from the Bush administration to competing presidential candidates offering recommendations for change. Proposals vary from withdrawing troops from Iraq to reforming the military commissions in Guantánamo. But amid an open-ended war on terror, would any of these comparatively small changes really matter?

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As Bush Heads To Mideast, Renewed Questions On Iran
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Michael Abramowitz, Ellen Knickmeyer - January 7, 2008 - 6:06pm

President Bush intends to use his first extended tour of the Middle East to rally support for international pressure against Iran, even as a recent U.S. intelligence report playing down Tehran's nuclear ambitions has left Israeli and Arab leaders rethinking their own approach toward Iran and questioning Washington's resolve, according to senior U.S. officials, diplomats and regional experts.

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