Keep The Cynics At Bay
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Daniel Levy - (Commentary) November 28, 2007 - 4:02pm

Theories abound as to why an Annapolis conference and why now. Jerry Seinfeld would be excused for thinking that this is all a personal conspiracy against him - his visit to Israel was dominating the headlines until Annapolis came along. In fact some in the Israeli media have been drawing a rather unflattering analogy: the Annapolis conference resembles a Seinfeld episode - it's about nothing. Yada yada yada.

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Rice’s Turnabout On Mideast Talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Elisabeth Bumiller - November 26, 2007 - 12:37pm

At President Bush’s first National Security Council meeting in January 2001, he announced that he did not want to be drawn into the shattered Middle East peace process, people at the meeting recalled, because he believed that former President Bill Clinton had pushed so hard for an Israeli-Palestinian accord that he made the situation worse.

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Israel, Palestine, Crab Cakes
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Roger Cohen - (Opinion) November 19, 2007 - 4:20pm

I would like to invest hope in the Annapolis Middle East peace conference, or meeting, or parley, or whatever the term is. Really, I would. The 59-year battle for the same land of Zionist and Palestinian national movements has not been good for anyone.

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Gaza’s Reflection In A Foul Threat
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Steven Erlanger - November 8, 2007 - 3:20pm

Fahmi al-Abrak, 70, was at home on March 27 when a lagoon of human waste broke through its sand embankment and hurtled downhill, inundating this poor village of Bedouins in northern Gaza. “It rose to here in 15 seconds,” he said, pointing to a discolored line on the walls, four feet above ground. Five people were drowned when the overflow pool for a lake of water and human waste failed in March. Residents of Umm al Nasser pulled belongings from their homes after the wave of sewage struck their village in March.

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The Siege Of Gaza Is Going To Lead To A Violent Escalation
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Seumas Milne - (Commentary) November 1, 2007 - 2:40pm

There is, it seems, an unbridgeable gap between the western world's apparent recognition of the dangers of Palestinian suffering and its commitment to do anything whatever to stop it. This week the collective punishment of the people of Gaza reached a new level, as Israel began to choke off essential fuel supplies to its one and a half million people in retaliation for rockets fired by Palestinian resistance groups. A plan to cut power supplies has only been put on hold till the end of the week by the intervention of Israel's attorney general.

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A Mis-step On The Path To Middle East Peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Financial Times
by Jon B. Alterman - (Commentary) November 1, 2007 - 2:38pm

Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, is bringing the wrong people together in Annapolis, near Washington, in November. Belatedly deciding that the time has come for the Bush administration to put energy and focus into Arab-Israeli peacemaking, her effort to gather Israeli and Palestinian leaders and whatever other dignitaries will join her is not only too little, too late. It is also the wrong thing to do.

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Hawkish Handlers Guide Giuliani On Foreign Policy
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from International Herald Tribune
by Marc Santora, Micheal Cooper - October 25, 2007 - 11:27am

Rudolph Giuliani's approach to foreign policy shares with other Republican presidential candidates an aggressive posture toward terrorism, a commitment to strengthening the military and disdain for the United Nations. But in developing his views, Giuliani is consulting with, among others, a particularly hawkish group of advisers and neoconservative thinkers. Their positions have been criticized by Democrats as irresponsible and applauded by some conservatives as appropriately tough, while raising questions about how closely aligned Giuliani's thinking is with theirs.

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Internal Divisions Make It A Bad Time For Israeli-palestinian Talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Baltimore Sun
by Suheir Abu Oksa Daoud - (Opinion) October 24, 2007 - 2:20pm

While Israeli and Palestinian teams seek to iron out conditions for renewed peace talks in Annapolis this fall, deep divisions among the Palestinian and Israeli political leaderships doom any Middle East peace summit to failure.

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Lower Expectations
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Ghassan Khatib - (Opinion) October 22, 2007 - 1:25pm

On one level, the American initiative to convene a peace meeting at Annapolis marks a positive transformation in the American approach to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. But on another, it reflects a continuation of the past.

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If Hamas Isn't In The Game
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Danny Rubenstein - (Opinion) October 22, 2007 - 11:28am

The Olmert government in Israel and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, headed by Mahmoud Abbas, are in the midst of renewed political activity, encouraged by intensive American efforts. There have been frequent meetings, discussions of an agreement of principles and plans for a regional conference. Although there still are many problems in the field, like the amnesty agreement for wanted men that the two sides haven't managed to finalize, there certainly has been progress.

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