Kosovo And Palestine: Why Different Standards?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
by Walid Awad - (Opinion) February 29, 2008 - 6:09pm

In July 2000, President Clinton, at the insistence of Israel’s Prime Minister Ehud Barak, invited President Arafat and Barak to Camp David. In less than two weeks of intensive negotiations, Clinton expected Arafat and Barak to arrive at a solution to end the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Incomplete progress was achieved at Camp David, but an agreement was not.

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Putting The Strategy To The Test
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
(Editorial) February 29, 2008 - 6:09pm

Dozens of rockets are fired every day at southern communities, people are being killed and wounded and struggling to retain their sanity in the face of a threat that disrupts their daily routines, and all the while, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni is meeting with Ahmed Qureia (Abu Ala) in an effort to reach a peace agreement. This is the Olmert government's diplomatic strategy. But in order to learn whether it stands a chance, it needs to finally be put to the test.

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Amid Lull In Gaza Violence, Palestinians Protest, And Israel Threatens Invasion
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from International Herald Tribune
by Steven Erlanger - February 29, 2008 - 6:00pm

JERUSALEM: Friday was a day of threats, protest and rhetoric in Israel's conflict with Hamas, with considerably less violence and death than over the previous two days, when some 33 Palestinians died, five of them children, and one Israeli died in the border town of Sderot.

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Hamas Rocket Attacks Must Stop: Rice
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
February 28, 2008 - 4:40pm

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday that Hamas rocket attacks against Israel “need to stop,” demanding an end to the escalating violence that has rocked the Gaza Strip and set back US efforts to promote a Mideast peace deal. Her comments came after she met for an hour with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert during a visit to Japan.

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Palestinians Mull A Majority
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Times
by Joshua Mitnick - February 27, 2008 - 6:41pm

New population data have some Palestinians contemplating an unorthodox formula for Middle East peace — a single democratic nation of Arabs and Jews, in which Palestinians would be the majority. "If Israel wants to call it Israel from Jordan to the Mediterranean, I accept it. So we'll be equal to them," said Saeb Erekat, a negotiator who has been at the center of negotiations to set up a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

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Israel’s Hamas Predicament: Shoot Or Talk
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Financial Times
by Tobias Buck - (Opinion) February 25, 2008 - 7:23pm

The Gaza Strip nestles on a flat, sandy piece of land along the Mediterranean coast, but viewed from Jerusalem the territory resembles a quivering volcano. Ever since Hamas, the Islamist group, took control of the strip last June, the government of Israel has struggled to come up with a Gaza strategy that matches its policy goals. With violence on the rise and the humanitarian situation in Gaza worsening by the day, Israel’s leaders are under pressure to formulate a new approach.

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In Israel, Some See No Option But War
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Griff Witte - February 25, 2008 - 7:21pm

Aharon Peretz has spent most of his 51 years in this cactus-fringed, working-class town, and he would like to stay. But his wife and six children feel differently: Daily retreats to the basement during rocket strikes from the nearby Gaza Strip have frayed their nerves, and an attack that cost an uncle both his legs has convinced them it's time to go. Peace will return for his family, Peretz has decided, only if Israel chooses to go to war with his neighbors.

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Surging In Primaries, Obama Faces New Israel-related Criticism
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
by Ron Kampeas - February 22, 2008 - 4:27pm

Even as U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) solidifies his status as the Democratic front-runner with victories Tuesday in Wisconsin and Hawaii, he is facing a new line of attack from some Jewish circles regarding his advisers on foreign policy. In recent weeks, writers associated with several right-wing media outlets have taken aim at what they describe as anti-Israel voices advising Obama on Middle East issues, spurring a rash of mass e-mails voicing similar concerns.

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Arab Leaders Say The Two-state Proposal Is In Peril
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Michael Slackman - February 22, 2008 - 4:08pm

Arab leaders will threaten to rescind their offer of full relations with Israel in exchange for a complete Israeli withdrawal from occupied lands unless Israel gives a positive response to their initiative, indicating the Arab states’ growing disillusionment with the prospects of a two-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

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Economic Reform Key To Mideast Stability - Un
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
by Linda Hindi - February 21, 2008 - 7:24pm

Delegates attending a UN conference yesterday stressed economic reform as the key for stability in the occupied territories and the basis for building a foundation for a viable two-state solution. But they added that sustainable growth cannot be achieved without a political settlement.

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