Election Power Of The Israel Lobby
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al Jazeera English
by Rob Winder - January 16, 2008 - 5:31pm

As US presidential candidates battle it out to become the leader of the world's only superpower there is one subject on which they all, in public at least, agree - the US relationship with Israel. To leading politicians on both sides of the partisan divide the special relationship is sacrosanct, largely due, critics say, to the power of pro-Israel lobby groups.

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Making Do With Foreplay
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Uzi Benziman - January 14, 2008 - 6:12pm

The new term in the Israeli diplomatic lexicon is "shelf agreement." President George W. Bush begged Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to redouble their efforts to create the outline of a final-status agreement, and the two sounded as if they intended to carry out the task. The new effort's starting assumption is that even if the redeeming formulas are found and understandings are reached on all the controversial issues, an agreement will not be signed due to the political difficulties each leader faces.

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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.

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Palestinians Collectively Reject Bush Proposal
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Asharq Alawsat
by Ali El-saleh - January 14, 2008 - 6:10pm

The proposal by US President George Bush during his visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories of laying down an international mechanism to compensate the Palestinian refugees has aroused Palestinian reactions that could be described as homogenous in their content, whether at the official, unofficial, or opposition levels.

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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.”

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Substance And Symbolism: Parsing Bush's Words
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
by Ron Kampeas - January 11, 2008 - 3:34pm

Picking apart President Bush's summing up of his Palestinian-Israeli peace brokering is a a little like reading the fine print in the nutritional information on comfort food: there's empty puffery, to be sure, but also nuggets of substance. Bush, speaking Thursday at Jerusalem's King David Hotel, was summarizing two days of working meetings with the leaders of the Israeli and Palestinian governments, his first presidential visit to the region.

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Bush Ends Peace Mission Without Breakthrough
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Tabassum Zakaria - January 11, 2008 - 3:23pm

U.S. President George W. Bush wrapped up his mission to Israel and the occupied West Bank on Friday, emboldened enough to have predicted a peace treaty within a year but with no major breakthroughs for his efforts. Bush arrived on Friday evening in Kuwait, the first of five stops with Arab allies he hopes will aid the fragile peace process and help contain Iran's growing regional clout. Bush met Kuwait's ruler, who thanked him for his efforts to make progress on issues crucial to the Middle East.

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Bush Sees Middle East Deal In 2008 - But Warns Israel Over "swiss Cheese" Solutio
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Times
by Philippe Naughton - January 10, 2008 - 4:51pm

President Bush declared today that a Middle East peace treaty would be signed before he leaves the White House in January next year - but warned Israel against a "Swiss cheese" solution for the borders of an independent Palestinian state. “I believe it’s possible - not only possible - I believe it’s going to happen, that there’ll be a signed peace treaty by the time I leave office. That’s what I believe," Mr Bush told a press conference in the West Bank city of Ramallah after meeting Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian President.

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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.

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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.

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