Situation Assessment / What Bush Can And Can't Accomplish
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Aluf Benn - January 9, 2008 - 6:26pm

All it took was for the engines of Air Force One to fire up to produce two major breakthroughs in talks between Israel and the Palestinians. The first was the announcement by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas that they were willing to start talks dealing with the conflict's core issues. The second was Yisrael Beiteinu Chairman Avigdor Lieberman's promise not to cause a coalition crisis by withdrawing from the government during Bush's visit.

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Bush, Accessory After The Facts
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
January 9, 2008 - 6:25pm

The Migron outpost, which was established on privately owned Palestinian land, and whose dismantlement the United States has been demanding with fake determination, is already an established locale: It is seven years old, with well-tended gardens, swings, a nursery, a kindergarten, infrastructure in which NIS 4 million of state funds have been invested and inhabitants who look not like "hilltop youth" but like ordinary citizens, the sort who work for their living in Jerusalem and come home every night and never even dream that anyone might dare to evacuate them some day.

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Bush Must Dispense Bitter Pills For Peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Financial Times
by Zbigniew Brzezinski - (Commentary) January 9, 2008 - 6:17pm

President George W. Bush embarks this week on a trip to the Middle East that may determine how history judges his legacy. So far, it is safe to say that the judgment will be largely negative. Mr Bush’s foreign policy has undermined America’s global legitimacy, not to mention his own credibility. He has plunged the US into a protracted conflict in the Gulf region while neglecting the increasingly ominous al-Qaeda challenges in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Last, global public opinion has turned against the US.

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An 11th Hour Attempt To Make History
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Speigel International
by Pierre Heumann - January 9, 2008 - 6:14pm

US President George W. Bush made his first trip to Israel on Wednesday in a bid to put Israelis and Palestinians on course for a peace agreement within a year. He wants to solve the 60-year-old crisis in his remaining 12 months in office. The hurdles are huge. Air Force One landed at Tel Aviv's Ben-Gurion Airport, where President Shimon Peres, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and other Israeli officials waited to greet Bush, seen by many Israelis as the best friend the Jewish state has had in the White House.  

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In The Middle East, No Time To Spare
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by George Moffett - January 9, 2008 - 6:12pm

As President Bush commences his twilight foray into Arab-Israeli diplomacy, he is confronted by a singular and regrettable fact: Israel's long-term survival is not necessarily a given. Threatened by Islamic radicalism, demographic trends, and advances in missile technology, the Jewish state may be living on borrowed time. If he is to help redeem Israel from a tenuous future, Mr. Bush must reiterate one message above all: There will be no peace without a viable Palestinian state.

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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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Bush Nudges Israel, Palestinians On Peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
by Anne Gearan - January 9, 2008 - 6:04pm

President Bush, in the Mideast to push along a peace deal by the end of his presidency, gave orders to both sides on Wednesday. He told Israelis that "illegal" settlement outposts in disputed land must go and told Palestinians that no part of their territories can be "a safe haven for terrorists."

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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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Peace And The Nation-state
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Eyal Chowers - (Opinion) January 7, 2008 - 6:25pm



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Another Obstacle To Zionism
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Akiva Eldar - January 7, 2008 - 6:23pm

After recognizing "Jewish population concentrations" in the territories, President George W. Bush brought down from the attic the old American position under which the settlements are an obstacle to peace. Bush was not entirely accurate. The settlements are not an obstacle to peace. What would happen if the Palestinians were to announce tomorrow morning that they welcome the settlers and are relinquishing their demand for an independent state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with its capital in East Jerusalem?

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