Teams To Take Up Issues Of Palestinian Statehood
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Scott Wilson - October 19, 2007 - 8:24pm

Israeli and Palestinian leaders agreed Monday to form negotiating teams that would begin resolving issues central to the creation of a Palestinian state in advance of a U.S.-sponsored peace conference proposed for later this year.

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Israeli And Palestinian Leaders Meet In Jerusalem To Move Toward Peace Talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Steven Erlanger - October 19, 2007 - 8:23pm

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel and the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, met Monday and agreed to set up a team of negotiators to flesh out their understandings of what a permanent, two-state solution would look like and require.

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Why Failure Is Not An Option At Annapolis
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by David Kimche - October 19, 2007 - 4:49pm

After the failure of the Annapolis conference two years ago, the two-state solution has finally been buried. The Palestinian Authority has disbanded itself, proclaiming that the official policy of the Palestinians will henceforth be a one-state solution, a democratic state with the right to vote for all its citizens over the age of 18. "The battle of the womb," they call it. "We will win through the womb. There will be a majority of Palestinians in this state."

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Burns Echoes Rice: Time Is Right For Palestinian State
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Middle East Times
by Claude Salhani - October 19, 2007 - 4:31pm

"Establishing a Palestinian State is the "right thing to do," said U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns. "The time for a Palestinian state," said U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, "is now." "Israel should halt the settlements' expansion, and reduce its footprint in the West Bank," said Burns, the keynote speaker at the second annual gala of the American Task Force on Palestine in Washington Wednesday night.

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Gates In The Lion’s Den
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Inter Press Service (IPS)
by Jim Lobe - (Blog) October 18, 2007 - 5:35pm

Monday night’s speech by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to the ultra-hawkish Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA) must have deeply disappointed most of his audience, particularly when it came to his brief discussion of Iran. While Gates repeated the adminstration’s mantra that “all options are on the table,” the degree to which he emphasized diplomacy and omitted any mention of the growing list of charges by other U.S. military and administration officials regarding Tehran’s alleged “proxy war” against U.S.

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Breaking The Taboo: Why We Took On The Israel Lobby
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Alternet
by Eric Chinski - (Opinion) October 18, 2007 - 5:30pm

Why did your article "The Israel Lobby," which was published in the London Review of Books in 2006, provoke such heated discussion around the world? James Traub wrote in The New York Times Magazine: " 'The Israel Lobby' slammed into the opinion-making world with a Category 5 force." How would you describe the reaction?

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Rice Hears Palestinians' Grievances
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Michael Abramowitz - October 18, 2007 - 5:13pm

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice paid an emotional visit Wednesday to the church revered as marking the birthplace of Jesus, before hearing from prominent Palestinians that failure of her new peace initiative could worsen their conflict with Israel.

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Hamas Softening Throws Twist In Talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Ilene Prusher - October 17, 2007 - 10:34am

Hamas, the Palestinian movement that months ago battled rival Fatah for control of Gaza, is now beginning to wield a more conciliatory weapon: messages of moderation. A spokesman for Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, deposed as Palestinian prime minister after militant Islamists staged a coup in June, said Tuesday that Hamas does not oppose peace talks with Israel.

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A Prelude Of Niceties
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Akiva Eldar - (Opinion) October 16, 2007 - 1:04pm

Ahead of Annapolis, Olmert and Abbas have agreed to disagree, while Bush is promising 'real results' Israelis and Palestinians who have met with United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in recent days and have spoken with her staff have gained the impression that she does not really know what on earth her boss wants from her. It isn't that Dr. Rice has a hearing problem. Her problem is that United States President George W. Bush has apparently not yet decided what exactly he wants to achieve at the Annapolis peace conference.

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An Extraordinary Opportunity
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Galia Golan - (Opinion) October 16, 2007 - 12:50pm

Few are particularly excited by the upcoming Israeli-Palestinian conference; most may believe it will not or should not even take place. Yet this could be the most important and promising opportunity for a genuine peace process since the ill-fated Camp David II conference in July 2000. This optimism derives from both the unique constellation of circumstances in the region and the cumulative effect of developments within the Israeli and Palestinian publics.

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