Mid-east Diary: Summit Prospects
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bbc News
by Jeremy Bowen - October 10, 2007 - 1:53pm

Another Middle East peace summit is coming up in the United States, but there are risks in holding summits on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and one of the main parties to the conflict, Hamas, is being excluded.  At the moment, the summit looks likely to start in Annapolis, Maryland, on 15 November. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas are having regular meetings about it. They are trying to produce an agreed document about the future. Mr Abbas wants more detail. Mr Olmert wants something pretty vague.

»

Israeli Army Orders Confiscation Of Palestinian Land In West Bank
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Conal Urquhart - October 10, 2007 - 1:49pm

The Israeli army has ordered the seizure of Palestinian land surrounding four West Bank villages apparently in order to hugely expand settlements around Jerusalem, it emerged yesterday. The confiscation happened as Israeli and Palestinian negotiators met to prepare the ground for a meeting hosted by President George Bush in the United States aimed at reviving a diplomatic solution to the conflict.

»

Twin Mideast Peace Concerts Rouse Skepticism, Rancor
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from McClatchy News
by Dion Nissenbaum - October 10, 2007 - 1:28pm

It might sound like an inspirational convergence along the lines of John Lennon's antiwar ballad "Give Peace a Chance": twin concerts in which thousands of Israelis join thousands of Palestinians to call for an end to a demoralizing conflict that often looks as if it will go on forever. Except that this is the Middle East, where even a peace concert can become a raucous political battleground.

»

Engaging Hamas: The When And The How
In Print by Ghaith al-Omari - The Orlando Sentinel (Opinion) - October 10, 2007 - 12:00am

The Hamas takeover of Gaza in June and the resulting West Bank-Gaza split has raised serious questions. What are the short-term prospects for reunification? Can serious political progress be made with Israel without Palestinian reconciliation? What are the elements of a successful and lasting future reconciliation?

»

An Israeli View: An Extraordinary Opportunity
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Galia Golan - October 9, 2007 - 2:38pm

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.

»

Some Dates Are Sacred
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Akiva Eldar - (Editorial) October 8, 2007 - 4:16pm

The Palestinians consider November to be unlucky, and justly so. Since the Balfour Declaration in November 1917, which recognized the establishment of a national home for the Jews in the Land of Israel, November bodes badly for them - in 30-year intervals.

»

Condi's Keys
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New Republic
by Dennis Ross - October 8, 2007 - 1:54pm

Secretary of State Rice is planning to convene an international meeting in Annapolis sometime in November. While President Bush has spent little time during his tenure on Arab-Israeli peacemaking, he has embraced Secretary Rice's ambitious desire to use the Annapolis meeting to endorse a statement of principles on how to settle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

»

Ok, Here We Go, The Israel Lobby
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Prospectsforpeace.com
by Daniel Levy - (Blog) October 5, 2007 - 4:02pm

I have not commented thus far on the publication of the Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer book on the Israel lobby. The reason is simple – I agreed to review the book for Haaretz and so have waited for that to be published. Well the review came out yesterday in the monthly Haartetz book supplement and should be on the website any day (it is being delayed by the Succot holiday). I have though decided to post that review here below. (I will provide the Haaretz link once it’s available.)

»

Bush Says 'very Optimistic' On Mideast Peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
October 5, 2007 - 3:39pm

President George W. Bush said in comments aired on Friday he was "very optimistic" a Palestinian state could be set up alongside Israel and that next month's Middle East conference could lead towards peace in the region. The U.S.-sponsored conference is due to take place in the Washington area in mid to late November, although there are doubts over how far it will go towards ending decades of conflict and uncertainty over which Arab states will attend.

»

Idea Raised Of Two Capitals In Jerusalems
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
by Barry Schweid - October 5, 2007 - 3:14pm

Five former State Department and Pentagon officials are proposing Israeli and Palestinian capitals in Jerusalem and excluding Arab refugees from returning to Israel as part of an Middle East accord. In a six-page policy statement submitted to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, they also suggested a series of peace conferences following the one she hopes to convene next month, probably in Annapolis, Md.

»


American Task Force on Palestine - 1634 Eye St. NW, Suite 725, Washington DC 20006 - Telephone: 202-262-0017