Palestinian Revenge Was Inevitable
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Ahmed Yousef - (Opinion) February 12, 2008 - 7:22pm

Last week's bombing in Dimona was the first martyrdom operation committed by Hamas in more than five years. For some time, we have been warning the world that the relentless pressure on our people would eventually tell. In the last two months, more than a hundred people have been killed by the Israeli occupation forces in the Gaza Strip, including many civilians, women and children.

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Israel Sees Hamas Gone From Gaza In Months
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
February 12, 2008 - 7:21pm

Israeli leaders vowed on Monday to step up their war against Hamas and predicted the Islamists' grip on the Gaza Strip would end within months. Two days after a rocket from the enclave wounded an Israeli child and prompted dramatic headlines, Defence Minister Ehud Barak pledged to step up the Israeli military campaign. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel was at "war" and his deputy, Vice Premier Haim Ramon, said he expected Hamas, which seized control in June, to be forced out within the year.

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Settlements, Gaza Cloud Israel-palestinian Talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Adam Entous - February 12, 2008 - 7:20pm

Israeli plans to build 1,100 new homes in and around Arab East Jerusalem came under fire on Tuesday from Palestinians who see the city as the capital of their future state, clouding already troubled peace talks. Israeli officials cited "progress" after negotiators met for the first time on two consecutive days. But comments from ministers threatening new attacks on the Gaza Strip and vowing to expand Jewish settlements angered Palestinian leaders.

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Palestinian Questions Peace Progress
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
by Anne Gearan - February 12, 2008 - 7:15pm

The U.S.-backed Palestinian prime minister said Monday that time is running short to demonstrate progress in the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks President Bush launched to fanfare last fall. "Unless there is tangible progress in the period immediately ahead" on a list of pledges made by Israel, "I think, honestly, it would require that we begin to really call this for what it is," Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said. Fayyad did not write off the peace effort, but said there is good reason for skepticism.

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Israeli Casts Doubt On Pact This Year
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Steven Erlanger - February 12, 2008 - 7:13pm

A senior Israeli minister said Monday that his country hoped to reach agreement with the Palestinians on a “declaration of principles” for peace by the end of the year, but not on a detailed peace treaty.

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The Us Helps Itself By Helping Palestine
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
by Samir Abdullah - February 12, 2008 - 7:13pm

In his final State of the Union address, US President George W. Bush said he believed that a Palestinian-Israeli peace deal would be a reality by the end of his term. Despite the optimism that his remarks generated in the Palestinian government, the goal of reaching a Palestinian-Israeli agreement by the end of 2008 - which Bush set at the Annapolis summit last year and again during his visit to Ramallah last month - remains subject to question, and this is a matter that merits immediate attention.

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Rice To Mideast Next Week To Push Peace Talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Agence France Presse (AFP)
February 11, 2008 - 9:37pm

US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice will visit Israel and the Palestinian territories next week to push peace talks stalled amid escalating violence, Palestinian officials said on Sunday. Rice "will visit us within the coming days and she will try to push the negotiations," Ahmed Qorei, the former prime minister heading the Palestinian team in the revived Middle East peace talks, told journalists.

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Palestinian Divisions Serve No One
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Ghassan Khatib - (Opinion) February 11, 2008 - 9:24pm

Palestinians themselves are first and foremost to blame for the breakdown in their internal relations and the split between Fateh and Hamas and the West Bank and Gaza Strip. This is especially true of the fierce military clashes in Gaza that led to this division between the two major Palestinian factions and the two main areas of Palestinian territory.

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Ramon: Agreement Of Principles, Not Full Peace Deal, Likely In 2008
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
February 11, 2008 - 9:18pm

Vice Premier Haim Ramon on Monday appeared to scale back expectations for reaching a peace deal with the Palestinians this year, saying instead that Israel hoped the two sides would reach a declaration of principles and not necessarily a final agreement. On a January visit to Israel and the Palestinian Authority, President George Bush said that an Israeli-Palestinian "peace agreement should happen, and can happen, by the end of this year."

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Bolstering Palestinian Moderates
In Print by Ghaith al-Omari - The Washington Times (Opinion) - February 10, 2008 - 1:00am

The recent breach of the Gaza-Egypt border was an avoidable setback to the newly revived Palestinian-Israeli peace process. It has shown what happens when grand political commitments — made by Israeli, U.S. and Arab leaders — fail to translate into concrete policies, structures and behavior. Had the situation been addressed in a timely fashion, control of the Gaza crossings to Egypt and Israel could have been a major political gain for the moderate government of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.

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