Israel, Palestinians Launch Peace Talks In Discord
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Wafa Amr, Adam Entous - December 12, 2007 - 5:15pm

The first peace talks in seven years between Israel and the Palestinians opened in discord on Wednesday with the Palestinians demanding a halt to settlement building and Israel calling for a crackdown on militants. The tensions, coming just two weeks after a U.S.-sponsored peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland, highlighted the difficulties ahead for negotiators trying to reach agreement on a Palestinian state before U.S. President George W. Bush leaves office in January 2009.

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Building Momentum For Peace
In Print by Ziad Asali - The Washington Times (Opinion) - December 12, 2007 - 1:00am

In the wake of the resuscitation of peace talks on the Middle East achieved at the Annapolis meeting, security issues will be among the most crucial to building on this momentum.

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Time-wasting Manoeuvres
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
December 11, 2007 - 1:55pm

It has been reported that during the Annapolis conference, Israel offered the Palestinian side recognition of a Palestinian state with provisional borders and that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas quickly rejected the offer. It is not hard to guess why Abbas refused such an offer; its acceptance would be tantamount to consolidating Israel’s grip on Palestinian territories for an indefinite period of time and would put the border issue in deep freeze.

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The 'four-phase' Approach
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Uri Savir - December 11, 2007 - 1:51pm

In May 1996, permanent status negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian leadership officially began. I represented Israel and my Palestinian counterpart was Mahmoud Abbas. The discussion of permanent status issues lasted only two hours. Instead, we opted to commence our negotiations by talking about the desired outcome of Israel's and the future Palestinian state's relations. We intended to give this focus several months' time and to postpone resolution of the final status issues to the last stage.

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Just Another Forgotten Peace Summit
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Tamar Hermann, Ephraim Yaar - December 11, 2007 - 1:49pm

Many assume that if the Israeli decision-makers were to openly change their position on the conflict and its resolution, the public would throng after them en masse and support an agreement. The present survey, like earlier surveys we conducted, shows that this assumption is very flimsy and that people are not hurrying to get on the Olmert government's peace train.

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U.s. Jews Must Be Ready
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
by Kenneth Bob - (Opinion) December 11, 2007 - 1:41pm

My first visit to Israel was in 1969, only two years after the Six-Day War, and soon after my arrival I was walking through narrow Jerusalem streets on my way to the Western Wall.

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The Pro-israel Consensus Shifts
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Israel Policy Forum
by M.J. Rosenberg - (Opinion) December 11, 2007 - 1:36pm

Good news. Some of the more conservative American Jewish institutions are coming around to acceptance of the two-state solution, ending the occupation, and sharing Jerusalem. It’s about time. The overwhelming majority of Israelis and Jewish Americans favor those positions and eventually the more status quo-oriented organizations had to catch up—especially now that the Israeli government asserts that it finally has a genuine Palestinian partner.

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Starting The Peace Process
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
(Editorial) December 11, 2007 - 1:33pm

Israelis and Palestinians are supposed to begin serious negotiations tomorrow after last month’s long-on-optics, short-on-specifics Annapolis peace meeting. Despite all the smiles and handshakes, both sides went home and fell back into some familiar, counterproductive patterns.   If this effort has any chance of success, everyone who attended Annapolis — including the Americans and Arab leaders — are going to have to work a lot harder at breaking those patterns.

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Simply Lies
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
(Editorial) December 10, 2007 - 7:11pm

It is impossible to announce the beginning of a new settlement at the end of Annapolis and say you truly desire peace. The good intentions of Israel, as it has pronounced them with regards to peace, are simply lies. Just because Israel’s decision to build more homes on occupied land comes on the heels of the Annapolis summit does not make the move any more appalling. Building more settlements on Palestinian land is against the law, pure and simple, regardless of Annapolis.

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A New Test For Americans And Palestinians
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
by Rami Khouri - December 10, 2007 - 7:11pm

You do get a second chance in most things in life, as the United States and the Palestinian leadership are experiencing now, in the wake of the revived Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations at Annapolis. The second chance to get things right has been triggered by the announcement earlier this week that Israel plans to build over 300 new housing units on occupied Palestinian Arab land in East Jerusalem at the Har Homa settlement - which the Arabs know as Jabal Abu Ghneim.

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