The Lobby Strikes Back
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The American Conservative
by Scott Mcconnell - December 4, 2007 - 2:02pm

One prism through which to gauge the impact of John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt’s The Israel Lobby and American Foreign Policy is a September incident involving Barack Obama. His campaign had placed small ads in various spots around the Internet, designed to drive readers to its website. One turned up on Amazon’s page for the Walt and Mearsheimer book. A vigilant watchdog at the New York Sun spotted it and contacted the campaign: Did Obama support Walt and Mearsheimer?

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The Thing About Annapolis ...
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
by Osama Al Sharif - (Special Report) December 3, 2007 - 4:23pm

Sixteen years is a long time in politics. But that is the gap that now separates the Madrid Middle East peace conference, called for by President George Bush Sr and the Annapolis meeting, which convened last week under the patronage of his son. To underline the size of the gap between the two events one is reminded that all the key players have changed; passed on or retired. The world has evolved dramatically and the core issue of the conflict in the Middle East has become even more complicated.

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Peace Summit: 'if These Talks Fail, We Will All Be In Deep Trouble'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent
by Donald Macintyre - December 3, 2007 - 4:20pm

Wael Mansour watched the Annapolis conference on al-Arabiya television last week in the barely furnished three-room Gaza home he shares with his wife, mother and five children. Did he think the proceedings – intended to clinch the start of a year of peace negotiations – will do any good? "Inshallah [God willing]," said Mr Mansour, 32. "I hope to get out of what we are in. We are in deep trouble."

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Big Turnout, Small Result
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Economist
December 3, 2007 - 4:18pm

THEY almost didn't make it, but in the last hour Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, and Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, agreed on a joint statement. Four months of preliminary talks had failed to produce what Mr Abbas and Condoleezza Rice, the American secretary of state, had hoped to brandish at this week's peace summit in Annapolis: an agreement to predetermine some aspects of the final-status deal that would ultimately create a Palestinian state next to Israel. In the end, Ms Rice had to settle for less, but the Palestinians and Israelis did agree two things.

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Vol. 9, Issue 13
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Americans For Peace Now
by Middle East Peace Report - (Special Report) December 3, 2007 - 4:17pm

 

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Bush Draws Skepticism With Hands-off Approach To Mideast
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Paul Richter - December 3, 2007 - 4:13pm

President Bush last week laid out an American role in the upcoming Mideast peace talks that challenges the accumulated wisdom of former secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and James A. Baker III and Presidents Carter and Clinton. But sticking to his plan, which calls for a carefully limited U.S. role, may be harder than the president thinks, say current and former diplomats who have wrestled with the issue.

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No Alternative Destiny Less Complicated
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Leonard Fein - December 3, 2007 - 4:12pm

In the aftermath of last week’s surprisingly upbeat Annapolis meeting, all the talk’s about a two-state solution. The unwary may suppose that as soon as the domestic problems within Israel and among the Palestinians are resolved, the movement toward such a solution will be quite rapid.

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Evangelical Leaders Reiterate Call For Two-state Solution For Israel And Palestine
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Christianity Today
by David Neff - December 3, 2007 - 4:10pm

This week the Bush State Department is devoting its full diplomatic efforts toward bringing a two-state resolution to the Israel-Palestine conflict. Over the past few months, they have put on a full-court press to gather a broad representation of Arab world leaders to join Israeli and Palestinian negotiators for a historic meeting in Annapolis, Maryland. Now, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian National Authority President Mahmoud Abbas have agreed to a program of sustained and focused negotiations throughout 2008.

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Fuses In Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Jackson Diehl - (Opinion) December 3, 2007 - 4:09pm

Watching the handshakes and arm-clutches of Ehud Olmert and Mahmoud Abbas at the Annapolis meeting last week, and listening to their sometimes soaring rhetoric about a Middle East peace, it was easy to forget that Israel is at war with the winners of the last Palestinian general election, that rockets fired by Palestinians are detonating in southern Israel nearly every day and that 1.5 million people of the future Palestinian state are living under what amounts to an Israeli military siege.

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Hamas Casts Shadow Over Peace Talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
by Karin Laub - December 3, 2007 - 4:04pm

Hamas is casting a long shadow over Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. Although weakened by harsh economic sanctions and feeling more isolated after last week's Mideast peace conference in the U.S., the Islamic militants retain a tight hold on Gaza and have the power to disrupt future negotiations with increasingly deadly rocket attacks on Israel. The Israeli, Palestinian and U.S. leaders haven't let on whether they'll confront, co-opt or try to ignore Hamas, while deepening divisions between ideologues and pragmatists make the group more unpredictable.

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