Mideast Negotiating Teams Get Orders
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Richard Bourdreaux - October 4, 2007 - 2:44pm

The Israeli and Palestinian leaders brought their negotiating teams together for the first time Wednesday and instructed them to start work next week on a joint declaration that would pave the way for full-scale peace talks. The two-hour meeting at Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's residence did not delve into the core issues of the decades-old conflict. That task was handed to the negotiators, who have just weeks to draft a document to serve as the agenda for a peace conference called by President Bush.

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Abbas Sees Six-month Timeframe For Peace Talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Mohammed Assadi - October 4, 2007 - 2:38pm

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's government said on Thursday formal negotiations to create a Palestinian state could be completed six months after a U.S.-sponsored Middle East conference. Palestinian Information Minister Riyad al-Malki said the agreement would then be brought before the Palestinian people, both inside the Palestinian territories and abroad, for a referendum.

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Israelis, Palestinians To Draft Declaration
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Scott Wilson - October 4, 2007 - 2:36pm

Israeli and Palestinian leaders agreed Wednesday to begin work on a joint declaration setting out their positions on the core issues of their long conflict before a U.S.-proposed peace conference tentatively scheduled for next month.

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Rice's Clock
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Shmuel Rosner - October 3, 2007 - 6:35pm

Four former ambassadors to the Middle East, three of whom also served as under secretary of state, have signed a paper circulated this week under the sponsorship of the Israel Policy Forum, a dovish Washington institute. They were joined by a CIA man, an adviser and a professor - an impressive group. Tell me who your writers are and I'll tell you what's in the paper. In this case, it's advice to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in advance of the "Annapolis meeting," the Israeli-Palestinian peace summit planned for November.

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Shooting The Messengers
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Le Monde Diplomatique
by Mariano Aguirre - October 3, 2007 - 6:12pm

The New York Post editorial on 5 January 2007 read: “How did this man ever become president of the United States?” Readers might have thought this was a crack about President George Bush in a paper owned by Rupert Murdoch. But the editorial went on: “He’s gone from failed president to friend of leftwing tyrants and global scold of anything that represents America’s legitimate interests”; he wanted to “demonise Israel” and had secretly given “PR and political advice to Yasser Arafat”.

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Israel’s Chief Diplomat Meets Arab Counterparts In Backroom Talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Nathan Guttman - October 3, 2007 - 6:02pm

While the Iranian president was busy stealing the limelight at this year’s United Nations General Assembly, Israel’s foreign minister was quietly carrying out a new strategy of normalizing relations with Muslim countries in a series of backroom meetings. During her weeklong stay in the United States, Tzipi Livni made her case at the U.N. as well as in a series of meetings with representatives from a host of Middle Eastern and North African countries that currently do not maintain formal ties with Israel.

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Realistically Speaking
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
(Editorial) October 2, 2007 - 7:33pm

It is not too hard to figure out what Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni must have meant when she asked Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, during their encounter in New York last Friday, to be realistic in his quest for peace with Israel. For Livni and the rest of the Israeli government, realism in the search for a peaceful settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict means one thing only: the status quo. That means that few cosmetic changes might be made to peripheral issues only.

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Democracy Is More Than Going To The Polls
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Amira Hass - (Opinion) October 2, 2007 - 12:00am

"The protest wave has calmed down," some Israeli journalists said Friday of the Burmese military junta's success in driving thousands of demonstrators off the streets, using excessive violence. Despite the natural sympathy for the uprisers, several editors chose the word "calm," which embodies the rulers' point of view: The norm is "calm," even if it means constant government violence. The mass protest against the oppression is a disruption of order and calm.

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ATFP Carnegie Briefing Explores Issues of Palestinian Unity, Hamas and Fall Mideast Meeting
Press Release - Contact Information: Hussein Ibish - October 2, 2007 - 12:00am

Washington, D.C., October 3 -- The American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP) held a briefing today at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. The briefing, moderated by Ambassador Samuel Lewis, was titled "Palestinian Unity: The Question of Hamas". ATFP Advocacy Director Mr. Ghaith Al-Omari and Dr.


Gaza's Deadly Guardians
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Times
September 30, 2007 - 12:00am

Hamas wants you to believe it has created a benevolent sanctuary where once chaos reigned. At the beginning of the journey into Gaza it’s easy to believe that things are better. There is no longer a Palestinian immigration desk after the long walk from the air-conditioned Erez terminal on the Israeli side, past concrete blast walls, and down a dusty track in the furnace heat. But further down the road, Hamas gunmen have taken over the checkpoints. They are polite and well turned out in blue camouflage trousers, clean black T-shirts, shiny black boots.

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