Holy Land Killing Begins Again As Bush Wraps Up Middle East Visit
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Sydney Morning Herald
by Ed O\'loughlin - January 16, 2008 - 5:27pm

AS THE US President, George Bush, wrapped up his first extended Middle East tour, the Holy Land returned to the grim status quo, with violence flaring in Gaza and the West Bank. Only the scale of the killing is in any way remarkable - at least 19 Palestinians in Gaza, including five civilians, and an Ecuadorean labourer working on an Israeli kibbutz. It is the highest daily death toll in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in over a year. In the West Bank a senior leader of the Islamic Jihad group was killed by Israeli troops early yesterday.

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Bush Gets Peace Talk Promises
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
by Anne Gearan - (Analysis) January 16, 2008 - 5:24pm

President Bush received renewed promises of bargaining for Mideast peace and a polite hearing for his warnings about Iran, and he collected major bling from his Arab hosts. But neither Israel nor its Arab neighbors assured Bush that they will do what the United States asks on issues ranging from democratic reform and unauthorized Israeli housing expansion to high gas prices.

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The Generals Of Professor Rice
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Amir Oren - January 15, 2008 - 6:04pm

United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the main impetus in the Bush administration for squeezing something out of the 2008 drought year, convinced the president to break from his principle of linkage - the basis of his road map - and skip to the final stage, the final status framework. This is a concession to Palestinian demands, and a further reversal for the Israeli position since Yasser Arafat opened fire in September 2000 and frightened Israel with the possibility that he might declare an independent state unilaterally (the "Magic Melody" scenario).

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America Must Listen To Its Friends
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
(Editorial) January 15, 2008 - 5:59pm

America has to learn to listen to its friends in the Middle East, and should stop lecturing them from a prepared script. George W. Bush's historic visit to the region is the first time a sitting US president has come to the UAE, and it has given him a tremendous opportunity to hear from the leaders and the people of the region how to tackle the region's serious issues.

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Let's Not Forget The Hardship In Palestinian Areas
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
by Douglas Alexander - (Commentary) January 15, 2008 - 5:59pm

Politics isn't just about words and ideas; it has to be about action. The recently held Palestinian donors' conference in Paris was a day when the international community collectively put its money where its mouth is and committed the funds which are desperately needed if the Palestinians are to rebuild their economy and take further strides down the road to peace.

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Bush Seeks Saudi Support For Fragile Middle East Peace Talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Ian Black - January 15, 2008 - 5:55pm

President George Bush was last night working to persuade Saudi Arabia to maintain its support for a revived, but fragile, Israeli-Palestinian peace process and to confront Iran across the Middle East. Arriving in Riyadh on the penultimate stage of his regional tour, Bush went into talks with King Abdullah as the administration prepared to notify Congress of a $20bn (£10.2bn) arms package for the Saudis - satellite-guided weaponry and other high-tech munitions - highlighting the oil-rich kingdom's privileged relationship with Washington.

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Bush's Arab World Tour Is Significant For Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
by Leslie Susser - January 15, 2008 - 5:40pm

With its focus on strengthening the moderate Arab coalition against Iran, President Bush’s tour of the Persian Gulf countries, Saudi Arabia and Egypt could prove extremely significant for Israel. From an Israeli perspective, the three key elements were isolating Iran, coaxing moderate Arab countries into moving toward normalization with Israel and getting oil-rich Arab states to honor their financial pledges to the Palestinians. Progress on all or some of these issues would significantly boost Israeli foreign policy goals.

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Mideast Peace Talks Get Underway
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Richard Bourdreaux - January 15, 2008 - 5:39pm

Israeli and Palestinian negotiators began addressing the most difficult issues of their decades-old conflict Monday, keeping a promise to President Bush but putting Israel's coalition government under strain. Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and former Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ahmed Korei emerged from a two-hour session at a Jerusalem hotel with little to say about what they had discussed. Israeli officials said the two lead negotiators planned to meet at least once a week.

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Abbas Should Be Safeguarded
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Akiva Eldar - January 14, 2008 - 6:10pm

President George W. Bush, who came to jump-start the peace talks, is fading in the distance, and the large-scale military action in Gaza is getting closer. It is as if there are two peoples: The people of the West Bank and the people of Gaza. With the first we make peace and with the second we go to war.

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Insubstantial Pageant
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
(Editorial) January 14, 2008 - 5:59pm

After all the supercharged talk of change in the primaries this week, George Bush's trip to the Middle East served as a reminder that America still has a way to go before it can wave goodbye to all that. As with the US summit in Annapolis last year, it is hard, even for the congenital optimist, to find much to cling on to after Mr Bush's first visit to the region as president. In Prospero's words, "the great globe itself, yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve and, like this insubstantial pageant faded, leave not a rack behind".

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