Analysis: Bush Could Find Time Running Out For Peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Times
by Richard Beeston - (Analysis) January 9, 2008 - 6:19pm

When President Bush set foot in Israel today for the first time in a decade, he may have been tempted to believe that peace could finally be at hand in that tortured land. On the apron of Ben Gurion Airport, Israeli leaders and dignitaries turned out in force to pay their respects to the man regarded as the Jewish state’s most powerful supporter. Tomorrow, Mr Bush will receive a no less respectful reception when he travels to the West Bank to be greeted by President Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian leadership.

»

An 11th Hour Attempt To Make History
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Speigel International
by Pierre Heumann - January 9, 2008 - 6:14pm

US President George W. Bush made his first trip to Israel on Wednesday in a bid to put Israelis and Palestinians on course for a peace agreement within a year. He wants to solve the 60-year-old crisis in his remaining 12 months in office. The hurdles are huge. Air Force One landed at Tel Aviv's Ben-Gurion Airport, where President Shimon Peres, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and other Israeli officials waited to greet Bush, seen by many Israelis as the best friend the Jewish state has had in the White House.  

»

In Isolation, Gazans Dismiss Bush's New Push For Peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Dan Murphy - January 9, 2008 - 6:11pm

As Israel and the Palestinian Authority gear up for President Bush's first visit to the Jewish state and the West Bank, in which the president is expected to nudge along a hoped-for peace deal between the two sides, many residents of the isolated Gaza Strip are looking on with anger and cynicism. This densely populated coastal territory has been largely shut off from the outside world since Hamas, the Islamist militant group that the US and Israel consider terrorists, seized control from their rival Fatah here in June.

»

An Incentive For Peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Baltimore Sun
by Emily L. Hauser - (Opinion) January 9, 2008 - 6:10pm

Despite the recent Annapolis peace conference, Israeli-Palestinian violence is escalating. Last week, Palestinian rockets fell on Israeli cities, and Israel launched retaliatory airstrikes; in one day, nine Palestinians died, including a 3-year-old girl. Even as President Bush visits the region this week for the first time since taking office, Americans might be forgiven for not placing much faith in their government's attempts to broker peace.

»

Mideast Leaders Vow To Refocus On Talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Richard Bourdreaux - January 9, 2008 - 6:09pm

As President Bush headed to the Middle East to check on their peace talks, Israeli and Palestinian leaders agreed Tuesday to launch them in earnest, six weeks late. It was that long ago that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas stood beside Bush at an international conference in Annapolis, Md., and announced the start of full-scale negotiations with the aim of creating a Palestinian state by the end of 2008.

»

Mr. Bush In The Middle East
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
(Editorial) January 9, 2008 - 6:07pm

AYEAR AGO, the Bush administration introduced a new policy in the Middle East aimed at aligning "moderate" Arab states against Iran while simultaneously promoting the revival of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. As President Bush begins a tour of the region today, both ends of that strategy are in danger of unraveling. Never entirely in sync with the administration's concept of isolating Tehran, Arab states have been given further second thoughts by the recently released National Intelligence Estimate, which reported that Iran had suspended work on a nuclear bomb.

»

Bush's Trip To Mideast To Test His Credibility
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Usa Today
by Charles Levinson - January 9, 2008 - 6:06pm

President Bush is due in the Middle East on Wednesday to try to rekindle hope for a lasting peace, but first he'll have to win over skeptics such as Ghazi Bustami. "For seven years, Bush served Israel and made war," says Bustami, 31, the portly, soft-spoken Palestinian owner of a TV repair shop in this West Bank city. "Now with a few months left in his presidency he thinks of the Palestinians. But it's too late."

»

Bush Nudges Israel, Palestinians On Peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
by Anne Gearan - January 9, 2008 - 6:04pm

President Bush, in the Mideast to push along a peace deal by the end of his presidency, gave orders to both sides on Wednesday. He told Israelis that "illegal" settlement outposts in disputed land must go and told Palestinians that no part of their territories can be "a safe haven for terrorists."

»

Border Control / But He Loves Me The Most
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Akiva Eldar - (Opinion) January 8, 2008 - 6:16pm

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's aides are not hiding their mission to get U.S. President George W. Bush to help rescue Olmert from the claws of the Winograd Committee. If it were up to them, Olmert would follow Bush even into the bedroom. In preparatory talks with the U.S.

»

Action, Please, An Interview With Ali Jarbawi
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
(Interview) January 8, 2008 - 6:14pm

bitterlemons: Are you optimistic about US President George W. Bush's visit? Jarbawi: Palestinians are not optimistic. We always hear a lot of talk and promises but on the ground we see the opposite. Settlements are expanding, Israeli army incursions continue unabated, there are arrests, and land is confiscated. All these Israeli policies continue and we hear only promises. We need action rather than words. bitterlemons: What exactly do you see Washington's role as being?

»


American Task Force on Palestine - 1634 Eye St. NW, Suite 725, Washington DC 20006 - Telephone: 202-262-0017