When Ehud Meets George
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Daniel Levy - (Opinion) January 4, 2008 - 2:42pm

The finishing touches are being applied to preparations for next week's presidential visit. After more than 2,500 days in the White House, George W. Bush will grace the Holy Land with his presence, and Ehud Olmert can notch up an achievement denied to his predecessor, Ariel Sharon - of hosting an American president. The script for such an occasion almost writes itself. The president will visit all the usual Israeli and Jewish sites of history, heartbreak and heroism, identifying with our suffering and marveling at our achievements.

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Israel’s Quiet War
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
by Fred Schlomka - (Opinion) January 4, 2008 - 2:41pm

While Ehud Olmert and Abu Mazen were wheeling and dealing at Annapolis, several Israeli government ministries and security agencies were deploying their combined resources in a massive operation aimed at Israel’s southern Negev Desert. While the eyes of the world are on the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Israel is in the middle of a campaign to complete the displacement of Palestinian Arabs who also are Israeli citizens.

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Yo, Anyone Who Fears Iran
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Economist
January 4, 2008 - 2:35pm

THE smart people are getting out of Jerusalem next week. Traffic mayhem is assured as George Bush and his entourage, about 800 souls, guarded by thousands of Israeli police, are whisked about in a fleet of armoured vehicles, complete with a bespoke helicopter brought in to fly the president to Capernaum, in northern Israel, where Jesus chose his apostles.

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Ahead Of Visit, White House Talks Friendship With Israel — And Pressure
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
by Ron Kampeas - January 4, 2008 - 2:30pm

The message from the White House on the eve of President Bush's first presidential visit to Israel is that his staunch support for the Jewish state has set the stage for peace — and given him room to exert some pressure on Jerusalem. Bush launches an eight-day tour of the region next Wednesday, beginning with three days in Israel and the West Bank and continuing to Persian Gulf states, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

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Inside Track: Spoiling To Spoil
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National Interest
by Barbara Slavin - (Opinion) January 4, 2008 - 2:28pm

On his first—and probably last—major trip to the Middle East, President Bush has a final chance to reorient and reinvigorate U.S. diplomacy in the region. If the past is any guide, however, Bush will miss another opportunity to reach out to U.S. adversaries and diminish their motivation to play the spoiler.

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White House Downplays Bush Mideast Trip
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
by Jennifer Loven - January 4, 2008 - 2:26pm

President Bush's aides all but ruled out a three-way meeting with Israeli and Palestinian leaders during his upcoming Mideast visit and dampened hopes that the president's high-profile travels would make tangible progress toward peace. "Just his going there is going to advance the prospects," Stephen Hadley, Bush's national security adviser, said Thursday. "We're not looking for headline announcements."

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Israel Settlement Growth An "impediment": Bush
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Matt Spetalnick - January 4, 2008 - 2:25pm

U.S. President George W. Bush on Thursday called Israeli settlement expansion an "impediment" to revived peace efforts in rare criticism of the Jewish state less than a week before his first presidential visit there. In an interview with Reuters, Bush voiced optimism for securing an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal by the end of 2008, a goal set at November's Annapolis conference that has been viewed with widespread skepticism. He also acknowledged that obstacles remained after decades of Middle East conflict.

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Palestinian Pm Assails Israel Over West Bank Raids
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Mohammed Assadi - January 4, 2008 - 2:22pm

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad criticized Israel on Friday for mounting a major military sweep in the West Bank, saying such intervention was ruining a Western-backed internal Palestinian security plan. Hundreds of Israeli troops flooded Nablus on Wednesday, conducting house-to-house searches, detaining at least 6 Palestinians. The move triggered a confrontation with stone-throwing youths in which, hospital officials said, at least 29 people were injured.

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Israeli Operations Kill 9 In Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Jonathan Finer - January 4, 2008 - 2:21pm

Israeli forces launched military operations in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank early Thursday, hours before a Katyusha rocket fired from Gaza crashed down harmlessly near the Israeli city of Ashkelon. At least nine Palestinians were killed during Israeli tank and helicopter attacks in Gaza, including five members of a family killed near the central city of Khan Younis, Palestinian officials said.

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Bush's Final Effort
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
(Editorial) January 3, 2008 - 5:46pm

President George Bush will complete his second term in the White House in one year and two weeks, at his successor?s inauguration. Bush?s final year in office is already under the shadow in the battle over succession. Because of this, the U.S. media is expected to focus during his visit to the region next week on the first formal stages of the nominating process of the two main parties in Iowa and in New Hampshire, rather than on Bush?s meetings with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

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