Stand-offs Threaten Arab Region
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
by Francis Matthew - (Opinion) January 3, 2008 - 5:36pm

The Middle East has never needed effective political leadership more than at present. Palestine, Lebanon, and Iraq are three very troubled states which are in danger of seeing very little political progress in the coming year, and the effects of the continuing violence ripple out to all other nations in the region. All three share similar problems of poor state structures, lack of leadership and endemic violence, but each has very different local conditions which have created their bad situations.

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Down Payment On A State
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Israel Policy Forum
by Sadie Goldman With Jason Proetorius And Ipf Staff - January 3, 2008 - 5:23pm

Every Israeli-Palestinian negotiating process comes with a price tag. The current process, which was re-launched in Annapolis, Maryland, and continued at the Paris Donor’s conference, is no exception.  It was in Paris that donors examined Prime Minister Salam Fayyad’s three-year reform plan and then pledged 7.4 billion dollars to help implement it.

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Peace Brokers
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Century
by James M. Wall - (Opinion) January 3, 2008 - 5:19pm

The local public library asked me to introduce and discuss the 1962 movie Lawrence of Arabia. The screening happened to coincide with the day of the multinational Annapolis Conference on the Mideast, so I could not resist showing a segment from the final moments of the film. The parallel between Lawrence of Arabia, which ends in 1918 in Damascus, and the 2007 gathering of peacemakers at Annapolis, Maryland, is this: in both situations there is a deep imbalance of power and a pervasive distrust.

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Bush's Gordian Knot
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Middle East Times
by Claude Salhani - (Analysis) January 3, 2008 - 5:02pm

U.S. President George W. Bush is about to embark on a tour of several Middle Eastern countries starting next week as his presidency rounds the corner heading for the final stretch of its second and final term at the White House. The president will travel to Israel, the West Bank, Kuwait, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt over a period of eight days starting Jan. 8.

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Words Won't Stop The Construction
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
(Editorial) January 2, 2008 - 2:44pm

The announcement that the prime minister has directed cabinet ministers not to build in the territories behind his back sounds like a sleight of hand. The prime minister should not instruct his ministers to "increase awareness" of their ministries' actions that might impair negotiations with the Palestinians, but rather he should once and for all bring the Sasson report to the cabinet for approval. The report states clearly how to monitor settlement expansion.

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Olmert Says Israel Must Internalize Divided J'lem
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Herb Keinon And David Horovitz - January 2, 2008 - 2:40pm

Israel needs to internalize that even its supportive friends on the international stage conceive of the country's future on the basis of the 1967 borders and with Jerusalem divided, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has declared to The Jerusalem Post. At the same time, he made clear that he did not envisage a permanent accord along the '67 lines, describing Ma'aleh Adumim as an "indivisible" part of Jerusalem and Israel.

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Settlements Contradict The Essence Of Peacemaking
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Ghassan Khatib - (Opinion) January 2, 2008 - 2:36pm

The policy of establishing and expanding settlements may well be the only constant in Israeli practices on occupied Palestinian territory since 1967. Yet it is possible to discern several distinct phases in this policy depending on the party in power in Israel.

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Olmert Hints Jerusalem Division Is Inevitable
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Jeffrey Heller - January 2, 2008 - 2:14pm

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert signaled on Tuesday Israel might have no choice but to share Jerusalem with the Palestinians in a peace deal, citing international pressure for compromise over the holy city. "The world that is friendly to Israel ... that really supports Israel, when it speaks of the future, it speaks of Israel in terms of the '67 borders. It speaks of the division of Jerusalem," Olmert said in an interview with The Jerusalem Post.

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2008: The Year Of Palestine?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bbc News
by Roger Hardy - December 31, 2007 - 6:42pm

Will 2008 see the creation of a Palestinian state, or will November's Annapolis peace conference prove another false dawn?   US President George W Bush shows no inclination to become a lame duck, pledging no let-up during his last year in office. He is due to visit the Middle East early in 2008, a sign of his personal commitment to advancing the peace process there. But he will not find it easy to cut through the scepticism that is widespread in the region.

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Israel Rejects Easing Of West Bank Curbs
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Financial Times
by Tobias Buck - December 31, 2007 - 6:39pm

Israel said on Sunday it would not ease restrictions on movement and access for Palestinians in the West Bank unless the Palestinian leadership moved more forcefully against armed groups threatening violence against Israelis.

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