Creative Approaches Needed In Mideast Peace Talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Philadelphia Inquirer
by Eric Trager - (Opinion) December 12, 2007 - 5:21pm

The Annapolis Conference heralded a new strategy in Middle East peacemaking. Whereas conventional wisdom held that domestically strong Israeli and Arab leaders were a prerequisite for fruitful negotiations, Annapolis attempted to work backward, using negotiations to strengthen two very weak leaders.

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Israel's Palestinians Speak Out
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Nation
by Nadim Rouhana - December 12, 2007 - 5:19pm

The Annapolis peace talks regard me as an interloper in my own land. Israel's deputy prime minister, Avigdor Lieberman, argues that I should "take [my] bundles and get lost." Henry Kissinger thinks I ought to be summarily swapped from inside Israel to the would-be Palestinian state.

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Israel, Palestinians Launch Peace Talks In Discord
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Wafa Amr, Adam Entous - December 12, 2007 - 5:15pm

The first peace talks in seven years between Israel and the Palestinians opened in discord on Wednesday with the Palestinians demanding a halt to settlement building and Israel calling for a crackdown on militants. The tensions, coming just two weeks after a U.S.-sponsored peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland, highlighted the difficulties ahead for negotiators trying to reach agreement on a Palestinian state before U.S. President George W. Bush leaves office in January 2009.

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Building Momentum For Peace
In Print by Ziad Asali - The Washington Times (Opinion) - December 12, 2007 - 1:00am

In the wake of the resuscitation of peace talks on the Middle East achieved at the Annapolis meeting, security issues will be among the most crucial to building on this momentum.

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Annapolis
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Dar Al Hayat
by Cyril Townsend - (Opinion) December 11, 2007 - 1:56pm

To my alarm, and possibly for the first and only time, I found myself agreeing with a comment by John Bolton, President George Bush's former and totally miscast Ambassador to the United Nations.  Speaking of the Annapolis summit, which collected together the representatives of 44 countries in Maryland, he said:- "Normally, you have substantive actions and then you bring in the television cameras - they reversed that order."

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Time-wasting Manoeuvres
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
December 11, 2007 - 1:55pm

It has been reported that during the Annapolis conference, Israel offered the Palestinian side recognition of a Palestinian state with provisional borders and that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas quickly rejected the offer. It is not hard to guess why Abbas refused such an offer; its acceptance would be tantamount to consolidating Israel’s grip on Palestinian territories for an indefinite period of time and would put the border issue in deep freeze.

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The 'four-phase' Approach
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Uri Savir - December 11, 2007 - 1:51pm

In May 1996, permanent status negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian leadership officially began. I represented Israel and my Palestinian counterpart was Mahmoud Abbas. The discussion of permanent status issues lasted only two hours. Instead, we opted to commence our negotiations by talking about the desired outcome of Israel's and the future Palestinian state's relations. We intended to give this focus several months' time and to postpone resolution of the final status issues to the last stage.

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Just Another Forgotten Peace Summit
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Tamar Hermann, Ephraim Yaar - December 11, 2007 - 1:49pm

Many assume that if the Israeli decision-makers were to openly change their position on the conflict and its resolution, the public would throng after them en masse and support an agreement. The present survey, like earlier surveys we conducted, shows that this assumption is very flimsy and that people are not hurrying to get on the Olmert government's peace train.

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Hamas Builds Separate Courts In Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Amira Hass - December 11, 2007 - 1:48pm

While all eyes were turned to the meeting at Annapolis late last month, Hamas' government in the Gaza Strip tightened its grip on three important civilian institutions: the court system, the municipality and the Central Palestinian Bureau of Statistics. In taking over these branches of governance, Hamas deepened the institutional rift between its dominion and the Fatah-led West Bank. The fact that these institutions are now under Hamas' auspices add to the Strip's character as a separate entity.

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U.s. Jews Must Be Ready
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
by Kenneth Bob - (Opinion) December 11, 2007 - 1:41pm

My first visit to Israel was in 1969, only two years after the Six-Day War, and soon after my arrival I was walking through narrow Jerusalem streets on my way to the Western Wall.

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