Vol. 9, Issue 13
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Americans For Peace Now
by Middle East Peace Report - (Special Report) December 3, 2007 - 4:17pm

 

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Bush Draws Skepticism With Hands-off Approach To Mideast
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Paul Richter - December 3, 2007 - 4:13pm

President Bush last week laid out an American role in the upcoming Mideast peace talks that challenges the accumulated wisdom of former secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and James A. Baker III and Presidents Carter and Clinton. But sticking to his plan, which calls for a carefully limited U.S. role, may be harder than the president thinks, say current and former diplomats who have wrestled with the issue.

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No Alternative Destiny Less Complicated
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Leonard Fein - December 3, 2007 - 4:12pm

In the aftermath of last week’s surprisingly upbeat Annapolis meeting, all the talk’s about a two-state solution. The unwary may suppose that as soon as the domestic problems within Israel and among the Palestinians are resolved, the movement toward such a solution will be quite rapid.

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For Mideast Peace, Think Bigger
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Helena Cobban - December 3, 2007 - 4:11pm

Four-and-a-half years after the invasion of Iraq, President Bush has launched another, equally high-stakes, gamble in the Middle East. This time, it is a gamble for peace, the one he started at the Nov. 27 conference in Annapolis, Md. If it succeeds, it could do much to restore calm and hope to a region long cloaked in turmoil and dread. (It could also help salvage Mr. Bush's longer-term legacy.) But what if it fails?

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Evangelical Leaders Reiterate Call For Two-state Solution For Israel And Palestine
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Christianity Today
by David Neff - December 3, 2007 - 4:10pm

This week the Bush State Department is devoting its full diplomatic efforts toward bringing a two-state resolution to the Israel-Palestine conflict. Over the past few months, they have put on a full-court press to gather a broad representation of Arab world leaders to join Israeli and Palestinian negotiators for a historic meeting in Annapolis, Maryland. Now, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian National Authority President Mahmoud Abbas have agreed to a program of sustained and focused negotiations throughout 2008.

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Fuses In Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Jackson Diehl - (Opinion) December 3, 2007 - 4:09pm

Watching the handshakes and arm-clutches of Ehud Olmert and Mahmoud Abbas at the Annapolis meeting last week, and listening to their sometimes soaring rhetoric about a Middle East peace, it was easy to forget that Israel is at war with the winners of the last Palestinian general election, that rockets fired by Palestinians are detonating in southern Israel nearly every day and that 1.5 million people of the future Palestinian state are living under what amounts to an Israeli military siege.

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Peace? Sure, I’ll See What I Can Do
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Sheryl Gay Stolberg - December 3, 2007 - 4:06pm

“I’M only a phone call away,” President Bush told the Israeli and Palestinian leaders last week, after they set the ambitious goal of negotiating a peace treaty by the end of next year. But as they joined him in the White House Rose Garden before going their separate ways, Mr. Bush had a slightly different message for the pair. “I wish you all the best,” he said — a send-off that did not exactly give the impression he was eager to pick up the phone.

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Hamas Casts Shadow Over Peace Talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
by Karin Laub - December 3, 2007 - 4:04pm

Hamas is casting a long shadow over Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. Although weakened by harsh economic sanctions and feeling more isolated after last week's Mideast peace conference in the U.S., the Islamic militants retain a tight hold on Gaza and have the power to disrupt future negotiations with increasingly deadly rocket attacks on Israel. The Israeli, Palestinian and U.S. leaders haven't let on whether they'll confront, co-opt or try to ignore Hamas, while deepening divisions between ideologues and pragmatists make the group more unpredictable.

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Palestinian-American Experts Available for Comment on Bush Mideast Trip
Press Release - Contact Information: Hussein Ibish - December 3, 2007 - 1:00am

Six weeks after the Annapolis meeting, the dynamics between Israelis and Palestinians are on the verge of falling back on familiar patterns of obstruction and finger pointing resulting in a faltering of the process of negotiations.


No More Time To Waste
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Ami Ayalon - (Opinion) November 30, 2007 - 6:04pm

A motley coalition of cynics and extremists were quick to write off the Annapolis peace conference as a waste of time. The best way for Israel to prove them wrong is to show that it knows there is no more time to waste.

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