Gaza's Bleak Reality
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Akiva Eldar - November 27, 2007 - 2:05pm

Tzipi Livni says the world can be divided into two: The good guys, who came to Annapolis, the ones who want to make peace - and the bad guys, who oppose the conference and want to sabotage peace efforts. According to the foreign minister, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) and his friends in the Ramallah government belong to the good guys. The Hamas leader in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, belongs to the bad guys.

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Short On Peace, Long On Process
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al Jazeera English
by Marwan Bishara - (Analysis) November 27, 2007 - 2:02pm

Hosted by the US president and supported by Arab, European and other foreign ministers, Palestinian and Israeli leaders are expected to re-launch their long stalled negotiations in Annapolis on Tuesday. Judging from its high attendance and low expectations, Annapolis is more likely to help three sitting ducks, Olmert, Abbas and Bush, than advance the cause of peace in the Middle East.

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What The Annapolis Summit Lacks Is Willpower
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Telegraph
by Tim Butcher - (Opinion) November 27, 2007 - 2:01pm

America puts on a good Middle East peace summit. It must be all the practice, but whether up in the hilly presidential retreat of Camp David, in the Rose Garden outside the White House or, as will take place today, in the grounds of the United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, you can be sure of a good show.

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Gaza Fears Israeli Push To Smash Hamas
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent
by Donald Macintyre - November 27, 2007 - 1:40pm

Big Israeli armoured bulldozers, guarded by a stationary escort of tanks and armoured personnel carriers half-hidden in the adjacent sandbanks, were operating all along the exposed walk south on the Palestinian side of the hi-tech Erez terminal separating Gaza from Israel yesterday.

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Annapolis And A History Of Abject Failure
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Financial Times
by Gideon Rachman - (Commentary) November 27, 2007 - 1:39pm

Last time I visited Jerusalem, I sat down with a colleague and tried to see how many Middle East peace plans and conferences we could list. Within a couple of minutes we had scribbled down Venice, Madrid, Oslo, Camp David I, Camp David II, Taba, the Rogers plan, the Annan plan, the Reagan plan, the Tenet plan, the Saudi plan, the Mitchell report, the Geneva accord and the road map. I have lost the beer mat on which I was keeping the minutes of our discussions – so I apologise if I have missed some out. But you get the general point. The record is not encouraging.

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Backers, Opponents Of Annapolis
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
by Ron Kampeas - November 27, 2007 - 1:38pm

It's the one major Muslim nation not on the invitation list for the upcoming U.S.-convened peace parley, yet it will haunt every discussion. Iran's importance to the Israeli-Palestinian peace conference in Annapolis, Md., was underscored by how the subject of Iran seeped into two recent Washington think-tank sessions on the talks -- one casting the renewed peace push as a means toward limiting Iran's influence, the other framing it as a gift to the Islamic Republic's plan for regional domination.

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Bush's Big Moment In Annapolis
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Zev Chafets - (Opinion) November 27, 2007 - 1:37pm

THE MIDDLE EAST peace conference convened by the United States in Annapolis, Md., may or may not move the Israeli-Arab conflict closer to resolution (my money is on "may not"). But, whatever happens, there is already one winner: George W. Bush. This is Bush's bash. His name is on the invitation. The party is at his place. The guests are strictly A-list. Every

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Annapolis: The Cost Of Failure
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Review Of Books
by Henry Siegman - (Opinion) November 27, 2007 - 1:36pm

One of the first on-line responses to the publication of the letter to President George W.

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4 Main Issues That Divide Israel, Palestinians
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from McClatchy News
by Dion Nissenbaum - November 27, 2007 - 1:35pm

The clock is winding down on yet another U.S. president who's trying to broker an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which has outlasted 10 of his predecessors and will be 60 years old on May 14, Israel's 60th birthday. The Bush administration has left the issue on the back burner for six years to concentrate on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has now invited Arab, Israeli and world leaders for a day of Middle East peace talks in Annapolis, Md., on Tuesday.

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In Annapolis, Conflict By Other Means
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Middle East Report
by Robert Blecher , Mouin Rabbani - November 27, 2007 - 1:33pm

At an intersection in front of Nablus city hall, a pair of women threaded a knot of waiting pedestrians, glanced left, then dashed across the street. “What’s this?” an onlooker chastised them. “Can’t you see the red light?” Not long after, his patience exhausted, the self-appointed traffic cop himself stepped off the curb and made his way to the other side of the boulevard.

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