Volatile City Tests Palestinian Police, And Peace Hopes
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Isabel Kershner - November 14, 2007 - 12:39pm

This lawless city in the northern West Bank is ruled by rival militias and criminal gangs, an especially gritty illustration of why a full withdrawal of Israeli forces from the West Bank, as expected under a future peace deal, gives Israelis pause.

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What The Palestinians Must Do
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Uri Savir - (Opinion) November 13, 2007 - 3:58pm

It is essential that the impending regional meeting in Annapolis be successful. Failure at Annapolis would translate into a victory for the extremist elements in Israel, Palestine and throughout the region. Without success at Annapolis the next phase of the Palestinian-Israeli relationship will find a far less forthcoming Israeli government squaring off against an implacable Hamas.

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Analysis: Hamas Losing Grip On Gaza, Fatah Gaining Support
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Amos Harel And Avi Issacharoff - November 13, 2007 - 3:57pm

The Hamas gunmen who sought to disperse the crowd at the rally Monday in Gaza marking the third anniversary of the death of Yasser Arafat did not use rubber-coated bullets or tear gas; they simply opened fire on the crowd, leaving seven dead and dozens injured. In so doing, they added to the pressure under which the Islamic organization is laboring five months after it took over the Gaza Strip from Fatah forces.

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The Prime Minister Vs. Public Opinion
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Miftah
by Caelum Moffatt - (Opinion) November 13, 2007 - 3:54pm

Most commentaries inundating the press at the moment meticulously analyze the consequences of a failed summit and center on the probable break out of another Intifada, as highlighted by Ahmad Qurei. This may well be the case but it is important to recognize that a successful summit could also cause uproar amongst Israelis which in turn could affect the Palestinians and hinder any positive steps taken.

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Gaza Violence Shows Worsening Divide
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bbc News
by Martin Patience - November 13, 2007 - 3:50pm

The violence during a rally to mark the third anniversary of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's death illustrates the deadly tensions between the two main Palestinian political factions. Six Palestinians were killed and dozens other injured as clashes broke out between Hamas and Fatah supporters at the Gaza memorial. Both sides laid the blame for the violence at each other's door.

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War And Peacemakers
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Newsweek
by Christopher Dickey - (Special Report) November 13, 2007 - 3:44pm

In a Middle East slipping from war to war, sometimes it seems only the old are truly impatient for peace. Certainly none is pushing harder than the octogenarian King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. His cause as crown prince in the 1990s and as reigning monarch since 2005 has been to settle as many disputes as he can in this region of clashing faiths, millennial rivalries and chronic conflagrations. They are all related, as he sees it, from Palestine to the price of oil, from Iraqi death squads to Iranian nukes to the risk of global recession, each cancroid problem feeding off the other.

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Rice To Address G.a. Gathering
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
by Ami Eden - November 13, 2007 - 3:43pm

With skepticism mounting over the upcoming American-backed Middle East summit, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is set to address the 3,500 delegates at the General Assembly of the United Jewish Communities. Rice, who is scheduled to speak Tuesday at the closing plenary session, returned recently from a series of meetings in the Middle East with Israeli and Palestinian officals aimed at laying the groundwork for the summit, which is slated for the end of this month in Annapolis, Md.

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Good News From Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Gideon Levy - November 12, 2007 - 1:47pm

The group of reservist paratroopers returned all astir: Hamas fought like an army. The comrades of Sergeant-Major (Res.) Ehud Efrati, who fell in a battle in Gaza about two weeks ago, told Amos Harel that "in all parameters, we are facing an army, not gangs." The soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces were impressed by their enemy's night vision equipment, the tactical space they kept between one another - and their pants even had elastic bands to make them fit snugly around their boots. This is good news from Gaza.

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Good Ackerman, Bad Ackerman
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Shmuel Rosner - November 12, 2007 - 1:46pm

There are people in Jerusalem who have not yet forgotten the criticism leveled at Prime Minister Ehud Olmert by Gary Ackerman, a United States congressman from New York and head of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia. He "kissed President Bush's ass," said the representative, in language that was not quite diplomatic, commenting to The Forward about Olmert's criticism of the new Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, after her visit with Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus last April.

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Enlarge Annapolis
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Middle East Times
(Editorial) November 12, 2007 - 1:43pm

The good thing that may be said about the Annapolis meeting is that the expectations are gloomily but realistically low. There are not many illusions left in the Middle East, and little is expected from yet another U.S.-brokered summit between Israeli and Palestinian leaders. Perhaps what is wrong is not just the plot of this over-familiar drama, but the personnel. Maybe it is the three-way relationship between Americans, Israelis and Palestinians, who all know each very well by now; that is the problem.

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