Israel’s Economic Growth Defies Experts
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Financial Times
by Tobias Buck - November 6, 2007 - 12:52pm

While Israeli and Palestinian negotiators grope their way towards a US-sponsored peace meeting in Annapolis later this year, investors and economists are struggling with a different problem: how to justify the strength of the Israeli economy. Last year’s botched war in Lebanon, the escalating conflict with Islamist militants in the Gaza Strip, the threat of Iran’s nuclear programme and the weakness of an unpopular and fractious government at home – nothing has so far managed to throw the economy off its high-speed track.

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Rice Sounds Optimistic Tone As She Leaves Mideast
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Ashraf Khalil - November 6, 2007 - 12:47pm

As U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice wrapped up her latest Middle East mission, Palestinian officials acknowledged Monday that a timetable to finish negotiations leading to establishment of a Palestinian state will not be finalized before an upcoming U.S.-sponsored peace conference. But Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, after meeting with Rice in the West Bank city of Ramallah, said negotiations carry their own nonnegotiable deadline: the end of President Bush's term in January 2009.

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Stakes Are High At Annapolis
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
by Leslie Susser - November 6, 2007 - 12:46pm

In the final run-up to the Annapolis peace parley, leaders on all sides are emphasizing the burning need for success and the potentially huge price of failure. Although the focus is on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, all the main players see it as only a small part of a much bigger regional drama: the ongoing battle for regional sway between the moderate Middle Eastern camp, led by America, and the radicals, led by Iran.

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Abbas Sees Palestinian State Soon Achievable
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Karen Deyoung - November 6, 2007 - 12:45pm

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said Monday that he believes the path to peace with Israel is now clear and that a Palestinian state can be achieved before the end of the Bush administration in January 2009.

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Israel Puts Jerusalem On The Negotiating Table
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Ilene Prusher - November 6, 2007 - 12:41pm

As she visits the Middle East this week, USSecretary of State Condoleezza Rice is pressing Israeli and Palestinian leaders to commit to confidence-building measures and a timetable ahead of an upcoming US-sponsored peace conference in Annapolis, Md. Israel has resisted a timetable, but Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said in a major speech Sunday night that he is ready to begin accelerated peace talks – even on final-status issues such as Jerusalem.

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Olmert: Core Issues Are On The Annapolis Agenda
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Barak Ravid - November 5, 2007 - 2:40pm

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert took the stage at the Saban Forum on Sunday evening in Jerusalem, and delivered an impassioned speech promising to seriously pursue current Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts, saying that "all the fundamental questions and substantial problems will be on the table at Annapolis."

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No Exceptions
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Akiva Eldar - (Opinion) November 5, 2007 - 2:38pm

How can a country, which according to endless foreign reports has kept secret for years several atomic weapons, manage to rally the international community in a struggle against a neighboring country that insists on acquiring nuclear energy? What do Israeli politicians answer to those asking why Iran should not be allowed to acquire the same armaments that are already in the arsenals of neighboring countries, like Pakistan and India?

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Rice Seeks Mideast Peace Deal While Bush In Office
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Sue Pleming - November 5, 2007 - 2:27pm

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice joined Israeli and Palestinian leaders on Monday in voicing hope they could reach a peace agreement before President George W. Bush leaves office in January 2009. But wrapping up two days of talks in the region, she again gave no date for a U.S.-led conference which all parties have said would serve as a launching pad for statehood negotiations. Rice said only that the meeting, in Annapolis, Maryland, would take place "before the end of the year."

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Restive Nablus Challenges Fatah's Abbas
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Joshua Mitnick - November 5, 2007 - 2:25pm

Over the course of the second Palestinian intifada, this city became the West Bank's capital for car thefts, kidnappings, and suicide bombers. Now, with 300 security officers from the Palestinian Authority (PA) freshly deployed around Nablus, the city has become a testing ground for an embattled Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas.

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In Mideast, Rice Pushes Annapolis Talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Karen Deyoung - November 5, 2007 - 2:23pm

Israel is ready to put "all basic questions, all the substantive problems, all the historical questions" about Palestinian statehood on the table in a U.S.-hosted peace conference later this month in Annapolis, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Sunday. "It is time," Olmert said in an impassioned speech. "All questions are on the agenda. We won't run away from any of them."

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