After Annapolis
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Boston Globe
(Editorial) November 28, 2007 - 3:46pm

No document with principles for a peace accord was signed yesterday in Annapolis, Md., where envoys from 46 countries joined Israeli and Palestinian leaders and President Bush at a gathering meant to launch negotiations on a resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. So the Annapolis event can only be judged by what follows it. If yesterday's meeting is to become something more than another missed opportunity for Mideast peace, Israelis, Palestinians, and Americans will have to persevere until they forge a just and durable peace agreement.

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History, Mistrust Hobble Mideast Leaders
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Richard Bourdreaux - November 28, 2007 - 3:39pm

The peace talks launched by the Israeli and Palestinian leaders Tuesday face a daunting array of obstacles. They will be overseen by two men who are weakened by extremists at home and speak for peoples whose attitudes toward each other have hardened since the last effort collapsed nearly seven years ago. Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president, controls only part of his would-be state. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's coalition government faces a threatened walkout by right-wing parties that could bring it down.

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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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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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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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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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No Such Thing As A Free Summit
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Akiva Eldar - (Opinion) November 26, 2007 - 1:06pm

It is true that, to date, U.S. President George W. Bush has not exhibited a great deal of wisdom in his dealings with the Middle East. But it hard to believe that the leader of the superpower and his aides do not recognize the risk they have taken by holding the Annapolis summit. One doesn't have to be Henry Kissinger to appreciate that the summit cannot end in nothing - zero. The size of the achievement, or the depth of the failure, will be proportional to the delegation level in attendance and the number of hours of TV broadcasts, mostly to the Arab world.

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High-stake Meet
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
(Editorial) November 26, 2007 - 1:02pm

President Bush probably saved his blushes when announcing that the Arab-Israeli conflict would not be solved in a day and a night at Annapolis, but that a full year would be needed — basically the rest of his term — for the US to try to broker a peace. Washington hopes that the two sides work toward the establishment of an independent Palestinian state before Bush leaves office and that the negotiations will be launched at the conference in Annapolis.

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Deja Vu, Again
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
(Editorial) November 26, 2007 - 12:58pm

Saudi Arabia's foreign minister, Saud al-Faisal, said yesterday that he would attend next week's Middle East peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland. Syria might also attend, although it is not clear at what level. The two last building blocks appear to be in place for an event which will relaunch Israeli-Palestinian peace talks for the first time in seven years. The real question is: will any of the noble declarations that we will get next week - from Mahmoud Abbas, Ehud Olmert and George Bush - mean anything?

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