Sadat Is An Enigma In The Us
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
by Gordon Robinson - (Special Report) October 19, 2007 - 8:39pm

America's political class spent last week consumed with a juvenile sniping match involving Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and a question about who the next US president should talk to. It is a debate that succinctly highlights the hollowness of campaign rhetoric on all sides, and has made the media look even more foolish than usual.

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Peace And Archaeology In The Middle East
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The American Prospect
(Special Report) October 19, 2007 - 4:20pm

The sign caught my eye: It held far more than the intended meaning. It hung on a corrugated metal fence in the antiquities park that faces the southwest corner of the Temple Mount, and it said:

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Rice 'encouraged' By Mideast Trip
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
by Matthew Lee - October 19, 2007 - 4:17pm

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday she was encouraged by a round of furious Mideast diplomacy to prepare a U.S.-hosted peace conference in the fall despite divisions between Israel and the Palestinians that could derail it. With tensions running high and time running out to plan the meeting, a senior U.S. official said Rice would return to the region at the end of October or early November after National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley goes there next week to press the two sides to launch formal peace talks.

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Lessons From Camp David
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Financial Times
by Moshe Amirav - (Opinion) October 18, 2007 - 5:40pm

Next month the US president George W. Bush proposes to host an international conference in Annapolis, near Washington, in the hope of advancing a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians. The failure of previous attempts – in Madrid in 1991, in Oslo in 1993 and at Camp David in 2000 – highlights the difficulties. What have we learnt from these failures so that the same errors in judgment do not recur?

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Rice Upbeat On Mideast, Heading Back Soon
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Arshad Mohammed - October 18, 2007 - 5:33pm

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Thursday she was encouraged by her talks in Israel and the Palestinian territories this week and a U.S. official said she planned to return in about two weeks. White House National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley plans to visit the region next week to prepare for a U.S.-hosted peace conference later this year, said the U.S. official who spoke on condition that he was not identified.

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Rice 'encouraged' By Mideast Trip
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
by Matthew Lee - October 18, 2007 - 5:15pm

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday she was encouraged by a round of furious Mideast diplomacy to prepare a U.S.-hosted peace conference in the fall despite divisions between Israel and the Palestinians that could derail it. With tensions running high and time running out to plan the meeting, a senior U.S. official said Rice would return to the region at the end of October or early November after National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley goes there next week to press the two sides to launch formal peace talks.

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Jerusalem Is Ours, Warns Likud
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent
by Donald Macintyre - October 17, 2007 - 10:48am

The right wing Israeli opposition party Likud led by Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday warned the government against compromising on the status of Jerusalem in current talks with Palestinian negotiators. Zalman Shoval, head of the foreign affairs department of Likud, said yesterday that the issue of Jerusalem should "not be on the table in any way" at the planned international conference in Annapolis, Maryland later in the yea—the basis of which he sharply criticized.

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An Extraordinary Opportunity
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Galia Golan - (Opinion) October 16, 2007 - 12:50pm

Few are particularly excited by the upcoming Israeli-Palestinian conference; most may believe it will not or should not even take place. Yet this could be the most important and promising opportunity for a genuine peace process since the ill-fated Camp David II conference in July 2000. This optimism derives from both the unique constellation of circumstances in the region and the cumulative effect of developments within the Israeli and Palestinian publics.

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Only Bush Can
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Akiva Eldar - (Opinion) October 15, 2007 - 3:41pm

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice insists that the Annapolis declaration will detail the principles of the permanent settlement, so yesterday's newspaper headlines proclaimed. Prior to her arrival in the region, her aides had said that the United States would not issue invitations to the peace conference before Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas succeed in drafting a clear and mutually agreed upon document. In practice, this means that the peace summit initiated by President George W. Bush will not convene next month. Nor next year.

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Uphill Climb For Rice On Mideast Peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Howard Lafranchi - October 15, 2007 - 3:04pm

As the Bush administration moves to revive the long-dormant Middle East peace process – most notably by calling Israeli and Palestinian leaders to an international conference to be held next month outside Washington – pressure is building for a White House to deliver on its new quest for peace.

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