Desert Sturm
In Print by Hussein Ibish - Bookforum.com - November 11, 2008 - 1:00am

Policy insiders make the case for ending the Israeli occupation

»

Livni, after Quartet meet: I’m not repeating mistakes of Camp David
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Barak Ravid - November 9, 2008 - 8:00pm

Israel and the Palestinian Authority presented the Quartet for Mideast peace with several agreements on Sunday on the way negotiations will proceed next year on the conflict's core issues. Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who updated the Quartet at Sharm el-Sheikh with PA President Mahmoud Abbas, said she was convinced she has not repeated the mistakes of Camp David in 2000. She said although no deal was reached this year, both sides are determined to continue talks. Livni and Abbas stressed "the need for continuous, uninterrupted, direct bilateral negotiations."

»

Time to appoint a Middle East envoy
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Financial Times
(Editorial) November 6, 2008 - 8:00pm

In speech after spell-binding speech, Barack Obama made clear throughout his campaign his intention to restore America’s reputation in the world; that, as he told the vast crowd at his Chicago victory rally, “America’s beacon still burns as bright”. In the Middle East and throughout broad swathes of the Muslim world, that beacon is invisible after eight years of the Bush administration’s bungling. President-elect Obama has a unique chance to rekindle it.

»

Rice off to Mideast as peace deadline looms
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
by Matthew Lee - November 4, 2008 - 8:00pm

Fighting irrelevance and a ticking clock, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice embarks Wednesday on yet another Middle East peacemaking trip, hoping to secure fragile Israeli-Palestinian negotiations and leave a viable process for the incoming Obama administration. With just 77 days left in office, Rice will be making her eighth trip to Israel and the Palestinian territories since the parties set a year-end goal of reaching a peace deal at last November's Annapolis peace conference. She will also visit Egypt and Jordan to shore up Arab support for the talks.

»

Israel's multilateral option
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
October 28, 2008 - 8:00pm

The inability of Tzipi Livni to form a coalition government in Israel and her subsequent calling of elections has sadly obscured two unexpected peace proposals that emerged in her final weeks of horse-trading. The first was an examination by the foreign ministry into a possible non-aggression pact with Lebanon. The second comes after Labour leader Ehud Barak proposed a revival of Saudi Arabia's 2002 peace plan which offers Israel universal recognition in the Arab world were it to fully withdraw to its pre-1967 borders.

»

Warring monks threaten destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Times
by Sheera Frenkel - October 14, 2008 - 8:00pm

A long-running row over the rights to a rooftop section of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre could bring the entire structure tumbling down, destroying Christendom’s holiest site. While renovations are needed across the church, the small Deir al-Sultan monastery on its roof has reached an “emergency state”, according to engineers who completed an evaluation this month.

»

Olmert's Lame-Duck Epiphany About Palestinian Peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Time
by Scott MacLeod - September 29, 2008 - 8:00pm

He is a former leader in the rightist Likud Party who for decades staunchly believed that the West Bank and Gaza Strip belonged to the Jewish people and that the territories, along with the Golan Heights, should remain part of Greater Israel forever. Along with former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Ehud Olmert gradually came to understand that this was a fantasy. They broke away from Likud and created the centrist Kadima ("Onward") Party three years ago.

»

The two-state solution is nearly dead. But there's one last chance to save it
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Jonathan Freedland - (Opinion) September 16, 2008 - 8:00pm

By tonight, the governing party should have a new leader. After a painful summer limping along with an unpopular prime minister - who never came close to matching the popularity of his predecessor - the party will today have the leadership contest and the fresh start it has yearned for.

»

Enough of the Jerusalem Mantra
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Daniel Seidemann - (Opinion) September 10, 2008 - 8:00pm

I was born American. Thirty-five years ago, I chose to become Israeli. My choice in no way reflects a lack of affection for the United States. But patriotism is monogamous: I am an Israeli patriot, and a platonic friend of the land of my birth. I have never voted in a U.S. election and I belong to no U.S. political party. I see myself as an observer of, rather than a participant in, American presidential election politics. But as a Jerusalemite, I do have a stake in the 2008 Presidential race, like it or not.

»

Oslo's failure led to the rise of Hamas
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Ghassan Khatib - (Opinion) September 9, 2008 - 8:00pm

The future of Jerusalem has yet again presented itself as one of the most difficult issues in final status negotiations. This is not to say that other issues are either easy or have already been resolved, but the issues of Jerusalem and refugees appear the hardest to crack.

»


American Task Force on Palestine - 1634 Eye St. NW, Suite 725, Washington DC 20006 - Telephone: 202-262-0017