October 1, 2007

Middle East News: World Press Roundup

The Washington Post interviews Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas during his attendance last week at the U.N. General Assembly (2.) In the New Yorker, Seymour Hersh examines how the targets for the Bush administration's plans for a military strike against Iran through aerial bombing have changed (4.) Americans For Peace Now present their weekly translated review of the Israeli press (6.) the Financial Times reports on the urging by UAE minister Al Gergawi of the creation of jobs and economic opportunity for Mideast youth to prevent them falling prey to despair and extremism (7.) The Economist (UK) offers a mixed review of the new Mearshiemer/Walt book on the Israel lobby in the U.S. (8.) An Asharq Alawsat opinion by Amir Taheri argues why neither Israelis nor Palestinians feel it is in their interests to address the current status quo by taking the political risks associated with the Fall Mideast meeting (11.) In Haaretz (Israel), Bradley Burston outlines why it will be the right and not the Israeli left that will be capable of delivering a peace deal with the Palestinians and Arabs (12.)

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Shifting Targets: The Administration’s Plan For Iran.

In a series of public statements in recent months, President Bush and members of his Administration have redefined the war in Iraq, to an increasing degree, as a strategic battle between the United States and Iran. “Shia extremists, backed by Iran, are training Iraqis to carry out attacks on our forces and the Iraqi people,” Bush told the national convention of the American Legion in August. “The attacks on our bases and our troops by Iranian-supplied munitions have increased. . . . The Iranian regime must halt these actions.

Syria Wants Golan Heights On Middle East Agenda

Syria will not attend a Middle East peace conference set for next month unless the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights are on the agenda, President Bashar al-Assad said in comments broadcast on Monday.

"If they don't talk about the Syrian occupied territory, no, there's no way for Syria to go there," Assad told the BBC, referring to the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

"It should be about comprehensive peace, and Syria is part of this comprehensive peace. Without that, we shouldn't go, we wouldn't go."

Israeli Press Review

ANNAPOLIS UPDATE: The Mideast peace meeting announced by President George W. Bush is expected to be held on November 15th in Annapolis, MD. The list of prospective invitees is expected to include representatives of Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Syria, Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and the Quartet – Russia, the EU and the UN.

Collective Punishment

Israel's rejection of family unification files pertaining to residents of Gaza is one more example of the collective punishment meted out by the occupying power to the Palestinians. The Israeli step comes after Tel Aviv declared the Gaza Strip a “hostile entity.” Israeli officials justify their decision on the grounds that, since Israel disengaged from Gaza two years ago, it could no longer be considered an occupying power, responsible under international law for the welfare of the people under its occupation.

In The End, Bet On Israeli Hawks To Forge The Peace

You could always count on the leftists here for certain things. They have proven themselves superb novelists and collective farmers, singer-songwriters and operators of fighter-bombers. They are unsurpassed at holding demonstrations, signing petitions, opening channels of communication in the arts, in academia, and, trans-wall, on the ground with the Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza.

They just can't make peace.

The Problems Are Already Here

Palestinian and Israeli sources share the opinion that regular meetings between Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, which will continue tomorrow after Abbas returns from the United States and Portugal, were significant and comprehensive. Perhaps the most comprehensive meetings ever held between the two statesmen.

Israel's Pre-summit Dilemma: Leave Hamas Out Or Bring It In

In the run-up to the regional peace parley in November, Israeli decision makers are facing an increasingly acute dilemma: How to deal with the radical Hamas militants who control Gaza.

If the radicals are kept out of the peace process, analysts say, they will do
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all they can to scuttle it before it begins. But if they are allowed in, they will probably block any chance of success.

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