November 6, 2007

Middle East News: World Press Roundup

The Christian Science Monitor examines Israeli and Palestinian reaction to recent reports concerning Israel's willingness to negotiate the issue of Jerusalem (1.) The Jewish Telegraphic Agency analyzes how the Annapolis meeting is shaping up to have ramifications far beyond Israeli-Palestinian peace (4.) In the National Interest, president and director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars Lee Hamilton lays out in detail his vision for an engaged, realistic and productive U.S. foreign policy (6.) The Independent (UK) looks at how politics and shady real estate sales to extremist Jewish groups factor into the struggle within the Greek Orthodox church over its Jerusalem patriarchate (8.) Le Monde Diplomatique (France) identifies five challenges facing the Annapolis meeting (9.) In BitterLemons (Israel/Palestine) former Palestinian minister of planning Ghassan Khatib explores the range of Arab countries' attitudes towards the Annapolis meeting (10.) Asharq Alawsat (pan Arab) takes a close look at the latest developments on the internal Palestinian political scene (12.) In his Haaretz (Israel) blog, Washington correspondent Shmuel Rosner examines the debate over the role American Jews should play in Israeli politics (13.)

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Stakes Are High At Annapolis

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.

Rice Sounds Optimistic Tone As She Leaves Mideast

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.

Patriarchs, Property, And Politics In Jerusalem

His Beatitude, Theophilus III, "Patriarch of the Holy City of Jerusalem and all Palestine, Syria, beyond the Jordan River, Cana of Galilee, and Holy Zion" – to give him his full and ancient title – is nothing if not hospitable.

Annapolis: Behind The Scenes

“It’s time for the establishment of a Palestinian state,” announced US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice after a visit to the Middle East on 15 October. She claimed President George Bush had decided to make ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict “one of the highest priorities of his administration”.

Misguided Priorities

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni recently told US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that her country’s security comes ahead of the establishment of the Palestinian state.

Livni cannot be more wrong. Her perception of realities and her grasp of politics, as expressed in these utterances, show poor statesmanship.

Should American Jews Have A Voice In Shaping Israel's Policies?

1.

The debate, or you might want to call it a war, over the role American Jews should play in Israeli politics is about to enter yet another round.

Yigal Amir's Thousands Of Sons

It is no coincidence that the Yitzhak Rabin Center for Israel Studies stands deserted, while on the soccer fields, the murderer is cheered and the victim is booed.

Whose Road Map?

As did his pronouncements last August in Jericho, where Prime Minister Ehud Olmert indicated a willingness to withdraw from an area equivalent to 100% of the occupied territories, his latest declarations to the Saban Forum, in the presence of Condoleezza Rice and Tony Blair, sounded promising, even stirring.

High Stakes For Annapolis Peace Meet

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas joined U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Ramallah Monday to express optimism that progress towards a Palestinian state could be made in the upcoming talks sponsored by the George W. Bush administration between Israeli and Palestinian leaders in Annapolis, Maryland.

But many critics fear that the hastily thrown-together meeting has greater inherent risks than the participants are willing to acknowledge.

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