January 14, 2008

Middle East News: World Press Roundup

Reuters looks at the growing success of the slowly redeploying Palestinian police to reestablish law and order in West Bank cities (2.) The Washington Post examines how the issue of illegal Israeli settlement outposts in the West Bank have become the front line in the struggle over withdrawal from occupied land (4.) The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reports on where Israelis are leaning concerning the U.S. presidential election (6.) Americans For Peace Now presents its weekly excerpts from the Israeli press (7.) A Guardian (UK) editorial parses statements made by President Bush during his Israel-Palestine trip to find little substance (9.) The Times (UK) examines how the U.S. drive for Mideast democracy has faltered since it was declared a central theme of American foreign policy three years ago (11.) A Daily Star (Lebanon) opinion by Rami Khouri argues that the combination of citizen disenfranchisement and lack of state sovereignty in the Middle East has contributed to the rise in power of Islamists (12.) Asharq Alawsat (pan Arab) reviews official Palestinian reaction across the political spectrum to President Bush's statements about the Palestinian refugee issue during his Israel-Palestine visit (14.) In Haaretz (Israel) Akiva Eldar urges the Israeli government to consider whether any of its military or political actions regarding the Palestinians serve to strengthen or undermine President Abbas before conducting them (15.) Also in Haaretz, an opinion by Uzi Benziman takes the Israeli public to task for not pushing their leadership to adopt a peace agreement with the Palestinians the parameters of which are known to all (17.)

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Palestinian Police Reclaim West Bank Streets

Palestinian police are slowly starting to exert control over some West Bank towns, long the domain of hooded gunmen and their automatic rifles, with the aid of Western-backed funding and training.

 

The security drive, demanded by many Palestinians and which Israel says is a prerequisite for peace, has seen green-bereted security officers bent on enforcing law and order emerge from the chaos of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

It's Not About Iran

As President Bush travels through the Middle East, the prevailing assumption is that Arab states are primarily focused on the rising Iranian threat and that their attendance at the Annapolis conference with Israel in November was motivated by this threat. This assumption, reflected in the president's speech in the United Arab Emirates yesterday, could be a costly mistake.

With Concern And Bemusement, Israelis Follow U.s. Elections

Hillary Clinton is the favorite U.S. presidential candidate at Itzik Nir's tiny juice stand at the corner of King George St., a veritable neighborhood listening post where opinions pile up as quickly as the signature orange-banana-passion fruit blends are served.

Customers giggle trying to pronounce Mike Huckabee's name and see Barack Obama as an unknown. They’d rather stick to Clinton, who they see as a sure thing for Israel, Nir said.

January 14, 2008 - Vol. 9, Issue 19

EHUD VS. EHUD: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Ehud Barak have been trading barbs over Israel’s failure to evacuate settlement outposts built in violation of Israeli law and Israel’s commitments to the United States. During a media availability with Olmert, U.S. President George W. Bush displayed some impatience over this issue on Wednesday. He said: “Look, I mean, we’ve been talking about it for four years.  The agreement was, get rid of outposts, illegal outposts, and they ought to go.”

Tensions Threaten Israeli Coalition

Ehud Olmert is battling to keep together Israel’s fractious multi-party government, amid rising tensions between the prime minister and his rightwing coalition partner over the current Middle East peace talks.

President Bush's Only Achievement In The Middle East Is To Increase The Power Of Iran

Just as we were all sighing with relief at the end of the Bush years, the lame duck President has waddled into the Middle East to remind us his beak is still nuclear-tipped. With one year to go, he is standing on the sands of Arabia to announce Iran is "the world leading state sponsor of terror" and must be confronted "before it's too late". He then quacks a few words about peace between Israel and the Palestinians and the "success" of the surge in Iraq.

Democracy: Fragile Seeds That Fall On Stony Ground

Halfway through his eight-nation tour of the Arab world, President Bush delivered yesterday what his hosts had long expected: a call for democracy to flower in the arid political climate of the Middle East.

Three years ago, when he made the drive for democracy in the region the central pillar of US foreign policy for his second term in office, the impact caused political shockwaves among friends and foes in a part of the world where rulers and dictators have long resisted change.

Bush Tells Us The Old, Old Story

President George W. Bush made a disappointing speech on Sunday in Abu Dhabi when he sought to summarise the key points of his new Middle East strategy in the keynote address of his current trip to the region.

He failed to offer any specific policies, preferring to repeat a simplistic insistence on the introduction of democracy, freedom and justice in the region.

It was very disappointing that there was little that had not been said before, and that Bush's vision does not include any genuine policies. He does not have anything new to offer to the region.

Abbas Should Be Safeguarded

President George W. Bush, who came to jump-start the peace talks, is fading in the distance, and the large-scale military action in Gaza is getting closer. It is as if there are two peoples: The people of the West Bank and the people of Gaza. With the first we make peace and with the second we go to war.

Believing Olmert

After listening to many of his statements, some of them very impressive, one comes to recognize that Ehud Olmert perhaps truly desires peace with the Palestinians. The fact that he has not zigzagged, not even once, that he only reiterates the same things, speaking like Uri Avnery (even if 40 years late), that he does not backtrack or stutter - only reinforces this feeling. It is permissible, therefore, to succumb to the temptation and believe that the man who told Haaretz on November 28, "two states, or Israel is finished," indeed has undergone a profound change.

Bush Changes Tone

President George W. Bush is coming to the end of his first extensive trip to the Middle East. The journey has crystallised the recent adjustment in US policy in the region. Until some months ago, Mr Bush was marked by his belligerent neo-conservatism, hollering for dem­ocracy to take root in Arab states while refraining from pushing peace between Israel and the Palestinians. His approach has changed – but doubts persist over what he can achieve in his final year.

Bush Urges More Democracy In Middle East

He could have held his great Middle East speech in Iraq, the country that he freed from tyranny. Or in the Palestinian Territories, where voters headed to the ballot boxes en masse two years ago. He could even have delivered his comments in Lebanon, where the Cedar Revolution three years ago seemed to bring his dream of a democratic Middle East within reach.

Peek At An Agreement

President George W. Bush has given Israel and the Palestinian Authority until the end of his term to reach an agreement on the creation of a viable democratic Palestinian state that will live peace with Israel. The assumption is that the sides will negotiate in secret and will reach a declaration of principles which will then be brought to the electorate in Israel and Palestine - either through full elections or through referenda.

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