Israel lauds Saudi peace plan before King Abdullah
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Louis Charbonneau - November 12, 2008 - 8:00pm

Israeli President Shimon Peres seized the rare opportunity of being in the same hall as Saudi King Abdullah on Wednesday to praise a Saudi peace initiative that he said had brought hope to the Middle East. Addressing a special high-level U.N. General Assembly meeting on dialogue between different religions, Peres termed some of the language in an Arab peace proposal based on the Saudi initiative "inspirational and promising -- a serious opening for real progress."

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Deadly fighting on Gazan border
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC World News
November 11, 2008 - 8:00pm

Israeli troops have killed four Palestinian militants in a gunbattle on the Gaza border, Palestinians say. Witnesses in Hamas-controlled Gaza said the fighting broke out after Israeli armoured vehicles crossed into the territory near Khan Younis. The Israeli army said its soldiers were trying to stop militants attempting to plant a bomb near the security fence. Israel and the Islamist movement Hamas agreed a truce in Gaza five months ago but fierce fighting resumed last week.

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Israeli police evict Palestinian couple from home of 52 years
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Rory McCarthy - November 10, 2008 - 8:00pm

Israeli police have evicted a disabled Palestinian man and his wife from the home where they had lived for 52 years, in a Palestinian district of east Jerusalem which is now surrounded by hardline Jewish settlers. The eviction came after years of litigation which culminated in an Israeli supreme court ruling in July ordering them out of the house. Several foreign governments, including the US and Britain, had tried to intervene on behalf of Muhammad and Fawzieh al-Kurd, but without success.

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'America's Role Is Central'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Der Spiegel
November 9, 2008 - 8:00pm

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Mr. Minister, what do you think of the vote that America has cast? Moallem: I am happy about the result of the American election and I congratulate President-elect Barack Obama. I hope that he will help us make a dream come true: a Middle East of peace, of stability and prosperity. There is no way around it: To achieve this, America’s role is central. SPIEGEL ONLINE: Syria is a neighbor of Iraq, Israel, the Palestinian territories -- and it is Iran's best friend. Which Middle East conflict would you like to see Obama tackle first?

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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.

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Mideast peace: one more push
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Howard Lafranchi - November 5, 2008 - 8:00pm

Less than a year after President Bush launched an effort to reach a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by the end of his term, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice sets out Wednesday on what could be a final push to put Mr. Bush's stamp on the sputtering peace process.

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Olmert heads to D.C. to wrangle last favors from Bush
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Aluf Benn - November 5, 2008 - 8:00pm

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will visit President George Bush in Washington later this month in an attempt to reach last minute agreements and extract a number of promises before both leaders step down. Olmert is looking for commitments from Bush on the peace process with the Palestinians, U.S. military aid and various arms deals.

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Meshaal’s mission was an exercise in public relations
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
(Editorial) November 3, 2008 - 8:00pm

Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal made a full set of rounds in Beirut on Monday, pressing the proverbial flesh and telling this country's leadership much of what it wanted to hear. Unfortunately, he also engaged in a little wishful thinking and/or expected his interlocutors to do the same. Given Meshaal's reputation for diplomatic and political savvy, it was disappointing to hear him engage in a brand of public relations with which the Arab world is all too familiar.

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Egypt would hand over prisoner swap talks - Mubarak
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from
October 30, 2008 - 8:00pm

EGYPT WOULD WILLINGLY stand aside and let some other government mediate a prisoner release between Israelis and Palestinians, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said in an interview published on Thursday. Egypt has been trying for months, so far without success, to arrange the exchange of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit for hundreds of Palestinians held in Israeli jails. Palestinians in Gaza have been holding Shalit for more than two years.

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UN: 130 West Bank Palestinians displaced by Israel in two days
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
October 30, 2008 - 8:00pm

Israeli military bulldozers destroyed houses in two West Bank communities on Wednesday and Thursday, leaving approximately 130 Palestinians homeless, United Nations (UN) sources told Ma'an. In the village of Umm Al-Kher, south of Hebron, Israeli bulldozers, accompanied by some 60 soldiers, destroyed Palestinian homes near the Karmel settlement. Workers employed by the Israeli military removed the furniture from the structures before the demolitions. As a result, 95 people were left homeless, including a woman who had recently given birth.

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