Middle East Peace Reports
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Americans For Peace Now
by Middle East Peace Report - February 19, 2008 - 6:37pm

Amnesty Program a Qualified Success: Earlier this month, Israel removed 32 members of the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, Fatah's military wing, from its list of wanted men, and has extended a probation period for 220 additional men. This move was part of an agreement Israel and the Palestinian Authority entered into in July, which provides a mechanism – based on behavior during a probation period – by which militants could be removed from Israel's lists of individuals to be arrested or assassinated.

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Palestinian Pm Sees No '08 Israel Accord
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Ed Stoddard - February 8, 2008 - 7:46pm

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said on Thursday a lasting peace accord with Israel was unlikely in 2008 despite renewed diplomatic efforts to resolve the long-running conflict. In an interview with Reuters in the Texas capital, Austin, where he is on a private visit, he highlighted the lack of progress on the issue of Israeli settlements and military incursions into the West Bank as among the chief obstacles in the "road map" to peace and Palestinian statehood.

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Mideast Envoy Blair Says Pa Starting To Abide By 'road Map'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
February 7, 2008 - 7:21pm

The Quartet's Middle East envoy Tony Blair said Thursday that Palestinian security forces had significantly improved and were starting to carry out their part in the long-stalled "road map" peace plan. The former British prime minister, now the envoy for the Quartet of Middle East peace mediators which include the European Union, the United States, Russia and the United Nations, urged Israel to respond by easing travel and trade restrictions imposed on the Palestinians in the West Bank.

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Gaza's Falling Wall Changes Middle East Map For Ever
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
January 28, 2008 - 7:25pm

They came and went in lorries and gas tankers, in flatbed trucks loaded with cattle and sheep, in coaches and mini-buses, loaded by the dozen in the backs of trucks, all shuttling across Gaza's southern border. Four days ago they went on foot like refugees, but yesterday for the first time the trucks drove through and it felt like an unstoppable momentum had been reached.

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Is It A Budding Partnership?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
by Ziad Asali - (Opinion) January 18, 2008 - 6:35pm

Even the most sceptical of us would have to concede that things are better now than they were a few months ago, as they hasten to add that we have been here before and that this too shall pass. Yes, things are better: Palestinian and Israeli officials are talking, and final status issues are being discussed, though they are not being resolved.

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Is It A Budding Partnership?
In Print by Ziad Asali - Gulf News (Opinion) - January 17, 2008 - 1:00am

Even the most skeptical of us would have to concede that things are better now than they were a few months ago, as they hasten to add that we have been here before and that this too shall pass. Yes, things are better: Palestinian and Israeli officials are talking, and final status issues are being discussed, though they are not being resolved.

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Bush Calls For Fund To Compensate Palestinians
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Financial Times
by Tobias Buck - January 11, 2008 - 3:42pm

US President George W. Bush on Thursday called for a compensation fund for Palestinian refugees as he set out what he said was the “point of departure” for negotiations on a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians this year. At the end of two days of meetings in Jerusalem and the West Bank, Mr Bush sought to highlight his sympathy with the Palestinians more than on previous occasions and to dispel scepticism over the US’s readiness to lean on Israel.

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Bush Gets No Promises In Mideast Visit
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Richard Bourdreaux - January 11, 2008 - 3:32pm

President Bush completed two days of meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders Thursday without a firm public commitment from Israel to halt expansion of West Bank settlements or give the Palestinians a bigger role in policing the territory. Nor did the president make progress on a key Israeli concern that has stood in the way of peace talks for years: a halt in rocket attacks on southern Israel by Palestinian militants based in the Gaza Strip.

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Many Palestinians Offer A Bleak Opinion Of Bush
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Isabel Kershner - January 11, 2008 - 3:26pm

President Bush did not come to this oasis city of beige hills, lush green plantations and ancient ruins on his visit to the Palestinian Authority on Thursday. Given the apparent antipathy of the local population, it is probably just as well.

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Palestinians Believe Bush Won't Pressure Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Yoav Stern - (Analysis) January 10, 2008 - 4:58pm

U.S. President George W. Bush was not the bearer of big news for the Palestinian people when he spoke in Ramallah after meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday. Apart from a broad presentation of his vision for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, Bush spoke inarticulately about his concerns over Israeli settlements, said his convoy managed to get through Israel Defense Forces checkpoints without delay and suggested the Palestinians abandon United Nations resolutions, because they were of no help to them in the past.

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