Date
Type

November 13th

6 Killed In Gaza As Hamas Forces Disperse Huge Fatah Rally Held In Memory Of Arafat
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Islam Abdel Kareem, Samuel Sockol - November 13, 2007 - 3:37pm

 Hamas militiamen on Monday violently dispersed a massive rally organized in the Gaza Strip by the rival Fatah movement. Six people were killed and 75 wounded, Palestinian officials said. Fatah officials accused security forces controlled by Hamas, a radical Islamic movement, of committing a massacre against an unarmed crowd that was marking the third anniversary of the death of longtime Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

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November 12th

A Washington Post opinion by Columbia professor Rashid Khalidi takes issue with U.S. Mideast policy based on military power, urging instead a more focused and politically calibrated approach (2.) The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reports on the growing skepticism within the organized Jewish American community over the Annapolis meeting facing Secretary of State Rice as she prepares to address the General Assembly of the United Jewish Communities (4.) Newsweek interviews Saudi foreign minister Saud Al-Faisal about the challenges facing the Middle East (5.) In the Jewish Quarterly (UK) Times correspondent and author Adam LeBor reflects on Israel at peace with its neighbors as the state approaches sixty years of existence (7.) BBC(UK) takes a look at how the violence in Gaza yesterday that led to the shooting deaths of 7 Fatah supporters is symptomatic of the increasing political Palestinian divisions (8.) An editorial in the Arab News (Saudi Arabia) is critical of Hamas for the recent Gaza bloodshed (10.) A Miftah (Palestine) editorial examines the internal challenges that would face the Israeli government should the Annapolis meeting be a successful one for both sides (11.) A Jerusalem Post (Israel) opinion by Peres Center for Peace president Uri Savir spells out what he believes Palestinians must do for the Annapolis meeting to be successful (13.)

Good News From Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Gideon Levy - November 12, 2007 - 1:47pm

The group of reservist paratroopers returned all astir: Hamas fought like an army. The comrades of Sergeant-Major (Res.) Ehud Efrati, who fell in a battle in Gaza about two weeks ago, told Amos Harel that "in all parameters, we are facing an army, not gangs." The soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces were impressed by their enemy's night vision equipment, the tactical space they kept between one another - and their pants even had elastic bands to make them fit snugly around their boots. This is good news from Gaza.

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Good Ackerman, Bad Ackerman
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Shmuel Rosner - November 12, 2007 - 1:46pm

There are people in Jerusalem who have not yet forgotten the criticism leveled at Prime Minister Ehud Olmert by Gary Ackerman, a United States congressman from New York and head of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia. He "kissed President Bush's ass," said the representative, in language that was not quite diplomatic, commenting to The Forward about Olmert's criticism of the new Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, after her visit with Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus last April.

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Unite Or Dissolve
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
(Interview) November 12, 2007 - 1:45pm

bitterlemons: Hamas is saying that by pursuing negotiations with Israel under current circumstances, the Abbas-led Palestinian Authority is in effect collaborating with the occupying power. Is this a fair assessment?

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Enlarge Annapolis
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Middle East Times
(Editorial) November 12, 2007 - 1:43pm

The good thing that may be said about the Annapolis meeting is that the expectations are gloomily but realistically low. There are not many illusions left in the Middle East, and little is expected from yet another U.S.-brokered summit between Israeli and Palestinian leaders. Perhaps what is wrong is not just the plot of this over-familiar drama, but the personnel. Maybe it is the three-way relationship between Americans, Israelis and Palestinians, who all know each very well by now; that is the problem.

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Remembering Yitzhak Rabin
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Economist
(Opinion) November 12, 2007 - 1:42pm

The inner price Israel pays for its continuing occupation of the West Bank “YOU were the pillar of fire before the camp and now we are left only as the camp, alone and in the dark”. So said his weeping grand-daughter, eulogising Yitzhak Rabin after he was shot in the back by a Jewish religious zealot 12 years ago. The murder of a strong and popular prime minister appeared briefly to unite the Jewish state. But the Israel of that time was in fact a camp divided. This year's anniversary has brought grim new evidence of how bitter the divisions have grown.

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Abbas Urges Support Of Peace Talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Financial Times
by Tobias Buck - November 12, 2007 - 1:39pm

Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, on Sunday seized on a demonstration marking the third anniversary of Yassir Arafat’s death to urge support for the latest round of Middle East peace talks and turn up the heat on Hamas, his Islamist rivals.

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Mideast: All Not Quite Aboard For Annapolis
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Inter Press Service (IPS)
by Peter Hirschberg - November 12, 2007 - 1:37pm

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has again paid a visit to the Middle East, held meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, spoken about the seriousness of the two sides in their efforts to revive the peace process, but has again left the region without issuing invitations to a planned U.S.-led peace summit in Annapolis, Maryland.

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Israel, U.s. Jews Intensify
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
by Ron Kampeas - November 12, 2007 - 1:36pm

A renewed push from Jewish organizations for tougher sanctions against Iran is facing tough obstacles in Washington and capitals throughout the world. American Jewish groups are aggressively attempting to rally support for isolating Iran until it ends its suspected nuclear weapons program. They are lobbying Congress, reaching out to friendly nations overseas and seeking allies in the United States.

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