January 23rd

Saudi patience is running out ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Financial Times by Turki al-Faisal - (Opinion) January 23, 2009 - 1:00am In my decades as a public servant, I have strongly promoted the Arab-Israeli peace process. During recent months, I argued that the peace plan proposed by Saudi Arabia could be implemented under an Obama administration if the Israelis and Palestinians both accepted difficult compromises. I told my audiences this was worth the energies of the incoming administration for, as the late Indian diplomat Vijaya Lakshmi Nehru Pandit said: “The more we sweat in peace, the less we bleed in war.” » Read more

Peace now? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Economist (Editorial) January 23, 2009 - 1:00am FRANCE’S president, Nicolas Sarkozy, has a reputation for letting his enthusiasm run away with him. Having rushed with other European heads of government to the Middle East to douse the flames of Gaza, he returned home with a characteristically grandiose idea. Now that a truce seems to be taking hold, he wants, “within weeks”, to convene a peace conference to begin solving the whole conflict once and for all. » Read more

Fatah fears Gaza conflict has put Hamas in the ascendancy ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent by Patrick Cockburn - January 23, 2009 - 1:00am The Islamic movement Hamas is taking over from Fatah, the party created by Yasser Arafat, as the main Palestinian national organisation as a result of the war in Gaza, says a leading Fatah militant. "We have moved into the era of Hamas which is now much stronger than it was," said Husam Kadr, a veteran Fatah leader in the West Bank city of Nablus, recently released after five-and-a-half years in Israeli prisons. "Its era started when Israel attacked Gaza on 27 December." » Read more

UN 'shocked' by Gaza destruction ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News January 23, 2009 - 1:00am The UN's humanitarian chief has told the BBC the situation in Gaza after a three-week Israeli offensive against Hamas was worse than he anticipated. Sir John Holmes, who visited Gaza on Thursday, said he was shocked by "the systematic nature of the destruction". He said that the territory's economic activity had been set back by years. UN workers have been given access to Gaza. On Friday, Israel lifted a ban on international aid agencies entering the Palestinian territory. The ban had been in place since early November when tensions mounted between Israel and Hamas. » Read more

Q. and A. With Taghreed El-Khodary in Gaza ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times (Interview) January 19, 2009 - 1:00am This afternoon we have answers from Taghreed El-Khodary, our correspondent in Gaza, to some of the many questions submitted by readers for our Q&A. Ms. El-Khodary, who was born in Gaza, has reported for The New York Times since 2001. During the recent conflict, Ms. El-Khodary was one of the few people reporting from inside Gaza, in part due to the fact that the Israeli military refused to give Western reporters access to the Palestinian territory during the fighting. » Read more

An Unenviable Job ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times (Editorial) January 23, 2009 - 1:00am We welcome President Obama’s choice of George Mitchell to be his new Middle East envoy. It is an unenviable and essential job. A former Senate majority leader, Mr. Mitchell has the stature to represent the new administration. He negotiated the 1998 Good Friday accord in Northern Ireland, good training for taking on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. As a Lebanese-American, his appointment also sends an important signal that the United States will continue to be an unwavering ally of Israel but also sensitive to the Palestinians’ many legitimate grievances. » Read more

Palestinian Rival Says It Is Attacked by Hamas ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Sabrina Tavernise - January 23, 2009 - 1:00am The 27-year-old in a sweatsuit limped to the table, heaved himself into a chair and began to talk about how he had been shot. Men from Hamas have begun to assault people they suspect of supporting its chief political rival, Fatah, he said, and on Sunday, he became one of the victims. It was impossible to verify the man’s account, which he provided on the condition that he remain anonymous, out of concern for his safety. But it came during a week in which leaders of Fatah accused Hamas of harassing and harming its members in the Gaza Strip. » Read more

As Obama Visits State Dept., Clinton Announces Two Special Envoys ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post by Karen Deyoung, Glenn Kessler - January 23, 2009 - 1:00am President Obama traveled to the State Department yesterday afternoon for a visit that was as rich in symbolism as in substance, underscoring his pledge to give top priority to diplomacy as he outlined an activist policy in the Middle East and warned that "difficult days lie ahead" in Afghanistan. » Read more

No Home to Return to in Gaza ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post by Griff Witte - January 23, 2009 - 1:00am When members of the Sultan family ran from their home as an Israeli tank shelled its northern wall, there was no time to shut the front door. There was also no need. The house, which family patriarch Samir al-Sultan began building at the age of 15, was all but destroyed as Israeli forces advanced into the Gaza Strip in early January, turning the house's contents into a mangled mess of glass and mortar. With no home to return to and no prospects for rebuilding, the Sultans on Thursday were among the thousands of Palestinians in Gaza searching for somewhere to go. » Read more

January 22nd

ATFP Welcomes the Appointment of Senator George Mitchell as Middle East Special Envoy Press Release - Contact Information: Ghaith al-Omari - January 22, 2009 - 1:00am ATFP welcomes the appointment of former Senator George Mitchell as Middle East Special Envoy, and views this appointment as a clear signal of President Obama's strong commitment to an early, energetic engagement in peace making in the Middle East. Read more