Jordan Acknowledges Meetings With Hamas ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews August 21, 2008 - 12:00am Jordan acknowledged Wednesday that it held clandestine meetings with the militant Palestinian Hamas - the kingdom's first public confirmation of the recent talks. Nasser Judeh, Jordan's minister of information, told reporters that the meetings, which were headed by Jordanian intelligencechief Mohammed al - Dahabi, were held in an effort to "solve pending security issues." He declined to elaborate. » Read more

More Flexibility Required ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz (Editorial) October 2, 2007 - 12:00am Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is scheduled to host Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas at his sukkah in Jerusalem tomorrow. Next month, senior representatives from both sides are expected to participate in a conference at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. The frequency with which Olmert and Abbas meet and their seriousness in preparing for the meeting in the United States are raising expectations of significant progress in negotiations. However, the degree to which these expectations correspond to reality is still unknown. » Read more

Gaza Travellers Hit By Passport Shortage ATFP World Press Roundup Article from All Around Philly by Ibrahim Barzak - August 21, 2008 - 12:00am Gaza's 1.4 million Palestinians, already largely confined to their narrow strip of land by Israeli and Egyptian border closures, face a new travel restriction: The Hamas administration has run out of passports. » Read more

Only A First Step To Peace ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent (Editorial) October 2, 2007 - 12:00am It would be easy to be cynical about Israel's release of 57 Palestinian prisoners yesterday in an attempt to bolster the authority of the man they see as the moderate Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas. The number released is fewer than the average number of Arab militants detained by Israeli forces each month, joining 11,000 Palestinians in Israeli jails, many imprisoned without trial. » Read more

Talks With Hamas Focused On Security’ ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times by Hani Hazaimeh - August 21, 2008 - 12:00am The government on Wednesday said recent talks with Hamas mainly focused on security-related issues but their scope could be expanded once these issues are aptly addressed, a senior official said. "The meetings between Director General of the Jordanian Intelligence Department [Lt. General Mohammad Dahabi] and the Hamas movement aimed to address outstanding issues," between the two sides, Minister of State for Media Affairs and Communications Nasser Judeh said. » Read more

Hamas: Gilad Schalit May Become Ron Arad 2 ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post August 21, 2008 - 12:00am "If the enemy continues with its stubborn attitude, Gilad Schalit will become a second Ron Arad," a spokesman for Izzadin Kassam, Hamas\'s armed wing, said Wednesday, after the group held a large-scale drill on the site of the ruins of the former Gaza settlement of Netzarim. Schalit has been held captive in Gaza for over two years. Arad is an IAF navigator who parachuted into Lebanon in the 1980s and was captured by the Amal Shi\'ite group, but went missing some years later. His fate is unknown. » Read more

The Land Of Zion ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Economist September 27, 2007 - 12:00am WHEN the Jewish National Fund (JNF) was set up a century ago, its mission was to buy land in Palestine for settling Jews there, with the coins that diaspora Jews the world over put into the fund's distinctive blue-and-white collection boxes. Now the fund is fuelling the tension inherent in Israel's desire to be both a Jewish state and a democracy. This week a court gave the JNF three months to conclude a deal with the Israel Lands Administration (ILA) on how the fund's land is managed. » Read more

Palestine's National Poet ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News (Editorial) August 21, 2008 - 12:00am ONE of the wisest pronouncements I have heard in my life was that of an Egyptian general, a few days after Anwar Sadat’s historic visit to Jerusalem. We were the first Israelis to come to Cairo, and one of the things we were very curious about was: How did you manage to surprise us at the beginning of the October 1973 war? The general answered: “Instead of reading the intelligence reports, you should have read our poets.” » Read more

Ex-diplomats Say Us Faces Failure Of Peace Summit ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian by Suzanne Goldenberg - October 2, 2007 - 12:00am The Bush administration was warned yesterday by former senior US diplomats that it is setting itself up for the failure of its Middle East peace summit by neglecting to lay the groundwork for a successful meeting of American, Israeli and Arab leaders. The conference represents the Bush administration's most serious attempt to engage in Middle East peacemaking after seven years of violence between Israel and the Palestinians. » Read more

Israel's Pre-summit Dilemma: Leave Hamas Out Or Bring It In ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) by Leslie Susser - October 1, 2007 - 12:00am In the run-up to the regional peace parley in November, Israeli decision makers are facing an increasingly acute dilemma: How to deal with the radical Hamas militants who control Gaza. If the radicals are kept out of the peace process, analysts say, they will do function changefontSize(id,size,line) { document.getElementById(id).style.fontSize = size; document.getElementById(id).style.lineHeight = line; } all they can to scuttle it before it begins. But if they are allowed in, they will probably block any chance of success. » Read more