US's Dayton Views PA-US Security Coordination, Denies US Targeting HAMAS
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Ayyam
by General Keith Dayton - (Interview) October 26, 2008 - 8:00pm


Interview with General Keith Dayton, the US security coordinator, by Abd-al-Ra'uf Arna'ut; Dayton: These Are the Objectives of My Task, Truth of What I Did in Gaza [Arna'ut] You are very well known in the Palestinian arena, but few people actually know what you do. What do you specifically do?


Abbas: to meet Olmert October 27, counterpart made positive remarks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)
October 19, 2008 - 8:00pm


Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas Sunday evening remarked he is to meet Israeli counterpart Ehud Olmert October 27 and added the latter made positive remarks on several issues recently. Abbas told a host of Palestinian columnists Olmert spoke of returning "almost all of the West Bank" and "almost all Jerusalem neighborhoods," adding, however, he was not sure what his counterpart meant exactly by "almost.


Egypt to host ME summit in November
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
by Mohammed Mar’i - October 2, 2008 - 8:00pm


Israel, the Palestinians and the Middle East Quartet will meet in November to review progress in US-backed peace talks launched nearly a year ago, according to a senior Israeli official. The official told the Israeli daily Haaretz that the Israeli and Palestine Authority participants would brief the Quartet over progress made in the ongoing peace talks.


How I became a target for Israel's 'Jewish terrorists'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent
October 1, 2008 - 8:00pm


Zeev Sternhell is careful about his choice of words when he unhesitatingly calls the pipe bomb which exploded outside his front door last week "an act of Jewish terrorism." As a Holocaust survivor orphaned by the age of seven and a combat veteran of Israel's wars, Professor Sternhell, 73, who was lucky to have only been injured in the leg by flying shrapnel from the bomb, is "horrified" not for himself but because it might have hit his wife, daughter his grandchildren on one of their sleepovers, or their neighbours. "It was a terror act because they couldn't know who would have been hit."


Egypt to host 'Annapolis 2' peace summit in November
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Barak Ravid - October 1, 2008 - 8:00pm


An international summit is to be held in Egypt in November, with representatives from Israel, the Palestinian Authority and the members of the Quartet - the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations. According to a senior official in Jerusalem, the Israeli and PA participants will brief the Quartet over progress made in the ongoing peace talks.


Mid-East Quartet 'has lost grip'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
September 24, 2008 - 8:00pm


The Quartet of international powers has "lost its grip" on the Middle East peace process which it is meant to foster, a group of aid agencies says. In a damning report, the agencies say the Quartet - Russia, the US, the EU and the UN - is failing in its mission. Conditions for Palestinians, which it was meant to improve, have worsened since peace talks recommenced under US sponsorship in 2007, the agencies say. In the West Bank there was an increase in Israeli settlement and travel curbs. The report was issued ahead of a Quartet meeting in New York on Friday.


Voluntary Evacuation and Compensation
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Middle East Progress
by Colette Avital - September 23, 2008 - 12:00am


What challenges do settlements present and what is their impact on the peace negotiations?


Jenin? Jenin!
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Amoss Harel, Avi Issacharoff - September 18, 2008 - 8:00pm


All military camps are similar, and in the Middle East they also occasionally change hands, without their external appearance undergoing any significant changes. As such, Israel handed Jenin's Muqata compound over to the Palestinian security forces in 1996. Although part of it was bombed in 2001, today the compound once again serves as an active Palestinian Authority headquarters. Even the mirror next to the exit gate, a familiar sight from every Israel Defense Forces base, has remained in place. Only the slogan, "Soldier, Improve Your Appearance," has been removed by the Palestinians.


Condoleezza Rice, Hillary Clinton congratulate Livni on Kadima victory
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Barak Ravid - September 17, 2008 - 8:00pm


A day after Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni won the Kadima Party leadership primary, the foreign ministry was bombarded with congratulatory phone calls and letters from around the globe. One of the first to congratulate the newly elected chairwoman of the ruling party was U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, with whom Livni had developed a close relationship in recent joint diplomatic efforts with the Palestinians. Another prominent politician to call Livni was U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton, who also offered her congratulations.


A Mideast Crisis to Avert
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Dennis Ross - September 14, 2008 - 8:00pm


Having just spent a week visiting Israelis and Palestinians, I find it hard not to be struck by the sense that everything is in limbo. Even as they continue to negotiate, Israelis and Palestinians are, for the most part, biding their time as they wait to see what the political transition in Israel and in the United States will produce. But there is a looming issue that I found to be worrying Palestinians and Israelis alike: What happens in January when Mahmoud Abbas's term as president of the Palestinian Authority expires?



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