War And Peacemakers
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Newsweek
by Christopher Dickey - (Special Report) November 13, 2007 - 3:44pm

In a Middle East slipping from war to war, sometimes it seems only the old are truly impatient for peace. Certainly none is pushing harder than the octogenarian King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. His cause as crown prince in the 1990s and as reigning monarch since 2005 has been to settle as many disputes as he can in this region of clashing faiths, millennial rivalries and chronic conflagrations. They are all related, as he sees it, from Palestine to the price of oil, from Iraqi death squads to Iranian nukes to the risk of global recession, each cancroid problem feeding off the other.

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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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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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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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The Skeptic And The Believer
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Aluf Benn - (Opinion) November 9, 2007 - 6:30pm

Defense Minister Ehud Barak rose to speak at the annual conference of the Saban Forum in Jerusalem, on Monday of this week. Unlike Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Quartet envoy and former British prime minister Tony Blair and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who had delivered their speeches the previous evening directly into the cameras transmitting directly into the news broadcasts, Barak maintained ambiguity and his remarks were ostensibly intended only for closed discussion.

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Has Hamas Split?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Economist
November 9, 2007 - 6:01pm

JUST how divided is Hamas? Since the Islamist party took over the Gaza Strip in June, after months of violent clashes with the rival, secular-minded Fatah faction, Israel and the rest of the world have imposed an economic siege on the strip. Many perceive signs that Hamas is splitting under the pressure. That, in turn, has raised the prospect of Hamas becoming a busted flush—or of a moderate wing emerging that could do business with Fatah, rebuild a broader Palestinian front and perhaps even agree to the conditions that would enable it to negotiate with Israel.

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Gaza And West Bank Viewpoints
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bbc News
November 8, 2007 - 3:39pm

Palestinians describe how they think divisions between the separate administrations of Fatah in the West Bank and Hamas in Gaza are becoming more entrenched. SHAIMA, 22, GAZA CITY We are running out of lots of materials because Israel is blocking the borders. Food, every day materials, medicine - it's very hard to find what you want. And it's all much more expensive. Things which used to cost one or two shekels now cost five or six.

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Barak Still Bears The Scars From Camp David
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Financial Times
by Tobias Buck - November 8, 2007 - 3:37pm

Even by the volatile standards of Israeli politics, the comeback of Ehud Barak has been a remarkable one. Ousted as prime minister in 2001 after the acrimonious failure of the Camp David peace talks, Mr Barak left the political stage for almost six years to pursue a career in business. Yet in June, Israel's most decorated soldier and former chief of staff was back, taking the helm of his centre-left Labour party and assuming the post of defence minister in the coalition government headed by Ehud Olmert.

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Fatah And Hamas: The Division Continues…
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Asharq Alawsat
by Kifah Zaboun - November 6, 2007 - 12:58pm

When Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip last June; it emerged as a strong victorious army while Fatah was weak and defeated. Palestinians were awestruck by the force and speed of Hamas’s military takeover and believed that the already fragmented Fatah had been dealt a severe blow from which it would not recover. Meanwhile, others believed that the Gaza takeover represented the deadly blow for the victorious Hamas, which had fallen into the Gaza trap.

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Fatah Targets Mosques In Latest Anti-hamas Campaign
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Rory Mccarthy - November 5, 2007 - 2:30pm

The Palestinian Fatah-led government has mounted a crackdown on preachers from the rival Hamas movement, arresting or sacking clerics accused of spreading political dissent. The Fatah campaign, which is being enforced across the West Bank, is a reaction to the violent Hamas takeover of Gaza in June and marks a widening divide between the two factions and territories.

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