Fayad To 'post': 2008 Peace Deal In Peril
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Tovah Lazaroff - February 20, 2008 - 6:48pm

If Israel and the Palestinians don't change their behavior faster in the West Bank, they will fail to finalize a peace agreement in 2008, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salaam Fayad told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday. He spoke with the Post briefly in the aftermath of a rare address to the annual Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, which is meeting in Jerusalem this week. "There must be a greater focus. What we need to do is to pay close attention to the road map," said Fayad.

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For Palestinians, The Power Of Mass Non-violence Would Be Undeniable
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Jonathan Freedland - (Opinion) February 20, 2008 - 6:45pm

Now that Fidel Castro has taken the carriage clock, international affairs has all too few fixed points of continuity. Her Majesty the Queen is still in place. The King of Thailand has been on the throne since 1946. Otherwise one has to turn to the Middle East for reassurance that some things never change. Fly-by-nights like Castro may come and go, but the Israel-Palestine conflict will, it seems, always be with us.

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Abbas And Olmert Struggle To Move Talks Forward
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Isabel Kershner - February 20, 2008 - 6:42pm

The Israeli and Palestinian leaders met here on Tuesday amid growing dissonance over the content of their talks and the kind of agreement they are trying to achieve. The prime minister of Israel, Ehud Olmert, and the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, met in the evening at Mr. Olmert’s official residence, first accompanied by their negotiating teams and then alone, a spokesman for Mr. Olmert said.

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Who's He Kidding?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Akiva Eldar - (Opinion) February 19, 2008 - 6:48pm

Essentially, the Sderot residents are a new version of "the victims of peace." Government spokesmen explain that an invasion of the Gaza Strip may strike a fatal blow to Mahmoud Abbas, the partner, because peace negotiations with the West Bank Palestinian leadership cannot take place under the shadow of scenes of hundreds of Palestinian casualties caused by an Israeli invasion of the Strip.

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Kouchner Believes Israelis Heard Him On Settlements, Palestinian Issues
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Kuwait News Agency (kuna)
February 19, 2008 - 6:41pm

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, who returned February 17 after a two-day visit to the Palestinian territories and Israel, believes that he was heard by Israel when he brought up a number of important issues relative to the peace process and Palestinian development, officials here said.

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A Post-annapolis Breakthrough Proposal
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Chuck Freilich - (Opinion) February 19, 2008 - 6:38pm

Three months after the Annapolis conference and a commitment that an agreement would be reached by the end of 2008, prospects for peace are as distant as ever. Hardly a day goes by without rockets hitting Israel from Gaza. Ashkelon and Ashdod are now in range and sooner or later Tel Aviv and its environs will be hit by rockets as well, from the West Bank. Repeated attempts to do so have been thwarted by the IDF, but the law of averages is against us.

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‘abbas Meets Olmert Amid Crisis In Talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Media Line
February 19, 2008 - 6:34pm

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was due to meet Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud ‘Abbas in Jerusalem on Tuesday in an attempt to overcome differences facing the final-settlement talks, Palestinian sources said.   The differences followed Olmert’s announcements on Sunday that ’Abbas had consented to hold off discussing Jerusalem until the end of the negotiating process. Speaking at a conference in Jerusalem, Olmert also revealed the aim of the United States-backed peace talks is to reach an understanding on "basic principles" for a Palestinian stat

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Olmert, Abbas Agree To Accelerate Talks: Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Adam Entous - February 19, 2008 - 6:30pm

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas agreed on Tuesday to accelerate U.S.-backed peace talks after critics warned Israel not enough was being done to get a deal this year. The negotiations, which President George W. Bush hopes will yield an agreement on Palestinian statehood before he leaves office next January, have been stalled by disputes over Israeli plans to build new homes near Jerusalem and Olmert's insistence on putting off talks on the fate of the Holy city.

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Hopes Are Fading
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arabic Media Internet Network
by George S. Hishmeh - (Opinion) February 15, 2008 - 2:11pm

It is now almost three months since representatives of nearly 50 countries and international organisations attended the historic Middle East peace conference at the Naval Academy in nearby Annapolis which gave many high hopes that a Palestinian-Israeli settlement is around the corner. The event was the first serious action on the Arab-Israeli conference since President George W. Bush assumed the presidency more about seven years ago.

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Palestinian Prime Minister Voices Doubts
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Nathan Guttman - February 15, 2008 - 2:09pm

As the situation in Gaza deteriorates, Palestinian and Israeli leaders alike are voicing doubts about the feasibility of realizing President Bush’s goal of a peace agreement by the end the year. Not much optimism was heard this week from Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad during a visit to Washington. Fayyad, who is seen by the Bush administration as an agent of reform in the Palestinian government, stressed to his hosts the lack of progress since the peace process was relaunched last November in Annapolis, Md.

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