Palestinian-American Experts Available for Comment on Bush Mideast Trip
Press Release - Contact Information: Hussein Ibish - December 3, 2007 - 1:00am

Six weeks after the Annapolis meeting, the dynamics between Israelis and Palestinians are on the verge of falling back on familiar patterns of obstruction and finger pointing resulting in a faltering of the process of negotiations.


No More Time To Waste
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Ami Ayalon - (Opinion) November 30, 2007 - 6:04pm

A motley coalition of cynics and extremists were quick to write off the Annapolis peace conference as a waste of time. The best way for Israel to prove them wrong is to show that it knows there is no more time to waste.

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When All Is Said And Done
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Aluf Benn And Shmuel Rosner - (Analysis) November 30, 2007 - 6:02pm

The genocide in Darfur is more horrifying, global warming is a greater cause for concern, and the danger that nuclear Pakistan will fall into the hands of Al Qaida causes more sleepless nights. And still, only the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can bring 50 leaders and foreign ministers from all over the world to a small American coastal town on a clear late-autumn day, in yet another effort to achieve "a final status agreement within a year."

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Bush's Half-hearted Summit
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Der Spiegel
by Ulrike Putz And Gregor Peter Schmitz - November 30, 2007 - 5:45pm

It was an elegant setting for the luncheon hosted by the Israel Project one week ago. Guests at the National Press Club in Washington picked at salmon on a bed of salad, forks clinked gently against plates. The hostess spoke quietly of peace and understanding. But then David Wurmser showed up.

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Peace Talks Are Likely To Fail, Just As The 'road Map' Did
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
by Rami Khouri - (Opinion) November 29, 2007 - 5:09pm

The Annapolis conference on Tuesday was full of lofty rhetoric, intriguing new promises, a few bold commitments, and a tantalizing cast of characters - alongside plenty of rehashed rhetoric, rigid positions, and regurgitated, failed diplomatic mechanisms. It left us with as many questions as answers about whether this was a serious Arab-Israeli peace-making endeavor, or a hoax garnished with Chesapeake Bay clam cakes.

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Still Waiting For Peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Leader - (Special Report) November 29, 2007 - 5:03pm

Serious negotiations do not normally take place at international conferences. They happen before or after them. If negotiations beforehand have been fruitful, a conference is a venue to publicise and formalise what has been agreed, or sometimes to settle one or two very difficult matters beyond the competence of the advance teams. On that test, Annapolis has not been a success. Palestinians and Israelis could not agree on a detailed joint document to put before the meeting.

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Annapolis Talks Prompt Much Doubt, A Few Jokes, In Mideast
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Ellen Knickmeyer, Scott Wilson - November 29, 2007 - 4:55pm

A day after their leaders announced a new push for peace, Israelis and Palestinians returned Wednesday to a familiar and deadly routine, deeply skeptical over the timetable set for the talks and whether an end to the conflict is achievable at all in the current political climate. In cafes and blogs in the Arab world, the Annapolis conference prompted little more than wisecracks. Commentators made much of a linguistic coincidence: In Arabic, "ana polis" means "I am the police."

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If The Conference Fails, What's Plan B For Peace?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
by Daoud Kuttab - (Commentary) November 28, 2007 - 4:07pm

American officials usually spend enormous energy highlighting the "process" in the Middle East "peace process." Only in the last 18 months of a second-term president or following a military engagement in the Middle East does the United States actually start to concern itself with "peace."

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Keep The Cynics At Bay
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Daniel Levy - (Commentary) November 28, 2007 - 4:02pm

Theories abound as to why an Annapolis conference and why now. Jerry Seinfeld would be excused for thinking that this is all a personal conspiracy against him - his visit to Israel was dominating the headlines until Annapolis came along. In fact some in the Israeli media have been drawing a rather unflattering analogy: the Annapolis conference resembles a Seinfeld episode - it's about nothing. Yada yada yada.

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Us Turns To ‘coalition Of The Moderate’
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Financial Times
by Daniel Dombey - November 28, 2007 - 3:58pm

As almost 50 delegations assembled for the Annapolis conference on Tuesday, one question stood out. Why was the Bush administration, which had once scorned Bill Clinton’s efforts to broker Middle East peace, risking a high-profile attempt of its own, despite near to rock bottom expectations? “You can make the case that in an attempt to shoot the moon and get nothing, more violence resulted,” Ari Fleischer, then President George W. Bush’s spokesman, said in 2002 of Mr Clinton’s Camp David negotiations two years before.

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