Hamas Seeks Fatah Talks, Hints At Giving Up Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Nidal Al-mughrabi - October 11, 2007 - 2:31pm

Hamas said on Wednesday it would hold reconciliation talks with the Fatah faction of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and hinted it might be ready to cede control of the Gaza Strip, which it seized in June.

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Mideast: November Talks Must Be Inclusive, Urge U.s. Graybeards
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Inter Press Service (IPS)
by Jim Lobe - October 11, 2007 - 2:25pm

To succeed, next month's Israeli-Palestinian conference here should establish and endorse the contours of a permanent peace accord and secure the participation of Arab states that do not currently recognise Israel, including Syria, according to a letter sent Wednesday to President George W. Bush from a bipartisan group of eight former top U.S. policy-makers.

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The Test Of Leadership
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Gershon Baskin - (Opinion) October 10, 2007 - 2:13pm

The public mood regarding the US sponsored peace summit is quite negative. The leaders of Israel and Palestine are devoting time and energy to reducing expectations out of fear that the summit may not produce the agreement necessary to enable a genuine peace process to ensue. As we get closer to the summit it seems that public opinion on both sides is hardening with regard to concessions that are necessary to enable Israeli-Palestinian agreement.

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So That Annapolis Will Not Be A Failure
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
by Rami Khouri - (Opinion) October 10, 2007 - 2:04pm

The November Arab-Israeli peace-making meeting that US President George W. Bush has called for replays several similar moments in the past quarter-century, when gatherings were convened but did not achieve their full promise - at Madrid, Camp David, Taba and Oslo, among others. Will this year be any different? I hope so in my heart, but I do not think so, to judge by current political realities.

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Mid-east Diary: Summit Prospects
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bbc News
by Jeremy Bowen - October 10, 2007 - 1:53pm

Another Middle East peace summit is coming up in the United States, but there are risks in holding summits on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and one of the main parties to the conflict, Hamas, is being excluded.  At the moment, the summit looks likely to start in Annapolis, Maryland, on 15 November. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas are having regular meetings about it. They are trying to produce an agreed document about the future. Mr Abbas wants more detail. Mr Olmert wants something pretty vague.

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Abbas Wants Return To Pre-1967 Borders
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
by Mohammed Daraghmeh - October 10, 2007 - 1:42pm

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday laid out his most specific demands for the borders of a future independent state, calling for a full Israeli withdrawal from all territories captured in the 1967 Mideast war. Abbas' claim comes as Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams are trying to hammer out a joint vision for a future peace deal in time for a U.S.-hosted conference next month.

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Twin Mideast Peace Concerts Rouse Skepticism, Rancor
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from McClatchy News
by Dion Nissenbaum - October 10, 2007 - 1:28pm

It might sound like an inspirational convergence along the lines of John Lennon's antiwar ballad "Give Peace a Chance": twin concerts in which thousands of Israelis join thousands of Palestinians to call for an end to a demoralizing conflict that often looks as if it will go on forever. Except that this is the Middle East, where even a peace concert can become a raucous political battleground.

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Palestinians Offered Jerusalem Olive Branch
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Times
by James Hider - October 9, 2007 - 2:30pm

Israel is willing to hand over Arab east Jerusalem to the Palestinians as part of a new peace initiative, the Deputy Prime Minister said yesterday. The announcement came amid reports that the two sides were considering handing custody of the Old City’s holiest site to Jordan. Haim Ramon, the Israeli Deputy Prime Minister, said that handing over parts of the predominantly Arab east Jerusalem could be on the table during a regional conference to be held in the United States next month.

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Middle East Summit: A Recipe For Failure?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from International Herald Tribune
by Daniel Kurtzer - (Opinion) October 9, 2007 - 2:14pm

As diplomats scramble to piece together the parts of the Middle East peace meeting that the United States is determined to convene in November, one crucial question is getting too little attention: How will success be measured?

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Giving Them Something To Talk About
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Avi Issacharoff - October 8, 2007 - 4:17pm

One by one, the Palestinian visitors entered the sukkah at the Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's official residence last Wednesday. They entered cautiously and hesitantly, noting the decorative Israeli flags closing in on them from all sides. They promptly underwent an accelerated course in Judaism, as Olmert explained the four plant species used in the Sukkot rituals. The pictures, they knew, would certainly not improve their standing among the Palestinian public.

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