Abbas Should Listen To His Refugees
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
by Rami Khouri - (Opinion) October 8, 2007 - 4:10pm

Momentum seems to be picking up for the November meeting in Annapolis, Maryland, between the United States, Israel, and representatives of roughly half the Palestinians, to achieve a framework agreement for comprehensive peace negotiations, leading to permanent peace. In many ways we are back to 2000, when Israelis and Palestinians hurriedly huddled with Americans at Camp David to try and resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict that is at the heart of Arab-Israeli tensions.

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Condi's Keys
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New Republic
by Dennis Ross - October 8, 2007 - 1:54pm

Secretary of State Rice is planning to convene an international meeting in Annapolis sometime in November. While President Bush has spent little time during his tenure on Arab-Israeli peacemaking, he has embraced Secretary Rice's ambitious desire to use the Annapolis meeting to endorse a statement of principles on how to settle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

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The Stakes At Mideast Summit
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Boston Globe
(Editorial) October 8, 2007 - 1:44pm

THERE ARE many reasons to be skeptical about next month's Mideast peace conference in Annapolis, Md. The political frailty of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's government, the fractured condition of the Palestinian Authority, the six years President Bush wasted refusing to emulate Bill Clinton's attempts to broker an Israel-Palestinian agreement - these are only some of the most obvious grounds for doubting that anything of value will come from the conference.

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Palestinians See Rifts With Israel On Peace Draft
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Wafa Amr - October 8, 2007 - 1:33pm

Israeli and Palestinian negotiators are deeply divided over the content of a joint document they are drafting for next month's U.S.-sponsored statehood conference, Palestinian officials said on Sunday. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, both weakened by internal crises, have avoided formal discussion of agenda issues in a series of pre-conference summits. They appointed top aides to find common ground instead.

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Pre-summit Accord To Cover Only Points Of Clear Agreement
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Avi Issacharoff, Barak Ravid, Aluf Benn - October 5, 2007 - 4:19pm

The joint statement to be formulated by Israel and the Palestinians ahead of the regional meeting in Annapolis next month may include references to the core issues of the final-status agreement. However, such references would be non-committal, and the statement will deal only with issues that enjoy clear agreement. Israeli sources say the conference has been set for November 26. Sources in Jerusalem said the joint statement will be "significant enough but general enough to avoid a blow-up and a crisis."

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Bush Says 'very Optimistic' On Mideast Peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
October 5, 2007 - 3:39pm

President George W. Bush said in comments aired on Friday he was "very optimistic" a Palestinian state could be set up alongside Israel and that next month's Middle East conference could lead towards peace in the region. The U.S.-sponsored conference is due to take place in the Washington area in mid to late November, although there are doubts over how far it will go towards ending decades of conflict and uncertainty over which Arab states will attend.

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Idea Raised Of Two Capitals In Jerusalems
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
by Barry Schweid - October 5, 2007 - 3:14pm

Five former State Department and Pentagon officials are proposing Israeli and Palestinian capitals in Jerusalem and excluding Arab refugees from returning to Israel as part of an Middle East accord. In a six-page policy statement submitted to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, they also suggested a series of peace conferences following the one she hopes to convene next month, probably in Annapolis, Md.

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Ex-us Officals: Divide Jerusalem
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
October 4, 2007 - 3:02pm

Five former State Department and Pentagon officials are proposing Israeli and Palestinian capitals in Jerusalem and excluding Arab refugees from returning to Israel as part of an Middle East accord. In a six-page policy statement submitted to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, they also suggested a series of peace conferences following the one she hopes to convene next month, probably in Annapolis, Maryland, near Washington. Hamas, which controls Gaza and about one-third of Palestinian-held land, has not met US terms

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Politics: Mideast Meet Has Ambiguous Agenda
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Inter Press Service (IPS)
by Khody Akhavi - October 4, 2007 - 2:47pm

As the George W. Bush administration prepares to host its much-publicised Middle East conference, Israeli experts gathered on Capitol Hill Tuesday to discuss whether Washington's latest diplomatic attempts would pave the way for a solution to the long-moribund Palestinian-Israeli peace process. But with less than two months before the November meeting, which is to be held in Annapolis, the sentiment was anything but hopeful.

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Mideast Negotiating Teams Get Orders
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Richard Bourdreaux - October 4, 2007 - 2:44pm

The Israeli and Palestinian leaders brought their negotiating teams together for the first time Wednesday and instructed them to start work next week on a joint declaration that would pave the way for full-scale peace talks. The two-hour meeting at Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's residence did not delve into the core issues of the decades-old conflict. That task was handed to the negotiators, who have just weeks to draft a document to serve as the agenda for a peace conference called by President Bush.

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