JPost.com Staff
"Syria will attend the Annapolis conference in order to examine the US's commitment to peace," according to Monday's editorial in Syria's official daily newspaper Teshreen.
According to the writer, the Syrians are pessimistic because of the Americans' past history.
"Syria agreed to attend the Annapolis conference but it is not naïve. [Syria] knows Israel does not want peace and is responsible for the seven-year hiatus in the peace process."
"Going to Annapolis, Syria takes into consideration that the Palestinian issue is the fundamental issue on the way to achieving peace, security, and stability in the region, and also that true peace requires the return of all occupied Arab territories, Palestinian, Lebanese, and Syrian."
"Syria will be part of the consensus which aims to force Israel to follow International and Arab principles for peace, and to foil [Prime Minister Ehud] Olmert's plan to force Arab countries to recognize Israel as a Jewish state," the article read.
"Syria and the entire Arab world knows that Olmert is trying to force the whole world to recognize Israel as a Jewish state and to obtain normalization without receiving anything in return. Will the Arab consensus be able to block Olmert's aspirations and ...   more »

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert meeting Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Jerusalem earlier this year.
J'lem sources: PM to call for road map implementation in Annapolis   
By Aluf Benn, Barak Ravid and Yoav Stern, Haaretz Correspondents   
WASHINGTON - The implementation of the road map peace plan is imperative, and terminating terrorist activity in the Gaza Strip is an inseparable part of the plan's first stage. That, according to sources close to the prime minister, will be the theme of Ehud Olmert's address Tuesday at the Annapolis international peace summit.
Olmert, the sources told Haaretz, will also say that the time has come to move forward with peace talks and reach an agreement. According to Syrian Information Minister Muhsen Bilal's statement Sunday, the summit in Annapolis will see a Syrian delegation attending as well, headed by Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad.
Olmert will call on the Arab nations to establish diplomatic relations with Israel as Jordan and Egypt have. He will also call on them to actively advance negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. 
Commenting on Syria's decision to send a delegation to the summit, sources close to the prime minister told ...   more »

Officials say State Department fears affecting negotiations leading to Annapolis
By Aaron Klein
JERUSALEM – At the request of the Palestinians, the U.S. has been holding back from Israel reports critical of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' purported attempts to fight terrorism in the West Bank, according to diplomatic sources familiar with the reports.
The U.S. has been closely monitoring Abbas' implementation of commitments to fight armed groups in the West Bank ahead of this week's Annapolis summit. In line with understandings, State Department and U.S. security representatives were to share their observations with Israel while the U.S. also monitors Israeli commitments to dismantle anti-terror road blocks and to take initial steps toward bulldozing what are termed illegal outposts, or Jewish structures built in the West Bank without government permits.  
While the U.S. has been reporting to the Palestinians on Israel's actions on the ground ahead of Annapolis, according to informed diplomatic sources, it has withheld some State Department reports critical of Abbas' Fatah security forces purported fight against terror.
Fatah forces in recent weeks carried out what it called arrest operations against some gunmen in the West Bank, including members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of ...   more »

Jerusalem bureau chief analyzes upcoming U.S.-sponsored conference
Click below to hear WND's Jerusalem bureau chief Aaron Klein offer his two cents on this week's U.S-sponsored Israeli-Palestinian conference at Annapolis.
Aaron Klein on WABC's John Batchelor Show 
Klein analyzed the upcoming international meeting last night on New York WABC Radio's new John Batchelor Show.
Klein has made himself available this week to news organizations seeking expert analysis on the Israeli-Palestinian summit.
Talker G. Gordon Liddy calls him "the most talented, well-connected reporter in the Middle East today."
Radio commentator Michael Reagan says Klein is the "Middle East insider you need to know. It takes the rest of the media weeks to catch up to Klein."  
In the Israeli media establishment, Klein is widely regarded as the most wired-in foreign reporter based in Jerusalem. He talks on a regular basis with all the newsmakers, from Israeli leaders through Palestinian officials through the region's terrorist chiefs.
Klein covers the Israeli-Palestinian arena extensively, with at least one exclusive article on the subject per day. He's broken scores of stories that made top headlines in the U.S. and Israel.
When Israeli leaders have stories to break they call Klein. Palestinian officials – including chief ...   more »

The government says it will rewrite rules for penalizing employers of illegal immigrants to try to satisfy a federal judge in San Francisco who put the crackdown on hold.
U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer stopped the Bush administration last month from going ahead with enforcement of regulations requiring employers to fire workers if their Social Security numbers did not match records and the discrepancies could not be addressed in 90 days. In issuing the temporary injunction, the judge said the Social Security database contained errors that could have cost many legal workers their jobs, and the government did not properly study the effect of the rules on business.
Late Friday, Breyer agreed to a request from the administration to put the case on hold while it reworks the regulations — a process bound to put off enforcement until the spring. The judge stayed proceedings until March 24, when the government thought it could have new rules ready on how to enforce immigration laws in the workplace.
Business, labor and civil liberties groups had sued to stop the "no match" rules, arguing the plan would trap companies and workers in a costly bureaucratic nightmare.
In its motion, the administration acknowledged that ...   more »