One More Year Of The Same
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Inter Press Service (IPS)
by Jim Lobe - January 30, 2008 - 5:47pm

With just less than one year left in his presidency, George W. Bush remains as focused as ever on the Middle East and Iraq and appears reluctant to take on any major new foreign policy challenges in the time that he remains in power. That appears to be the consensus of most analysts here in the wake of Bush's last State of the Union address, which was delivered in the stately Capitol building Monday night.

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Better U.s. Image Abroad: How To Attain It?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Howard Lafranchi - (Opinion) January 30, 2008 - 5:45pm

Hillary Rodham Clinton would send prominent emissaries to world capitals the day after being elected president. John McCain would close the Guantánamo detention facility and renounce the use of torture. Barack Obama would speak to all foreign leaders, even America's worst enemies.

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Bush's Delusions Die In Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Salon.com
by Gary Kamiya - January 30, 2008 - 5:44pm

It was a heart-wrenching story. Hundreds of thousands of people, trapped for endless years in an open-air jail and recently subjected to an airtight siege, blew up their prison wall and poured out to freedom.

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Egypt-hamas Tensions Rise Over Border
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
January 30, 2008 - 5:42pm

Movement across the Gaza-Egypt border slowed to a trickle Tuesday as security forces made progress in sealing off breaches and cold, rainy weather discouraged travelers. The focus of the weeklong crisis shifted to growing tensions between Egypt and the militant Hamas rulers of Gaza, who are now demanding a role in overseeing the border.

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Gaza Crisis Talks Start, Hamas Seeks Say Over Border
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Alaa Shahine - January 30, 2008 - 5:40pm

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas began crisis talks with Egypt on Wednesday about restoring order at the breached Gaza border, facing a challenge from his Hamas rivals for control of the frontier. Hamas Islamists, who seized control of Gaza in June after routing Abbas's secular Fatah forces, blasted open the Egyptian border last week in defiance of an Israeli blockade, letting Gazans pour into Egypt to stock up on goods in short supply.

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Reuters reports on talks between the Palestinian government and Egypt over the Gaza border with Hamas seeking a role in any future arrangement (1.) In Salon, Gary Kamiya argues that the Gaza border crisis is a result of failed U.S. and Israeli policies regarding Hamas (3.) In Inter Press Service, Jim Lobe finds little prospect for major U.S. Mideast foreign policy change in the last year of the Bush presidency (5.) An IHT opinion by famous Israeli pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim urges Israelis to be sensitive to the rights of the Palestinian people as partners sharing the same land (7.) The Independent (UK) reports from Gaza on how power cuts are affecting one Palestinian family who has a son on a respirator (9.) The Telegraph (UK) reports on the halting of the building of a new sewage plant in Gaza, one of Quartet envoy Blair's main projects, due to Israel's refusal to allow the delivery of construction materials (10.) A Daily Star (Lebanon) opinion by Daoud Kuttab, published in collaboration with Project Syndicate, analyzes how the collective punishment of Gaza's population weakens the moderate majority and strengthens the extremist minority (12.) Haaretz (Israel) looks at a UN report on growing religious intolerance in Gaza (13.) Also in Haaretz, an editorial warns of the consequences of the smear campaign directed against Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama by certain right-wing elements in the Jewish American community (15.)

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