Blair Cancels Gaza Visit After Threats
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Peter Walker - July 15, 2008 - 3:00pm

Tony Blair today cancelled a planned visit to Gaza in his role as Middle East peace envoy after what his spokeswoman described as threats made against him. The planned trip would have been the highest-level diplomatic mission to the territory since the militant Hamas group seized control of it a year ago. Ruti Winterstein, Blair's spokeswoman, said the visit had been called off because of "specific threats" against the former prime minister, giving no further details.

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Marwan Muasher Stresses Importance of A Two-State Solution for Arab Reform
Press Release - Contact Information: Hussein Ibish - June 26, 2008 - 12:00am

On Friday, June 27, the American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP) and the Foundation for Middle East Peace (FMEP) hosted a discussion the National Press Club in Washington of “The Arab Center: The Promise of Moderation” (Yale University Press, 2008) with its author, Dr. Marwan Muasher. Dr. Muasher is a former Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign and Information Minister of Jordan, as well as Jordan’s first Ambassador to Israel.


In A Typical Week In Gaza, No News Is Good News
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Quds
by Sami Abdel-shafi - (Opinion) July 25, 2008 - 8:00pm

?TAKE A PHOTO of me now, for tomorrow I may be dead,? young Gazans shout as they attend their friends? funerals. Death found the man buried today, for example, while he was at yesterday?s funeral for his friend. Such uncertainty about life, with everyone aware that for them tomorrow may not come, spawns a darkly tragic humor. If an Israeli sniper doesn?t hit his mark, perhaps a tank, F-16 or Hellfire missile will. And God help those who survive. Israel?s ongoing siege of Gaza leaves the hospitals nearly bare of life-saving medicines and bandages.

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Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair cancels a planned visit to Gaza on account of threats reportedly made against him (1). The prisoner swap between Hamas and Israel runs into continued obstacles (2). The IDF makes several Hamas-related arrests in the West Bank town of Nablus (3) (6). A Palestinian military court sentences two Palestinians to death for alleged collaboration with Israel, though the sentence is unlikely to be carried out (4). The European Union denounces Israeli settlement activity (5). Democratic Presidential hopeful Barack Obama is set to visit Ramallah next week (8).

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