January 24th

A Broken Society ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian (Editorial) January 24, 2008 - 6:02pm If you bottle up 1.5 million people in a territory 25 miles long and six miles wide, and turn off the lights, as Israel has done in Gaza, the bottle will burst. This is what happened yesterday when tens of thousands of Gazans poured into Egypt to buy food, fuel and supplies after militants destroyed two-thirds of the wall separating the Gaza Strip from Egypt. It was the biggest jail break in history. » Read more

An Embattled Olmert Stresses Peace Credentials At Herzliya ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) by Dina Kraft - January 24, 2008 - 6:01pm ghting for his political life, Ehud Olmert told the Israeli people that keeping him in office was their best hope of reaching the promised land of peace. "There is no other option to what I am offering," Olmert said Wednesday in his keynote address at the Herzliya Conference, referring to ambitious peace efforts with the Palestinians launched under the aegis of the United States at the Annapolis peace conference last November. » Read more

Politics: U.s. Stymies Security Council Action On Gaza ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Inter Press Service (IPS) by Haider Rizvi - January 24, 2008 - 6:00pm Despite intensifying calls for international pressure to address the fast deteriorating situation in the Gaza Strip, observers and some diplomats say the U.N. Security Council has proved as ineffective as it has been for many years concerning issues related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. On Tuesday, the Council called an emergency meeting during which a vast majority of delegates strongly condemned Israel's blockade of the occupied Palestinian areas and charged that it was violating international humanitarian law. » Read more

End The Occupation - And Get Justice For Its Victims ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Baltimore Sun by Bassam Aramin - (Opinion) January 24, 2008 - 5:59pm This month, President Bush visited the Israeli-occupied West Bank towns of Bethlehem and Ramallah and declared that the occupation must end. These were no doubt welcome words to Palestinians and Israelis alike. They provide hope for peace; for without occupation, peace is truly possible. Unfortunately, for many, including my 10-year-old daughter Abir, it is too late. One year ago, Abir was shot in the head by Israeli border police as she left school. The soldiers allege that they were fighting with children who were throwing rocks. » Read more

Israel Wants To Cut Gaza Links After Border Breach ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters by Adam Entous, Rebecca Harrison - January 24, 2008 - 5:58pm Israel wants to cut its links with the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip after militants blasted open the territory's border with Egypt in defiance of an Israeli blockade, Israel's deputy defense minister said on Thursday. Israel, which occupied the Gaza Strip in 1967, pulled troops and settlers out in 2005 but still controls its northern and eastern borders, airspace and coastal waters, and has imposed a blockade it says is meant to counter militant rocket fire. » Read more

Breach In Gaza ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post (Editorial) January 24, 2008 - 5:57pm THE HAMAS movement provided a dramatic illustration yesterday of its ability to disrupt any movement toward peace between Israelis and Palestinians. As tens of thousands of residents of the Gaza Strip surged across the border into Egypt, Hamas security forces directed traffic; earlier, they stood by as organized groups of militants blew up the fence along the previously sealed border. » Read more

Trapped In Gaza ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times (Editorial) January 24, 2008 - 5:56pm The neglect and mistreatment of the 1.5 million Palestinians trapped in the Gaza Strip is a disgrace, and a very dangerous one. They are pawns in the struggle among Hamas, which controls Gaza and uses the territory to bombard Israel daily; its rivals in the Fatah movement that run the Palestinian Authority and the West Bank; and Israel. If something isn’t done quickly to address the Gazans’ plight, President Bush’s Annapolis peace process could implode. » Read more

As Gazans Pour Across, A Region Alters ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times by Rushdi Abu Alouf, Richard Bourdreaux - January 24, 2008 - 5:55pm The collapse of Egypt's border with the Gaza Strip on Wednesday altered the region's political and security landscape as suddenly as it changed the fortunes of Palestinians who poured out of the enclave to stock up on goods made scarce by an Israeli blockade. After masked gunmen used land mines to blast through a 7-mile-long border wall, tens of thousands of jubilant Gazans went on an Egyptian spree, buying gasoline, heating oil, rice, sugar, milk, cheese, cigarettes, tires, cement, television sets and cellphones. » Read more

Gaza Busts Out Of Its Blockade ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor by Dan Murphy, Ilene Prusher - January 24, 2008 - 5:54pm In a coordinated effort using explosives and bulldozers, militants in the Gaza Strip pulled down much of a seven-mile border fence with Egypt Wednesday, allowing tens of thousands of Gazans to cross into Egypt to buy everything from fuel to baby formula. » Read more

January 23rd

A Thundering Silence ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz (Editorial) January 23, 2008 - 8:48pm The 14-year-old girls who spent three weeks in jail because they refused to identify themselves after being arrested at an illegal outpost are just one example of what is happening in the religious Zionist camp. It is easy to feel sympathy for minors whom the legal system arrested as a form of punishment, since arrest is not supposed to serve this purpose. In that sense, the court that released them was right to do so. » Read more