February 5th

Egypt Wants Pa Back On Gaza Border ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al Jazeera English February 5, 2008 - 7:25pm Egypt has called on Hamas to allow the Palestinian Authority to oversee Egypt's border with the Gaza Strip, and warned Palestinians in Gaza not to test it's patience. » Read more

The Smearing Of Obama ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward (Editorial) February 5, 2008 - 7:24pm This week’s Forward carries an editorial responding to an Internet whisper campaign that claims Barack Obama is somehow hiding a secret Muslim identity behind his devout Christianity, and that he might represent some covert threat. In particular, we examine the anxious mindset that leads all too many Americans, including Jewish Americans, to give credence to distortions that we call “implausible” and “amateurish.” The editorial seeks to argue that liberals have not yet found effective answers when faced with this sort of fear-mongering from the right. » Read more

Us Condemns Suicide Bombing In Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Agence France Presse (AFP) February 5, 2008 - 7:23pm The United States on Monday condemned the suicide bombing that killed a woman in Israel, saying it underscored the need to make progress on the Middle East peace process launched in November. The White House also called on the Palestinian Authority to crack down on terrorism and criticized the Islamist movement Hamas for backing such attacks. » Read more

Olmert Takes 'responsibilty' For Failed War ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Agence France Presse (AFP) February 5, 2008 - 7:23pm OCCUPIED JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud  Olmert said Monday that he assumed full responsibility for failures  highlighted in a report last week by a government-appointed  commission into the 2006 Lebanon war. "The Winograd Commission said what it had to say, and what it  said was very harsh. I bear full responsibility for all the failures  - I never tried to shirk that," Olmert told an extraordinary  session of Parliament that convened to discuss the report. » Read more

Security Experts Fear New Wave Of Terrorism In Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Speigel International by Pierre Heumann - February 5, 2008 - 7:22pm Terrorists struck again in Israel on Monday in the first suicide bombing the country has seen in a year. It was an attack that politicians and military officers say they have seen coming for days. The bloody deed, which claimed the lives of one Israeli woman and the two suicide bombers, came as no surprise for many Israelis. Now that the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt is open, it has become easier for terrorists to reach Israel from Gaza. Security experts have been warning that terrorists in Gaza would see this as a new opportunity -- and would take advantage of it. » Read more

'the Palestinian Dream Is Over' ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News by Khalil Al Assali - February 5, 2008 - 7:20pm Occupied Jerusalem: Dr Mustafa Al Barghouthi, a member of the Legislative Council and a prominent Palestinian activist, could not find a better word than "disaster" to express his anger at the announcement made by Hamas officials regarding a study that aims to separate the economy from Israel and connect with Egypt. "These declarations are very risky and briefly mean the separation of the West Bank from the Gaza Strip and the end of the Palestinian dream," Dr Barghouthi told Gulf News. » Read more

Suicide Bombing Revives Israeli Push To Finish Its Wall ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor by Ilene Prusher - February 5, 2008 - 7:19pm In the aftermath of the first Palestinian suicide bombing in more than a year, many Israelis have returned to an old conclusion: build a barrier. Some politicians said that the answer to Monday's attack on the southern town of Dimona was to resurrect an existing, but never-implemented, plan to build some combination of a wall and fence between Egypt and Israel. The barrier would be similar to the West Bank wall that Israel started erecting more than six years ago, at a time when there was an almost nonstop cycle of violence between Israelis and Palestinians. » Read more

Suicide Attack In Israel Kills One ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Isabel Kershner - February 5, 2008 - 7:18pm A Palestinian suicide bomber who may have sneaked into Israel from the Egyptian Sinai blew himself up at a shopping center in this southern desert town on Monday, killing an Israeli woman and wounding 11 other Israelis, emergency services officials said. A second attacker with him failed to detonate his explosives belt and was shot dead by a police officer at the scene. » Read more

February 4th

Hamas Claims Dimona Attack, Says Bombers Came From Hebron ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Amoss Harel - February 4, 2008 - 8:01pm Hamas' armed wing claimed responsibility for a Palestinian suicide bombing that killed a woman in Dimona on Monday, the first such attack inside Israel claimed by Hamas since 2004, a Hamas source told Reuters. Both the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Bridgade and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine claimed responsibility for the attack earlier in the day. » Read more

Gov't Considers Ban On Exporting Gaza Farm Produce Via Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Amiram Cohen - February 4, 2008 - 8:00pm Agriculture Minister Shalom Simhon said on Sunday that Israel considers imposing a complete ban on exporting Gaza agricultural produce via Israel. Israel suspects large quantities of agricultural produce have been smuggled into Gaza from Egypt, after Hamas tore down the Gaza-Egypt border wall, sending hundreds of thousands of Palestinians into Egypt, effectively ending the Israeli blockade of the Strip. » Read more