December 30th

Civilians suffer as missiles fly in Gaza and Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times by Richard Boudreaux, Ahmed Burai - December 30, 2008 - 1:00am Reporting from Ashkelon, Israel, and Jabaliya Refugee Camp, Gaza Strip -- Pierced by an Israeli missile, the mosque exploded at 1 in the morning, crushing the Balousha family's flimsy metal roof next door. Anwar Balousha awoke on the floor, covered by rubble, and heard moans from the bedroom next to his. Neighbors crawled over a collapsed wall and pulled him, his wife and four of their nine children to safety. » Read more

Hamas is hoping for an IDF ground operation in Gaza ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Amos Harel, Avi Issacharoff - December 30, 2008 - 1:00am Three days into Operation Cast Lead, Israel is proposing a diplomatic exit. A ground operation likely looms in an effort to increase the pressure on Hamas. At the same time, however, others argue that the air force is close to exhausting its target bank, so if Hamas can be brought to accept a cease-fire on terms convenient to Israel in the near future it would be better to do so. Hamas intensified its rocket and mortar fire at Israel Monday. It is starting to recover from the initial shock of the assault, and the bad weather is helping to protect its launching crews from Israeli aircraft. » Read more

IDF war games predict look of Gaza ground operation ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Uri Blau - December 30, 2008 - 1:00am Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi believes that any occupation of Gaza by the army must end as soon as possible, according to an officer who participated in discussions and war games related to such an operation. At the same time, however, Ashkenazi fears that if the operation ends too quickly, the IDF will only have to go back into the Gaza Strip later. The officer added that Ashkenazi seeks to minimize harm to Palestinian civilians, but recognizes that this cannot be prevented completely. » Read more

Israel warns attack on Gaza has just begun ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Times by James Hider, Nico Hines - December 30, 2008 - 1:00am Israel warned today that the aerial attack on Gaza, which has now entered its fourth brutal day, is only “the first of several” military stages intended to wipe out Hamas. As the army said it was ready to launch a ground incursion and tanks and infantry forces massed on the border, Israeli officials claimed the military “has made preparations for long weeks of action”. » Read more

Has Israel Revived Hamas? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post by Daoud Kuttub - December 30, 2008 - 1:00am JERUSALEM -- In its efforts to stop amateur rockets from nagging the residents of some of its southern cities, Israel appears to have given new life to the fledging Islamic movement in Palestine. » Read more

December 29th

Bush Legacy in Gaza ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Time by Scott MacLeod - December 29, 2008 - 1:00am The shoe throwing episode in Baghdad almost quaintly summed up the disaster the Bush administration leaves in its wake in Iraq--thousands dead in an ill-conceived and ill-planned invasion, thousands more dead in the explosion of sectarian and factional violence unleashed by the power vacuum, the strategic gains handed to Iran on a silver platter, the moral abomination of Abu Ghraib, and on and on. » Read more

The dire cost of domestic rivalries ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian by Neve Gordon - December 29, 2008 - 1:00am The first bombardment took three minutes and 40 seconds. Sixty Israeli F-16 fighter jets bombed 50 sites in Gaza, killing more than 200 Palestinians, and wounding close to 1,000 more. A few hours after the deadly strike, Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert convened a press conference in Tel-Aviv. With foreign minister Tzipi Livni sitting on his right and defence minister Ehud Barak on his left, he declared: "It may take time, and each and every one of us must be patient so we can complete the mission." But what exactly, one might ask, is Israel's mission? » Read more

Egyptian paper: Hamas leaders partially responsible for Gaza assault ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Yoav Stern - December 29, 2008 - 1:00am An editorial published in the Egyptian weekly Al-Ahram on Monday argues that the Hamas leadership, who kept silent as Palestinian militants fired rockets at Israel, is partially to blame for the Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip, which has killed at least 300 Palestinians in the last three days. "If you can't kill the wolf, don't pull its tail" says the article. » Read more

Obama Defers to Bush, for Now, on Gaza Crisis ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Helene Cooper, Steven Lee Myers - December 28, 2008 - 1:00am WASHINGTON — When President-elect Barack Obama went to Israel in July — to the very town, in fact, whose repeated shelling culminated in this weekend’s new fighting in Gaza — he all but endorsed the punishing Israeli attacks now unfolding. “If somebody was sending rockets into my house, where my two daughters sleep at night, I’m going to do everything in my power to stop that,” he told reporters in Sderot, a small city on the edge of Gaza that has been hit repeatedly by rocket fire. “And I would expect Israelis to do the same thing.” » Read more

Food and Medical Supplies Grow Scarce in the Gaza Strip ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post by Islam Abdel Kareem, Sudarsan Raghavan - December 29, 2008 - 1:00am NIR AM, Israel -- The family of Um Shadi al-Bardaweel did not sleep. The Israeli airstrikes and the explosions, the sirens and the screams of strangers outside their house near the Shati refugee camp in the Gaza Strip kept them awake into the predawn hours Sunday. At the first light of dawn, the mother of five sent her son to the bakery to buy bread. Hundreds of Palestinians had the same idea, joining a never-ending line. "There's no food in the market," Bardaweel explained in an interview with a reporter. Her son did not return until nightfall. » Read more