January 25th, 2008

Israel Considers Palestinian Proposal To Open Up Gaza ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Deutsche Presse Agentur January 25, 2008 - 6:16pm The Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad was offered a glimmer of hope Thursday that Israel would ease its blockade of Gaza. He used a discussion at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, to call on Israel to open up "passages" to the territory which he proposed the authority should oversee which he said should be set up within days. The Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak replied that his government had stated its willingness to consider the passages » Read more

Gaza-egypt Border Breach Has Israel Re-thinking Strategy ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) by Roy Eitan - January 25, 2008 - 6:15pm The few hundred pounds of TNT that brought Rafah’s border wall tumbling down also has shaken Israel’s strategy of isolating Hamas. The Olmert government watched helplessly on Wednesday as the Islamist group, responding to Israel’s tightening of its blockade on the Gaza Strip, blew holes through the border wall between Gaza and Egypt, enabling tens of thousands of Palestinians to surge across the border and stock up on food, fuel and other provisions. » Read more

Politics-us: Neocons Shaken, But Not Deterred ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Inter Press Service (IPS) by Jim Lobe - January 25, 2008 - 6:14pm Almost exactly five years after it reached its zenith with the invasion of Iraq, the influence of neo-conservatives has waned sharply in Washington, as their nemeses, the "realists" in the national security bureaucracy, have increasingly asserted control over U.S. foreign policy. » Read more

The Agony Of Gaza ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Boston Globe (Editorial) January 25, 2008 - 6:13pm THE BREACHING early Wednesday of the barrier separating Gaza from the Egyptian side of the border town Rafah allowed an estimated 300,000 Gazans to seek staples and a brief experience of liberty outside their enclosed, suffocating strip of land. The highly publicized breakout of those Gazans also made it impossible to ignore the collective punishment being imposed on them by Israel's policy of closure and economic blockade. » Read more

Israel Sees Upside In Hole In Gaza Wall ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor by Ilene Prusher - January 25, 2008 - 6:13pm When Palestinians toppled a metal wall separating the Gaza Strip from Egypt Wednesday, many expected Israeli officials to howl over Egypt allowing Hamas "terrorists" to rearm. After all, a cornerstone of the current peace process was supposed to be isolating Gaza. But the Israeli response has been surprisingly muted. In fact, some Israeli officials see some advantage in the breach. » Read more

Tens Of Thousands More From Gaza Enter Egypt Seeking Consumer Goods ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Steven Erlanger - January 25, 2008 - 6:12pm Tens of thousands more Palestinians flooded across the breached border crossing from Gaza into Egypt on Thursday, and Egyptian merchants greeted them with a cornucopia of consumer goods and higher prices than on Wednesday, when Hamas militants toppled large sections of the fence. Many more Egyptian police officers were at various ruptures in the barrier at Rafah, more of them in riot gear and some using batons with small electric charges to keep the huge, pushing crowds in some form of order. » Read more

Hamas Challenges Egypt's Bid To Close Gaza Border ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters by Nidal Al-mughrabi - January 25, 2008 - 6:11pm Egypt started to close its breached border with the Gaza Strip on Friday but Palestinian militants bulldozed a new opening in a challenge to Cairo and Israel's blockade of the Hamas-run territory. Palestinian crowds cheered as Hamas militants used a bulldozer to flatten sections of the chain and concrete fence. In a scene broadcast live on television around the world, Egyptian riot police watched from a distance as hundreds of people poured into Egypt. » Read more

January 24th

Opportunity In Gaza ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz (Editorial) January 24, 2008 - 6:07pm The closure imposed a year ago on the Gaza Strip by Israel and Egypt was effectively lifted yesterday after hundreds of thousands of Gazans overran the Egyptian border. According to United Nations reports, about 20 percent of Gaza's population crossed into the Egyptian side of Rafah on foot and in cars after explosives were used to destroy about two-thirds of the border barrier overnight Tuesday. » Read more

Analysis: Gaza Border Breach Shows Israel That Hamas Is In Charge ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Amoss Harel, Avi Issacharoff - (Analysis) January 24, 2008 - 6:06pm A few Israel Defense Forces Engineering Corps officers surely shed a tear yesterday while viewing the television reports from Rafah: The barrier built by the IDF with blood and sweat along the Philadelphi Route, on the Gaza Strip border with Egypt, was coming down. » Read more

Silence Of The Lambs ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News by George S. Hishmeh - (Special Report) January 24, 2008 - 6:06pm Before it is dark and when there is no communication with the world," wrote Dr Eyad Sarraj, the prominent human rights advocate, from Gaza last Tuesday night, "I want to tell you that current Israeli policy of squeezing on has the aim of pushing Egypt to open its borders with Gaza and bring the situation to prior 1967." He went on: "Israel will then close its borders with Gaza, separate the (Gaza) Strip from the West Bank and destroy the peace proposals of one or two states. In short Israel is fulfilling the (Ariel) Sharon unilateral withdrawal strategy. » Read more