Abbas Sets Conditions For Gaza Talks With Hamas
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Alaa Shahine - January 31, 2008 - 6:00pm

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas rejected demands on Wednesday by Hamas rivals for control of the breached Gaza-Egypt border and told the Islamist group to "end its coup in Gaza." Hamas, which seized control of Gaza in June after routing Abbas's more secular Fatah forces, blasted open the Egyptian border last week in defiance of an Israeli-led blockade, letting Gazans pour into Egypt to stock up on goods.

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Eu Calls On Israel To Halt "illegal" Settlements
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Deutsche Presse Agentur
January 29, 2008 - 6:53pm

The European Union's foreign ministers called on Israel on Monday to halt all settlement activity in Palestinian areas, saying that it was illegal.   "The EU considers that settlement building anywhere in the occupied Palestinian Territories is illegal under international law. This includes Israeli settlements in both East Jerusalem and the West Bank," the ministers said in a joint statement.

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360 Days
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Israel Policy Forum
by M.J. Rosenberg - (Opinion) January 28, 2008 - 7:18pm

Reading about the Vietnam War, as I have been doing lately, is maddening. As President Lyndon B. Johnson makes fateful decisions that will ultimately leave 50,000 Americans dead and destroy his presidency, I almost want to shout out, “Stop! Are you blind? Can’t you see where this is leading?” But, of course, LBJ couldn’t see that.

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Israeli 'economic Warfare' To Include Electricity Cuts In Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Ellen Knickmeyer - January 28, 2008 - 7:13pm

Saying they were waging "economic warfare" against the Gaza Strip's Hamas leaders, Israeli officials told the Supreme Court on Sunday that the military intends to start cutting electricity to the Palestinian territory and continue restricting fuel. The statements by Israel's state attorney, outlining Defense Ministry plans, came in response to a lawsuit filed by Israeli and Palestinian rights groups.

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Naming Names From Gaza To Damascus And All The Way Through Lebanon!
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Raghidadergham.com
by Raghida Dergham - (Opinion) January 25, 2008 - 6:27pm

There are times when naming names becomes inevitable because any reluctance to do so, whether in the name of diplomacy, politics or any other consideration, may terribly discredit the hesitant party and hurt the victims of harmful maneuvering, be they innocent civilians in Palestine or an entire generation in Lebanon. There are times when entrusted mediators or self-proclaimed backchannels have to act according to their consciences under a moral and political responsibility that obliges them to name things as they are.

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Abu Mazen’s Conundrum
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Miftah
by Caelum Moffatt - January 25, 2008 - 6:24pm

Israel’s current siege of Gaza must be inflicting the Palestinian President, Abu Mazen, with a sharp pain to the temples. This ache, which has been intermittent since June 2007, is undoubtedly caused this time by the confusion over how to act in response to the newest demonstration of Israeli aggression. The 1.5 million people of Gaza, the president’s people, are caught up as innocent victims in a fray between Palestinian rockets from the coastal strip and Israeli air strikes.

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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.

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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.

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Deborah Orr: The Tragic Truth About Collective Punishment
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent
by Deborah Orr - (Opinion) January 23, 2008 - 8:44pm

I wish in no way to condone Israel's wantonly cruel policy of laying siege to Gaza, which it has been pursuing ever since it withdrew from the territory in 2004. But I must say that I do find it a bit rich, this proposition that suddenly and uniquely Israel has resorted to "collective punishment" of the Palestinians. The awful truth is that collective punishment of the Palestinians has been used as a weapon in the Arab-Israeli conflict ever since the inception of the Israeli state, in all sorts of ways, by all sides.

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Mideast: In Gaza, It's Darkness At Noon
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Inter Press Service (IPS)
by Mohammed Omer - January 23, 2008 - 8:37pm

It gets dark, and cold, and people are getting hungry. Israel closed border crossings Friday, not allowing even UN humanitarian aid trucks carrying basic food. Crossings have been closed frequently since October 2007. "On Wednesday or Thursday we will have to suspend our food distribution programme in Gaza," spokesman for the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) Christopher Gunness told IPS. "We are running out of fuel for vehicles."

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