After the war, Gazans seek answers on white phosphorus
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Ilene Prusher - February 5, 2009 - 1:00am

When Nafiz Abu Shabam received a 5-year-old patient at the Shifa Hospital early in the war between Israel and Hamas, he dressed her burns and sent her for tests. Three hours later, when he and other medical staff redressed the wound, they saw smoke coming from it. "We found small pieces of foreign material in her body, and even when we picked it out, the wound was still smoking," he says. "We were later told [by foreign doctors and human rights workers who arrived after the war started] that it was white phosphorus."

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Much at stake for Egypt in Palestinian-Israel talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Jeffrey Fleishman - February 5, 2009 - 1:00am

Men with satchels and briefcases come and go, negotiating into the night, slipping away in the morning, attempting to make peace in a place where it seems hardest to find. An Egyptian spy with a wisp of a mustache and an array of tailored suits listens to them all: the Israelis and the moderate and radical Palestinians, including those from the militant group Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip. Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman has been working to cement a lasting truce between Hamas and Israel, and to bring reconciliation between rival Palestinian parties.

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Cairo talks end without Gaza deal
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Jazeera English
February 5, 2009 - 1:00am

The latest round of talks between Egypt and Hamas has ended in Cairo without a final agreement on a truce in Gaza. Egyptian officials had expressed hopes a deal would be signed on Thursday, but Hamas negotiators returned to Gaza and Damascus overnight with a number of issues still unresolved. Despite the setback, Hamas delegates are expected to return to Egypt on Saturday and officially accept an at least 12-month truce with Israel. Mohammed Nasr, a member of the Hamas delegation that travelled to Cairo, told Al Jazeera that some of the proposals discussed were "ambiguous".

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Israeli army says shelling of house where girls died was 'reasonable'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Rory McCarthy - February 5, 2009 - 1:00am

Israel's military last night admitted that one of its tanks killed three girls at their home in Gaza during last month's war in a case that shocked the Israeli public, but said the shelling was "reasonable." The Israeli military said two shells had hit the house of a Palestinian doctor, Izz el-Deen Abu el-Eish, on 16 January, killing his daughters. Moments after their death the Hebrew-speaking gynaecologist was interviewed by mobile phone live on an Israeli television channel, screaming with grief in an extraordinary scene.

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The Obama Administration and the Unavoidable Issue of Palestine
Policy Focus by ATFP - February 5, 2009 - 1:00am

Overview

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War crimes accusations rattle Israelm
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Joshua Mitnick - February 4, 2009 - 1:00am

Three-and-a-half years ago, Israeli reserve Gen. Doron Almog was forced to flee Britain just after landing in London. He had been tipped off about a surprise warrant for his arrest issued by a British magistrates court. The charge: war crimes. Now, as the recent Gaza war stirs up more accusations of offenses, the Jewish state and international human rights advocates are gearing up for more potential criminal cases against military officers and political leaders in Europe and possibly elsewhere.

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National security again to dominate Israeli elections
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Rory McCarthy - February 4, 2009 - 1:00am

Israeli Foreign Minister and Kadima party leader Tzipi Livni speaks at an election campaign rally in the southern city of Sderot. Photograph: David Buimovitch/AFP/Getty Images With less than a week to go before Israel holds elections, the rival candidates are locked in fierce debate not about whether the devastating war in Gaza went too far, but whether it went far enough.

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Abbas government announces $600 million Gaza aid project
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Ali Sawafta - February 4, 2009 - 1:00am

The government of Western-back Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced on Wednesday a $600 million reconstruction program for the war-battered Gaza Strip. Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, who heads Abbas's West Bank-based government, said the program would cover all Palestinian houses destroyed or damaged during Israel's 22-day military offensive in the Hamas-ruled enclave.

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War crimes accusations rattle Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Joshua Mitnick - February 4, 2009 - 1:00am

Three-and-a-half years ago, Israeli reserve Gen. Doron Almog was forced to flee Britain just after landing in London. He had been tipped off about a surprise warrant for his arrest issued by a British magistrates court. The charge: war crimes. Now, as the recent Gaza war stirs up more accusations of offenses, the Jewish state and international human rights advocates are gearing up for more potential criminal cases against military officers and political leaders in Europe and possibly elsewhere.

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Gaza War Created Rift Between Israel and Turkey
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ethan Bronner, Sabrina Tavernise - February 4, 2009 - 1:00am

The four daily flights to Tel Aviv are still running. The defense contract signed in December has not been scrapped. But since Israel’s war in Gaza, relations with Turkey, Israel’s closest Muslim ally, have become strained. Israel’s Arab allies stood behind it in the war, but Turkey, a NATO member whose mediating efforts last year brought Israel into indirect talks with Syria, protested every step of the way in a month of angry remarks capped when Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan stalked off the stage during a debate in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 29.

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