Arabs turn on Egypt for collusion over siege
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Financial Times
by Heba Saleh - December 29, 2008 - 1:00am

Tens of thousands of Arabs took to the streets for the second day on Monday to protest against Israel’s deadly assault on Gaza as a huge wave of anger spreads across the Middle East. But it is not just the Jewish state that is being lambasted, as Egypt increasingly finds itself the target of people’s fury with accusations that Cairo has colluded with Israel in its siege.

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Abbas: We won't agree to Israeli invasion of Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Roee Nahmias - December 23, 2008 - 1:00am

"We won't agree to an Israeli invasion in Gaza or even an aerial attack," Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Tuesday during a joint press conference in Cairo with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. The Palestinian president said Egypt will push for a new truce between Israel and Hamas, which controls the Strip, and referred to the rocket fire on the Jewish state as "foolish". The six-month-old truce, mediated by Mubarak, expired last Friday. Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni is scheduled to come to Cairo Thursday for talks with Mubarak about a new truce.

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Gaza between Haniyeh and Barak
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Dar Al-Hayat
by Elias Harfoush - (Opinion) December 22, 2008 - 1:00am

Marwa Abu Shawab, a mother of five in the Jabalia camp, summarizes in her words the tragedy of Gaza's inhabitants, between Israel's aggressions and Hamas's policies. This lady, who lost two of her children in the clashes between the two sides, today says: "We want to live. If Hamas wishes to end the ceasefire and return to fighting, it at least has the obligation to protect us from Israel's counterattacks, which do not distinguish between fighters and civilians".

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Palestinians Prefer Abbas over Haniyeh
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Angus Reid Global Monitor
December 18, 2008 - 1:00am

Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas has lost support but remains the preferred choice to govern for many people in the Palestinian Territories, according to a poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research. 48 per cent of respondents would vote for Fatah leader Abbas in the next presidential election, down five points since August. Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh is second with 39 per cent. 14 per cent of respondents are undecided.

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Abbas to announce election date 'shortly'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Agence France Presse (AFP)
December 15, 2008 - 1:00am

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas will "shortly" announce a date for presidential and parliamentary elections, his spokesman said on Sunday. A general election is opposed by the Islamist Hamas movement which controls the Gaza Strip enclave, leaving the president's secular Fatah organisation in charge only of the West Bank region. "The president will shortly announce the date of presidential and parliamentary elections," Nabil abu Rudeina told AFP.

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Amira Hass returns to Gaza after a two-year absence
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Amira Hass - December 12, 2008 - 1:00am

The first thing that captures your eyes, after two years away, is a visual quiet. Gone are the flags of every color (including green) that once flew everywhere; the billboards commemorating shaheeds with their weapons, new ones popping up nearly every day; the large banners emblazoned with slogans. Yes, here and there you still come across a tattered flag or faded sign, old graffiti on the walls, or a smiling Arafat beaming down from a giant poster that no one took the trouble to remove, the colors dulled by time.

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Poll: If elections were held today, Fatah would win over Hamas
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Deutsche Presse Agentur (DPA)
December 11, 2008 - 1:00am

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' secular Fatah movement would beat the radical Islamic Hamas movement if elections were held today, according to a Palestinian public opinion poll published Thursday. Support for Hamas has nevertheless stabilized after months of decline, said the poll conducted by the Ramallah-based Palestinian Centre for Policy and Survey Research.

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Palestinians favour elections in 2009: poll
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Agence France Presse (AFP)
December 11, 2008 - 1:00am

Most Palestinians believe that Western-backed president Mahmud Abbas’s term ends in January and they support holding new elections next year, according to a poll released on Thursday. The same poll found that Abbas holds a 10-point lead over his rivals in the Islamist Hamas, which has said it will refuse to recognise him as president when his constitutionally mandated four-year term expires on January 9.

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'Abbas vows to continue peace talks no matter who is elected Israeli PM'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
December 11, 2008 - 1:00am

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has pledged to carry on peace negotiations with Israel regardless of who is elected prime minister in the upcoming elections, the A-Sharq al-Awsat daily reported on Thursday. Abbas told the paper that the domestic political crisis in Israel has hampered progress in the current talks. During the interview, the Fatah leader also attacked the rival Hamas movement for blocking Gaza residents with visas issued by the Palestinian Authority from making the pilgrimage to Mecca this month.

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Is an Israeli-Palestinian Confederation Feasible?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Middle East Times
by Rachelle Kliger - December 5, 2008 - 1:00am

JERUSALEM -- With time running out on the U.S. George W. Bush administration and without a settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian dispute having been reached, as was hoped, the idea of a Palestinian-Israeli confederation is gradually replacing that of a two-state solution. The notion has been floating around for several years now, in various forms. Josef Avesar, an Israeli-born attorney now based in California, is the founder of the Israeli Palestinian Confederation committee (IPC).

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