Israel Scored a Tactical Victory
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Wall Street Journal
(Opinion) January 19, 2009 - 1:00am

Atop a little hill near the beleaguered Israeli town of Sderot, a gaggle of TV crews train their cameras on the Gaza Strip, sentinels to a unilateral Israeli cease-fire that's barely 12 hours old. Earlier the same day, Sunday, Hamas fired 20 rockets into Israel, raising questions about its intentions but causing little serious damage. Later, a pair of Israeli F-15s streak over Gaza City, releasing bursts of chaff but dropping no bombs.

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Think of Gaza as a prison – and all becomes clear
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Oren Yiftachel - (Opinion) January 15, 2009 - 1:00am

Let us start with the current sad irony: the invasion and destruction of Gaza is being carried out by an ousted Israeli government, and actively supported by a defeated US administration. Yet, the two outgoing governments are colluding against a democratically elected government of Palestine. Further, instead of sanctioning Israel for placing Gaza under siege for the last two years, and for occupying Palestine for the last four decades, the world has imposed sanctions on the Hamas government. Gazans are being punished twice: by occupation, and for their resistance.

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Battered by Israel, Hamas faces tough choice
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Rushdi Abu Alouf, Jeffrey Fleishman - January 12, 2009 - 1:00am

Hamas fighters are scattered in cells across the Gaza Strip, launching rockets, ambushing Israeli soldiers, and vanishing into tunnels and bunkers to escape airstrikes on a pummeled terrain of shattered buildings and bodies curled and crumpled in the streets.

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An Unnecessary War
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Jimmy Carter - (Opinion) January 8, 2009 - 1:00am

I know from personal involvement that the devastating invasion of Gaza by Israel could easily have been avoided.

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Birth Pangs of a New Palestine
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Middle East Report
by Mouin Rabbani - (Opinion) January 7, 2009 - 1:00am

Shortly after 11:30 am on December 27, 2008, at the height of the midday bustle on the first day of the Gazan week and with multitudes of schoolchildren returning home from the morning shift, close to 90 Israeli warplanes launched over 100 tons of explosives at some 100 targets throughout the 139 square miles of the Gaza Strip. Within minutes, the near simultaneous air raids killed more than 225 and wounded at least 700, more than 200 of them critically.

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Transcript: Stephen Hadley
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Wall Street Journal
by John D. McKinnon - (Interview) January 7, 2009 - 1:00am

The Journal's John McKinnon sat down with National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley at his office in the West Wing. They talked about the situation in Gaza, the U.S. relationship with Russia, Iraq and more in an interview previewing a valedictory speech Mr. Hadley plans to deliver Wednesday. Below is an edited transcript of the interview. * * * The Wall Street Journal: Talk a little about the challenges, as well as the opportunities, that the next administration is going to face.

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Humanity’s stake in Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
by Vaclav Havel, Hans Kung, Mike Moore, Yohei Sasakawa, Karel Schwarzenberg, El Hassan bin Talal, Desmond Tutu - (Opinion) January 2, 2009 - 1:00am

Wasted time is always to be regretted. But in the Middle East, wasting time is also dangerous. Another year has now passed with little progress in bridging the divide between Palestinians and Israelis. The current air strikes on Gaza, and continuing rocket attacks on Ashkelon, Sderot and other towns in southern Israel, only prove how dire the situation is becoming.

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Israel Versus Hamas: How to Shape a Ceasefire
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Time
by Tony Karon - December 31, 2008 - 1:00am

In the end, Israel and Hamas both know that there will be a cease-fire in Gaza. Its timing and terms will be "negotiated" in bombs and bloodshed in the days ahead; it will be mediated by a third party or a combination of third parties; and it will be shaped by a complex regional power game involving an array of competing Israeli politicians, the rival Palestinian leaderships of Hamas and President Mahmoud Abbas, Egypt, Syria and even more distant players such as Turkey, Iran and, of course, the United States.

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Gaza Protests Now Target Arab Leaders
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Wall Street Journal
by Farnaz Fassihi - December 30, 2008 - 1:00am

BEIRUT, Lebanon -- On the third day of Israel's attack on Gaza, street protesters across the Middle East broadened their rage toward Israel and the U.S. to include Arab rulers accused of not acting forcefully and fast enough to stop the violence.

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Israel Urged to Ease Pressure on Palestinian Banks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Wall Street Journal
by Bob Davis - December 15, 2008 - 1:00am

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and the heads of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank urged Israel's prime minister to ease Israeli pressure on the Palestinian banking system.

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