Obama envoy expected in Middle East next week
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from
by Adam Entous, Arshad Mohammed - January 25, 2009 - 1:00am

President Barack Obama plans to dispatch his Middle East envoy to the region next week, in a quick start to the new administration's efforts to revive Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking and shore up a shaky Gaza truce. Obama has taken the Middle East by surprise with the speed of his diplomatic activism. Western, Arab and Israeli diplomats said his envoy, former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell, plans to meet leaders in Egypt, Israel, the occupied West Bank and Jordan, but they ruled out direct contacts with Hamas Islamists who rule the Gaza Strip.

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Inching steadily better than stalemate
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
(Editorial) January 23, 2009 - 1:00am

US President Barack Obama signalled interest in finding a solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, made more imperative after the horrors of the just-ended Israeli war on Gaza. Obama called four Middle East leaders on his first day in office; choosing His Majesty King Abdullah, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas as his interlocutors on the Palestinian issue, Obama may have wished to show that he is siding with the voices of moderation in the region, not with the so-called rejectionists.

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Gaza: Humanitarian situation
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
January 22, 2009 - 1:00am

Gaza: Humanitarian situation Aid agencies are battling to meet the urgent needs of tens and thousands of displaced, homeless and injured people in Gaza, as well as to get damaged water, power and sewage infrastructure back even to their ailing pre-war levels. That stage alone will cost "hundreds of millions" of dollars, while long term reconstruction will run into "billions," the UN has said. Two separate Palestinian surveys have put the cost of the damage just under $2bn.

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Gaza smugglers get back to work
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC World News
January 22, 2009 - 1:00am

Hundreds of Palestinians are starting to repair tunnels in Gaza that are used for smuggling in goods from Egypt. Israel, which ended its 22-day offensive last Sunday, has warned of renewed military strikes on the strip if the tunnels are reopened. Residents along the border say food, fuel and other goods are moving through the several dozen tunnels that are still operational. Meanwhile, attempts continued in Egypt to find a lasting truce. The talks, with an Israeli envoy Amos Gilad, were expected to focus on stemming arms smuggling across the border. 'Hamas trying to rearm'

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After Gaza war, Israel sees Hamas prisoner swap
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Dan Williams - January 22, 2009 - 1:00am

After pummeling Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Israel now hopes to push through a prisoner swap to retrieve a soldier held by the Palestinians since 2006, Israeli officials said on Thursday. They said Israel was conditioning any lifting of its Gaza blockade on immediate progress in Egyptian efforts to free Gilad Shalit, and would be willing to relax its objections to a list of Palestinian prisoners which Hamas wants released in exchange.

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Israel Slows Withdrawal From Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ethan Bronner - January 21, 2009 - 1:00am

Israel slowed its withdrawal of forces from Gaza on Tuesday as the two-day cease-fire with Hamas suffered its first violations. Israeli troops twice came under fire, and eight mortar shells were shot at Israel, all falling short. Israel responded with airstrikes on launching sites. Thousands of Palestinians supported Hamas at four rallies here while the United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, visited to express support for those who had suffered in the war. An Arab meeting in Kuwait aimed at helping Gaza ended in disarray.

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Gaza operation weakens Palestinian Authority
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Richard Boudreaux - January 20, 2009 - 1:00am

With Israel and Hamas both claiming victory in the Gaza Strip, there is one clear loser: the U.S.-backed Palestinian Authority, which desperately wants a peace accord with Israel and a unified Palestine in Gaza and the West Bank. Israel's 22-day assault on Hamas-ruled Gaza made the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority look ineffective and marginalized, unable to stop the carnage. Popular support for its peace talks with Israel, already declining, now seems weaker than ever.

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Israel Begins Pullout; Gazans Survey Debris
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Jonathan Finer, Craig Whitlock - January 19, 2009 - 1:00am

Israeli soldiers flashed the victory sign Sunday as they began withdrawing from the Gaza Strip. Shellshocked Palestinians emerged from shelters and counted their dead. But as a tenuous cease-fire took hold, few people on either side predicted an end to the cycle of violence that has endured for generations. The 22-day war ended without surrender. Neither Israel nor Hamas, the Islamist movement that controls Gaza, made any concessions, except to stop fighting temporarily.

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Haniyeh: Hamas won Gaza war, but was wise to declare truce
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Avi Issacharoff - January 19, 2009 - 1:00am

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said on Sunday that Israel's three-week offensive in the Gaza Strip was a failure and had not cowed the Palestinians, but praised his movement for deciding to declare a cease-fire. "The enemy has failed to achieve its goals," Ismail Haniyeh, the top Hamas leader in the territory, said in a speech broadcast on Hamas television. Though he called the war, in which more than 1,300 Gazans and 13 Israelis died, a "popular victory" for Palestinians, Haniyeh said Hamas's decision to declare a truce on Sunday was "wise and responsible".

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Israel preparing for Iran bid to rearm Hamas in Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Amos Harel, Avi Issacharoff - (Analysis) January 19, 2009 - 1:00am

A long column of Israel Defense Forces infantrymen on Sunday morning made its way back to Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip. The soldiers marched about 10 kilometers, along the same route that they had taken in the opposite direction during the warfare over the past two weeks. A number of the officers remembered a similar march that took place in August 2006, from southwest Lebanon back to Israel.

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