Gaza Blockade Collective Punishment Says Hrw
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Palestine Chronicle
(Editorial) February 5, 2008 - 7:27pm

Israel's crippling blockade of the Gaza Strip is a collective punishment of the 1.5 million population of the small, overcrowded territory, Human Rights Watch said in its annual report on Thursday, January 31. "The Israeli and Western economic embargo of Gaza, Israel's almost total closure of Gaza's border crossings, ongoing lawlessness in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, and heightened Israeli restrictions on freedom of movement in the West Bank contributed to a serious human rights and humanitarian crisis," said the report cited by Agence France-Presse (AFP).

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Obama's Israel Shuffle
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Mother Jones
by Justin Elliott - (Opinion) February 4, 2008 - 7:49pm

Last week, when Barack Obama became the first major candidate to break the silence on the situation in Gaza, he didn't criticize Israel, whose blockade of a civilian population has been roundly condemned by human rights organizations, nor did he call for restraint from the United States' top ally in the Mideast. Instead, he fired off a letter to U.N. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad with a resounding message—one that could have been mistaken for words straight from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee's (AIPAC) website.

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Israeli Defense Minister To Stay In Olmert Coalition
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Isabel Kershner - February 4, 2008 - 7:44pm

Ehud Barak, Israel’s defense minister and the leader of the Labor Party, announced Sunday that he would remain in the government, stabilizing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s coalition despite last week’s harsh report on the political and military leaders’ handling of the Lebanon war in 2006.

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Egypt Issues Ultimatum To Pa, Hamas
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Khaled Abu Toameh - February 1, 2008 - 6:38pm

Egypt has threatened to close its border with the Gaza Strip indefinitely unless the Palestinian Authority and Hamas reach an agreement on controlling the Rafah border crossing, Palestinian sources in Ramallah said Wednesday. The threat came as PA and Hamas representatives arrived in Cairo Wednesday for talks with Egyptian leaders on ways of ending the crisis along the Gaza-Egypt border. The PA delegation, headed by Mahmoud Abbas, held talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and other senior government officials in Cairo.

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No Progress On Gaza Border Breach
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Jeffrey Fleishman - January 31, 2008 - 6:01pm

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday underscored the complexity of resolving the Gaza Strip crisis when he insisted anew that his administration alone should be responsible for the coastal enclave's border crossings. Speaking to reporters after meeting here with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Abbas said he would not negotiate with Hamas, the militant party that controls the Gaza Strip, to end a security breach that has allowed more than 500,000 Palestinians to cross into Egypt through the Rafah post in the last week.

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Gaza Crisis Talks Start, Hamas Seeks Say Over Border
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Alaa Shahine - January 30, 2008 - 5:40pm

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas began crisis talks with Egypt on Wednesday about restoring order at the breached Gaza border, facing a challenge from his Hamas rivals for control of the frontier. Hamas Islamists, who seized control of Gaza in June after routing Abbas's secular Fatah forces, blasted open the Egyptian border last week in defiance of an Israeli blockade, letting Gazans pour into Egypt to stock up on goods in short supply.

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Border Control / Olmert's Man In Ramallah
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Akiva Eldar - January 29, 2008 - 6:59pm

Prime Minster Ehud Olmert wouldn't have had to ask twice: The barest of winks, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) would have sent every journalist in Israel a petition calling to keep the prime minister where he is. For good reason. People in Ramallah read the public opinion polls published in those papers, too.

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Short Term Gain For Hamas, Long Term Gain For Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Ghassan Khatib - January 29, 2008 - 6:57pm

The dramatic recent developments on the Palestinian-Egyptian border are direct and predictable results of the internationally supported Israeli siege on Gaza. It should have been expected that the mounting pressure on Gaza would cause a popular explosion. The Egyptian border was the weakest link in the prison wall, since all other escape routes, including the sea, are blocked by Israel.

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Israel Won't Resist Abbas Control At Egypt Crossing
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Adam Entous - January 29, 2008 - 5:59pm

Israel will not stand in the way of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas taking control of Gaza's breached border with Egypt as part of a deal to sideline Hamas Islamists who rule the enclave, officials said on Tuesday. But it is unclear how Abbas, the Fatah leader, would be able to assert control over the crossing with Egypt given opposition from Hamas, which seized the coastal territory in June and blasted open the Egyptian border wall last week in defiance of an Israeli-led blockade.

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Egypt Presses For Abbas To Control Border
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Steven Erlanger - January 29, 2008 - 5:59pm

Egypt said Monday that it preferred that the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, take control of the breached border between Gaza and Egypt, seeming to exclude Hamas, the Islamist group that took control of Gaza from Mr. Abbas in June.

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