Mideast: In Gaza, It's Darkness At Noon
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Inter Press Service (IPS)
by Mohammed Omer - January 23, 2008 - 8:37pm

It gets dark, and cold, and people are getting hungry. Israel closed border crossings Friday, not allowing even UN humanitarian aid trucks carrying basic food. Crossings have been closed frequently since October 2007. "On Wednesday or Thursday we will have to suspend our food distribution programme in Gaza," spokesman for the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) Christopher Gunness told IPS. "We are running out of fuel for vehicles."

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Israel Fears Int'l Pressure To Hand Over Gaza Borders To Pa Control
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Barak Ravid - January 22, 2008 - 7:15pm

There is growing concern in Israel that the recent tightening of sanctions against the Gaza Strip will result in international pressure to transfer control of the border crossings into the Strip to the Palestinian Authority.

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Gazans Fear Crisis After Four Days Of Blockade
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Ellen Knickmeyer - January 22, 2008 - 6:59pm

Four days into an Israeli blockade that has cut off food and fuel to the Gaza Strip, residents of the strip contemplated Monday how long it would be until disaster hit. One family of 13, shivering in the cold, counted its eight remaining candles. A bakery that normally feeds thousands had three days' worth of flour. Hospital generators with enough fuel for three days and no spare parts powered incubators in which twin boys born 2 1/2 months prematurely were being kept alive, their thin chests heaving convulsively.

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ATFP calls for ceasefire in Gaza, lifting of siege
Press Release - Contact Information: Hussein Ibish - January 21, 2008 - 1:00am

Washington, DC, Jan. 22 – The American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP) today called for an urgent ceasefire between Israel and militia groups based in the Gaza Strip, and an end to measures that threaten to impose a humanitarian crisis on the population in Gaza. In particular, ATFP called for an immediate end to the latest moves by the government of Israel including cutting of fuel supplies for Gaza's only electricity plant, and other restrictions threatening international aid supplies of food and medicine.


Israel Closes Vital Gaza Crossings
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
by Ibrahim Barzak - January 18, 2008 - 6:26pm

Israel sealed all border crossings with the Gaza Strip on Friday, cutting the flow of vital supplies in an attempt to stop Palestinian rocket attacks on Israeli border towns. But the rockets kept flying and Israel hit back with airstrikes against a rocket squad, a Hamas government building and a Hamas militia base, killing one militant and two civilians, Hamas said. U.N. officials warned that the Israeli closure of the Gaza crossings would increase hardship in the impoverished territory of 1.4 million Palestinians.

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Down Payment On A State
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Israel Policy Forum
by Sadie Goldman With Jason Proetorius And Ipf Staff - January 3, 2008 - 5:23pm

Every Israeli-Palestinian negotiating process comes with a price tag. The current process, which was re-launched in Annapolis, Maryland, and continued at the Paris Donor’s conference, is no exception.  It was in Paris that donors examined Prime Minister Salam Fayyad’s three-year reform plan and then pledged 7.4 billion dollars to help implement it.

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Israeli Operations In Gaza Meet Little Resistance In Washington
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Nathan Guttman - December 20, 2007 - 4:46pm

As Israel stepped up air attacks on Gaza this week, the Bush administration refrained from blocking any measures or criticizing Israel’s activity. The Israeli Air Force last week renewed the practice known as “targeted killing” against members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group in Gaza. Israeli officials have said in recent weeks that if rocket fire against Israeli towns is not stopped, further escalation might be imminent, including a full-scale ground incursion into the Hamas-controlled strip.

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Vol. 9, Issue 15
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Americans For Peace Now
by Middle East Peace Report - December 19, 2007 - 3:39pm

THE LEFT BANK: Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayad is expected to ask donor states at a conference in Paris today to pledge $5.6 billion over three years in financial assistance to help build the future Palestinian state. The Paris conference is the first forum for international states to make pledges to assist the Palestinian Authority since 1996.

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The Military Option Failed
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
(Editorial) December 17, 2007 - 1:26pm

The rain of Qassam rockets on Sderot and other communities in the western Negev has developed into a dangerous routine. This is not just because of the harm to people and property, but because of the growing feeling that Israel sees this strip of land's fate as sealed. To repel this feeling, and especially the accusation that the state is doing nothing to defend its citizens, the Israel Defense Forces and government are disseminating a counterthreat. For weeks, they have been saying that a major assault on Gaza is nearing - a huge blow that will end the Qassam plague once and for all.

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Sealed Off By Israel, Gaza Reduced To Beggary
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Scott Wilson - December 17, 2007 - 1:16pm

The batteries are the size of a button on a man's shirt, small silvery dots that power hearing aids for several hundred Palestinian students taught by the Atfaluna Society for Deaf Children in Gaza City. Now the batteries, marketed by Radio Shack, are all but used up. The few that are left are losing power, turning voices into unintelligible echoes in the ears of Hala Abu Saif's 20 first-grade students.

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