A Sort Of Peace In Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Time
by Andrew Lee Butters - October 22, 2007 - 10:57am

On Patrol in Shijaiyah, the toughest neighborhood in Gaza City, Lieut. Naim Ashraf Mushtaha, 31, an officer of the Hamas Executive Force, spots a man in civilian clothes carrying an M-16 assault rifle and walking through the street suqs in broad daylight. His officers quickly encircle the suspect and demand that he identify himself and turn over the weapon. The man turns out to be a member of one of the neighborhood's most powerful clans, and he refuses to give up his gun. "What's my name, boys?" he shouts to the gathering crowd of curious onlookers.

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Executive Summary And Recommendations
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from International Crisis Group
(Special Report) October 22, 2007 - 10:19am

Hamas’s takeover of Gaza and President Abbas’s dismissal of the national unity government and appointment of one led by Salam Fayyad amount to a watershed in the Palestinian national movement’s history. Some paint a positive picture, seeing the new government as one with which Israel can make peace. They hope that, with progress in the West Bank, stagnation in Gaza and growing pressure from ordinary Palestinians, a discredited Hamas will be forced out or forced to surrender. They are mistaken.

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Playstation Palestine
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Aluf Benn - (Opinion) October 22, 2007 - 10:12am

The good news is that something is stirring in the peace process. For the first time in seven years an Israeli prime minister declares that there are Palestinians to talk to - namely Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayad.

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Will Use 'non-military' Means To Attacks: Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Khaleej Times
October 19, 2007 - 8:32pm

Israel will use non-military means to respond to ongoing rocket attacks against it from the Gaza Strip, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said Tuesday, hinting at a plan for sanctions against civilian infrastructure in the salient such as limiting the flow of water and electricity. ‘We have means, means which are not only military,’ she told a joint news conference in Jerusalem with visiting French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner. ‘It is our duty to take these steps.’

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A Big Victory Against The Wall
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Counterpunch
by Uri Avnery - October 19, 2007 - 8:28pm

When my friends fall prey to despair, I show them a piece of painted concrete, which I bought in Berlin. It is one of the remnants of the Berlin wall, which are on sale in the city. I tell them that I intend, when the time comes, to apply for a franchise to sell pieces of the Separation Wall. Sometimes, when I give a lecture before a German audience, I ask: "How many of you believed, a week before the fall of the wall, that this would happen in their lifetime?" No one has ever raised their hand.

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Peace Virus Is Back
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Gadi Baltiansky - (Opinion) October 12, 2007 - 2:26pm

Lately, a new epidemic has been threatening to attack Israel’s public discourse. A peace conference, an agreement with the Palestinians, ceremonies with the US president – diseases from the past we thought we had already overcome. We got used to the comfortable life of no partner, no negotiations, and no hope; and suddenly, the peace virus is approaching again. The cure that was found for it is rather simple: A dismissive hand gesture; let that bothersome mosquito flies away from here.

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A Welcome Right-wing Leverage
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Aluf Benn - October 12, 2007 - 2:19pm

To his aides, Ariel Sharon would praise Uzi Landau, the leader of the Likud "rebels," who opposed the disengagement plan. Uzi has a historic role, Sharon explained: If the plan is implemented without encountering any resistance, the world will think such a move is easy and that Israel did not make enough concessions. For this reason internal opponents are important - they strengthen you outwardly.

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Where Is The Occupation?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
(Editorial) October 3, 2007 - 6:30pm

The occupied territories and the Palestinians living there are slowly becoming virtual realities, distant from the eye and the heart. Palestinian workers have disappeared from our streets. Israelis no longer enter Palestinian towns for shopping. There is a new generation on each side that does not know the other. Even the settlers no longer meet Palestinians because of the different road systems that distinguish between the two populations; one is free and mobile, the other stuck at the roadblocks.

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Dropping "muqawama"
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Terrorism.opendemocracy.net
by Maria Stephan - (Blog) October 3, 2007 - 6:07pm

With another international conference focused on resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict just around the corner - likely to take place in Washington in November - hopes rise for a negotiated breakthrough in this decades-long conflict. However, without a Palestinian strategy to apply steady pressure on Israel, the November talks are likely to produce a new "road map" to nowhere. The Palestinian Authority may be aware of this, as its recent call for a new form of struggle against the Israeli occupation suggests.

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Gaza's Deadly Guardians
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Times
September 30, 2007 - 12:00am

Hamas wants you to believe it has created a benevolent sanctuary where once chaos reigned. At the beginning of the journey into Gaza it’s easy to believe that things are better. There is no longer a Palestinian immigration desk after the long walk from the air-conditioned Erez terminal on the Israeli side, past concrete blast walls, and down a dusty track in the furnace heat. But further down the road, Hamas gunmen have taken over the checkpoints. They are polite and well turned out in blue camouflage trousers, clean black T-shirts, shiny black boots.

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