February 26th

Gaza's Christians Fear The Future
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Middle East Times
by Mel Frykberg - February 26, 2008 - 7:01pm

Fourteen masked gunmen burst into Gaza City's YMCA library last week, overpowered two guards and laid explosive charges. One of the bombs later exploded, engulfing the building in fire, destroying most of the library's 10,000 books, which were used mostly by high-school and university students. The other explosive charge was later safely defused by police while the guards were released unharmed in the north of the Gaza Strip.

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Israeli Pm Seeks To Reach Agreement With Palestine
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
February 26, 2008 - 7:00pm

Tokyo: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Tuesday he would make every effort to reach an agreement with Palestinians that would lead to a two-state solution resolving decades-old conflict. "In these days we are making exceptional efforts to conclude all differences with our neighbours and to resolve outstanding disputes with our Palestinian neighbours," Olmert told a business conference in Tokyo, where he is making his first visit as Prime Minister.

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' Financing Secured To Hook Gaza To Egypt's Electricity Grid '
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
February 26, 2008 - 6:58pm

The Palestinian government plans to connect more areas of the Gaza Strip to the Egyptian electricity grid, the head of the Palestinian Energy Authority said Tuesday, a move that would reduce the area's reliance on Israel for power. The proposal also would bolster Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' claim to represent Gaza, which was taken over last June by the Hamas militant group after routing Abbas' forces. Abbas now rules from the West Bank and wields little control over Gaza.  

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Un: Israel, Pa, Egypt Must Find New Strategy To End Gaza Crisis
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Deutsche Presse Agentur
February 26, 2008 - 6:54pm

The United Nations urged Israel, the Palestinian Authority and Egypt on Tuesday to develop a new strategy aimed at ending the conflict and humanitarian crisis in Gaza Strip. Quartet members and parties in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have been told by the UN to actively pursue a "positive strategy" to end rocket firing and suicide attacks against Israel and meet Gazans' humanitarian needs, the UN special envoy for the Middle East peace process, Robert Serry, told the UN Security Council in a public meeting.

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Israel Faces Threat Of War In Gaza, Official Says
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Baltimore Sun
by David Wood - February 26, 2008 - 6:53pm

srael faces a growing potential of a devastating war in Gaza like the 2006 conflict in southern Lebanon that killed hundreds and wrecked large parts of the region, a senior Israeli official said today. Sallai Meridor, Israel's ambassador to the United States, said the extremist group Hamas is importing longer-range missiles, anti-tank weapons, mines and other weapons into Gaza through the border with Egypt.

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Gazans Demonstrate At Border Against Israeli Blockade
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Isabel Kershner - February 26, 2008 - 6:53pm

Several thousand Palestinians, many of them schoolchildren bused in from their classes, joined peaceful protests in the Gaza Strip along sections of the border with Israel for several hours on Monday, forming human chains in some locations as part of a public campaign against the Israeli blockade.

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February 25th

The Baltimore Sun reports that Israel may be faced with the threat of war in gaza (2). In the DPA the UN calls for Israel, PA and Egypt to find a new strategy to alleviate the gaza crisis (3). Akram Baker examines which US Presidential candidate can offer ‘fresh eyes’ towards the middle in a Daily Star opinion (6). Barak Ravid reports in Haaretz that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is unsure that a peace deal with the PA is possible in 2008 (10)..

Obama`s Top Adviser Says Does Not Believe In Imposing A Peace Settlement
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Shmuel Rosner - (Opinion) February 25, 2008 - 7:30pm

The knock at the door of her hotel room on Friday halts the conversation for a moment. No big deal, just to check whether Samantha Power drank from the minibar. Is she that troubled? Power responds with a brief laugh. The minibar remains sealed. That does not mean that the attacks do not bother her. In the course of the 50-minute conversation she leaves no stone unturned.

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Israel Sees Progress In Peace Talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al Jazeera English
February 25, 2008 - 7:29pm

Israeli and Palestinian negotiators have agreed to build teams of government experts in an effort to boost peace talks, according to an Israeli official.   The teams will examine issues including security, trade and water use, Arye Mekel, Israel's foreign ministry spokesman, said on Sunday. bodyVariable350="Htmlphcontrol1_lblError";  

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Hamas's Illegitimacy
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
(Editorial) February 25, 2008 - 7:28pm

Politicians, ex-intelligence chiefs and men of letters are among the swelling - if still relatively marginal - chorus of those advocating direct contacts with Hamas as an antidote to the daily Kassam attacks on Sderot and its western Negev surroundings. Only an accommodation with those who hold sway in Gaza, they argue, can restore a modicum of serenity to the suffering south.

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