February 13th

Just Get Out, Now!
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Uzi Benziman - (Opinion) February 13, 2008 - 4:54pm

There's a saying that, if it's round, and green on the outside, red on the inside, has black seeds, and otherwise looks like a watermelon - it most probably is a watermelon. The same could be said about Shas, that if it looks like an opposition party, sounds like an opposition party, and behaves like an opposition party - that's a sign it is an opposition party.

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February 12th

In an Hareetz opinon, Uzi Benziman petitions Shas to leave the coalition (1). The Middle East Times reports on Arab League chief Amr Moussa’s dissatisfaction with the lack of progress in Isareli-Palestinian negotiations (3). Osama Al Sharif wonders when Hamas will decide whether it is a militant group or a functional government in an Arab News opinion (5). Israeli writer Amos Oz warns against an invasion of Gaza in a Ynetnews opinion (7). Reuters reports that Israel is seeking international backing for a Gaza campaign (11).

Palestinian Revenge Was Inevitable
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Ahmed Yousef - (Opinion) February 12, 2008 - 7:22pm

Last week's bombing in Dimona was the first martyrdom operation committed by Hamas in more than five years. For some time, we have been warning the world that the relentless pressure on our people would eventually tell. In the last two months, more than a hundred people have been killed by the Israeli occupation forces in the Gaza Strip, including many civilians, women and children.

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Israel Sees Hamas Gone From Gaza In Months
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
February 12, 2008 - 7:21pm

Israeli leaders vowed on Monday to step up their war against Hamas and predicted the Islamists' grip on the Gaza Strip would end within months. Two days after a rocket from the enclave wounded an Israeli child and prompted dramatic headlines, Defence Minister Ehud Barak pledged to step up the Israeli military campaign. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel was at "war" and his deputy, Vice Premier Haim Ramon, said he expected Hamas, which seized control in June, to be forced out within the year.

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Settlements, Gaza Cloud Israel-palestinian Talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Adam Entous - February 12, 2008 - 7:20pm

Israeli plans to build 1,100 new homes in and around Arab East Jerusalem came under fire on Tuesday from Palestinians who see the city as the capital of their future state, clouding already troubled peace talks. Israeli officials cited "progress" after negotiators met for the first time on two consecutive days. But comments from ministers threatening new attacks on the Gaza Strip and vowing to expand Jewish settlements angered Palestinian leaders.

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Tom Lantos' Israel-palestine Shift
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Talking Points Memo
by Steve Clemons - (Opinion) February 12, 2008 - 7:19pm

House Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Tom Lantos (D-CA) died today after a battle with cancer. Lantos was one of the Congress' last real characters of an age mostly gone in which eccentricity, a hybrid of vanity and humility, purpose, passion, and gentility packaged together was a winning path to leadership positions like the one he held for so long.

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Encountering Peace: The Way Forward
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Gershon Baskin - (Opinion) February 12, 2008 - 7:17pm

There is a very curious news black-out both in Israel and in Palestine regarding what President Bush read in the Olmert-Abbas joint statement in Annapolis: "We agree to engage in vigorous, ongoing and continuous negotiations and shall make every effort to conclude an agreement before the end of 2008." Are those negotiations taking place? We don't really know. Not only the politicians aren't talking, most of the media is not reporting, the international community is silent and I have even heard that Tony Blair has instructed members of his staff to keep quiet.

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Gaza, Stripped
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New Republic
by Dennis Ross - (Opinion) February 12, 2008 - 7:15pm

In the wake of Hamas blowing up the border fence between Egypt and Gaza the images of Palestinians from Gaza streaming across the border into Egypt were unsettling to the Israelis, Egyptians, Palestinian Authority, and Bush Administration. Only Hamas benefited from the images. In breaking down the wall sealing the Sinai from Gaza, Hamas seemed to liberate Palestinians besieged in Gaza and outmaneuvered all those trying to build pressure on it to change its behavior.

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Palestinian Questions Peace Progress
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
by Anne Gearan - February 12, 2008 - 7:15pm

The U.S.-backed Palestinian prime minister said Monday that time is running short to demonstrate progress in the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks President Bush launched to fanfare last fall. "Unless there is tangible progress in the period immediately ahead" on a list of pledges made by Israel, "I think, honestly, it would require that we begin to really call this for what it is," Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said. Fayyad did not write off the peace effort, but said there is good reason for skepticism.

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Palestinians Ask U.s. To Intervene In Suits Over Terrorist Attacks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Glenn Kessler - February 12, 2008 - 7:14pm

The State Department is considering supporting the Palestinian Authority in its quest to avoid paying hundreds of millions of dollars in judgments won by American victims of Palestinian terrorist attacks in Israel, according to Palestinian officials and defense lawyers involved in the cases.

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