January 19th

Haniyeh: Hamas won Gaza war, but was wise to declare truce
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Avi Issacharoff - January 19, 2009 - 1:00am

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said on Sunday that Israel's three-week offensive in the Gaza Strip was a failure and had not cowed the Palestinians, but praised his movement for deciding to declare a cease-fire. "The enemy has failed to achieve its goals," Ismail Haniyeh, the top Hamas leader in the territory, said in a speech broadcast on Hamas television. Though he called the war, in which more than 1,300 Gazans and 13 Israelis died, a "popular victory" for Palestinians, Haniyeh said Hamas's decision to declare a truce on Sunday was "wise and responsible".

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Gaza: so what really happened?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent
by Anne Penketh - (Analysis) January 19, 2009 - 1:00am

It started with "shock and awe" at 7.30pm on 27 December as flares lit up the skies and 100 tons of bombs rained down on the Gaza Strip in the space of 24 hours. Israel declared it was time to put an end to the Hamas rockets terrorising its people, as the world's leaders enjoyed a Christmas break. It ended with a fragile ceasefire shored up by the international community after a three-week military campaign that resulted in the deaths of 1,300 Palestinians and 13 Israelis - and calls for an investigation into alleged Israeli war crimes.

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Parsing Gains of Gaza War
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ethan Bronner - (Analysis) January 19, 2009 - 1:00am

The Parliament building here has been reduced to rubble. The five-story engineering department of the Islamic University is a pile of folded concrete. Police stations, mosques and hundreds of homes have been blown away.

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Israel Begins Pullout; Gazans Survey Debris
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Jonathan Finer, Craig Whitlock - January 19, 2009 - 1:00am

Israeli soldiers flashed the victory sign Sunday as they began withdrawing from the Gaza Strip. Shellshocked Palestinians emerged from shelters and counted their dead. But as a tenuous cease-fire took hold, few people on either side predicted an end to the cycle of violence that has endured for generations. The 22-day war ended without surrender. Neither Israel nor Hamas, the Islamist movement that controls Gaza, made any concessions, except to stop fighting temporarily.

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Palestinians mourn Gaza dead, gape at destruction
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Nidal Al-Mughrabi - January 19, 2009 - 1:00am

Mourning tents dotted the Gaza Strip on Monday as Palestinians gathered to remember loved ones among the 1,300 people killed by Israeli forces. Saber Jnaid said his son, a Hamas fighter, had been killed 12 days ago during Israel's 22-day onslaught on the Islamist militant group. He could not formally receive condolences until fighting stopped on Sunday and Israeli forces pulled back. "May God make the Islamic resistance stronger," the grey-bearded father told Reuters as he sat with relatives. "I have 10 more sons and I hope all of them die as martyrs."

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Both Hamas and Israel claim victory following 22 days of death and destruction
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Australian
by John Lyons - January 20, 2009 - 1:00am

ISRAELI troops began withdrawing from the Gaza Strip yesterday as both sides agreed to a ceasefire and both sides claimed victory in the 22-day conflict. No air strikes, rockets or major clashes were reported in the territory, giving Gazans their first night of complete peace since the start of Israel's massive assault on Hamas in their stronghold on December 27. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel wanted to leave "as fast as possible", while Hamas claimed it had defeated Israel in "a heavenly victory".

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January 16th

Talks appear on the brink of achieving a cease-fire in Gaza (1), (2), (3), (4). A senior Hamas leader is killed by Israel, which is also accused of attacking UNRWA headquarters with phosphorous munitions (5), (6). The Chief Rabbi of Safed makes genocidal remarks calling the Palestinians “Amalek,” a people who must be exterminated (7). Reports examine Israel’s war aims, and the reaction of the incoming Obama administration and Arab governments (9), (10), (11). Jim Hoagland looks at Egypt’s controversial stance, while both Arab and Israeli commentators ask what the future holds for Hamas (12), 13), (14).

Would a weak Hamas or no Hamas be better in Gaza?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Amos Harel, Avi Issacharoff - January 16, 2009 - 1:00am

In a series of blows during the past 24 hours, the most severe since the Israel Defense Forces operation began in the Gaza Strip 20 days ago, Hamas was brought very close to surrender. It is unlikely that we will see white flags, because the group recognizes that this would have a devastating effect on its image. But the Israeli military pressure has destroyed most of the Palestinian defenses in the heart of Gaza City, a day after the group had to agree in principle to the Egyptian proposal for a cease-fire a deal it is not very happy with.

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Hamas's Wars Are Greater than Itself
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Dar Al-Hayat
by Hassan Haidar - January 15, 2009 - 1:00am

Hamas is waging three wars at the same time, all deeply intertwined. Each of these wars requires top-notch military and political capabilities, advanced organizational abilities and suitable objective circumstances, all of which are neither present in nor available to the Hamas movement. Nevertheless, it insists on completing its struggle on all three fronts, in a manner that resembles suicide, which does not disagree with its ideology.

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Cairo's Bargain
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Jim Hoagland - January 16, 2009 - 1:00am

CAIRO -- The besieged Palestinians of Gaza matter to the people of Egypt. But peace with Israel has come to matter more. That outcome was not certain when Jimmy Carter, Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat negotiated the Camp David peace treaty nearly 30 years ago. I remember labeling the accord "fragile" on the day it was born. It contained nothing tangible for the Palestinians or other Arabs -- not even for Syria, Egypt's partner in the 1973 Arab-Israeli war.

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