January 7th

Unintended Consequences Pose Risks for Mideast Policy
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Glenn Kessler - January 7, 2009 - 1:00am

President-elect Barack Obama will inherit a perilous situation in the Middle East, with Israel under increasing pressure to halt its ground invasion of the Gaza Strip, key Arab leaders close to the United States greatly weakened and the Hamas militant group earning resurgent popularity in the region. After days of studied silence on the Gaza conflict, Obama promised yesterday "to hit the ground running" on achieving a broad Middle East peace deal.

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For Battered Gazans, Few Places Left to Hide
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Reyham Abdel Kareem, Sudarsan Raghavan - January 7, 2009 - 1:00am

It was shortly after noon Tuesday when Intisar Sultan walked through the clusters of dirty children and fatigued adults, leaving behind a U.N. school that had been turned into a refuge for families hoping to escape the fighting around them. She walked out its doors without her son, Abdullah, 19, who had died along with two cousins hours earlier in an Israeli airstrike that hit the school in Gaza City. They had been returning to bed from the bathroom.

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Israel Puts Media Clamp on Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ethan Bronner - January 6, 2009 - 1:00am

Three times in recent days, a small group of foreign correspondents was told to appear at the border crossing to Gaza. The reporters were to be permitted in to cover firsthand the Israeli war on Hamas in keeping with a Supreme Court ruling against the two-month-old Israeli ban on foreign journalists entering Gaza. Each time, they were turned back on security grounds, even as relief workers and other foreign citizens were permitted to cross the border. On Tuesday the reporters were told to not even bother going to the border.

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Abbas Appeals at UN for End of Israeli ‘Genocide’ in Gaza Strip
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bloomberg
by Bill Varner - January 6, 2009 - 1:00am

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said Israel’s attack on the Gaza Strip is “genocide” and appealed for urgent action by the United Nations Security Council to stop the 11-day assault. “The entire world opinion will accept no less than an urgent intervention by the Security Council to stop the fighting and deter the aggressor,” Abbas said at the UN in New York late today. “This is the message I am bearing.”

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Israel defers vote on expanding Gaza ground op amid growing truce bids
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Barak Ravid - January 7, 2009 - 1:00am

Israel's security cabinet on Wednesday postponed a vote on whether to expand the Israel Defense Forces 12-day-old offensive in the Gaza Strip, political sources said. The sources said ministers discussed whether to implement the "third stage" of an operation launched on Dec. 27 but decided to defer the decision on whether to approve it to an undisclosed date. Israel's political leadership gathered in Tel Aviv on Wednesday morning to discuss widening the ground offensive in the Gaza Strip at a time when most of the aims of the operation have been met.

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UN rejects IDF claim Gaza militants operated from bombed-out school
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Akiva Eldar, Amos Harel, Amira Hass, Avi Issacharoff, Anshel Pfeffer - January 7, 2009 - 1:00am

The United Nations on Wednesday denied Israel Defense Forces claims that there were Palestinian militants in the Gaza school bombed by Israel on Tuesday. Christopher Gunness of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) said the organization is 99.9 percent certain there were no militants or military activity in its school. That does not necessarily contradict Israel's claim that the militants were operating close by, Gunness said.

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Sarkozy says Israel accepts Gaza truce plan
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
January 7, 2009 - 1:00am

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Wednesday Israel and the Palestinian Authority had accepted a truce plan for Gaza announced by Egypt on Tuesday. "The president is delighted by the acceptance by Israel and the Palestinian Authority of the Franco-Egyptian plan presented last night in Sharm el-Sheikh by (Egyptian) President (Hosni) Mubarak," said a statement from Sarkozy's office. "The head of state calls for this plan to be implemented as quickly as possible for the suffering of the population to stop."


January 6th

Mideast political conundrum: Settlement expansion is a threat to peace negotiations
In Print by Ziad Asali - The Washington Times (Opinion) - January 6, 2009 - 1:00am

The renewed violence between Israel and Hamas, in which 1.5 million innocent Palestinians are caught, is yet another definitive demonstration that there is no military solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israel will not be able to secure its future, normalize its relations with the region and live in peace without an agreement with the Palestinians; Palestinians will not achieve liberation and independence without an agreement with Israel.

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ATFP Condemns Israeli Attack Near UN School in Gaza
Press Release - Contact Information: Hussein Ibish - January 6, 2009 - 1:00am

Washington, DC, Jan. 6 -- The American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP) today condemned an Israeli military attack near a UN school in Gaza in which at least 30 Palestinian civilians were reportedly killed and many more injured. ATFP reiterated its Dec. 27 and Jan. 3 calls for a cease-fire between all parties, and its deep concern for the well-being of the innocent civilian population in Gaza.


An op-ed in The Washington Times by ATFP President Dr. Ziad Asali examines how continued settlement expansion threatens prospects for peace (1). Fighting continues on the ground in Gaza as Israel expands its offensive, while Israeli tanks attack a UN school, killing forty-two (2) (3) (8) (9). In a transcript of a CNN interview, Dr. Asali addresses the current crisis (4). A pair of opinion pieces discuss the role of Hezbollah in the conflict (5) (6). An editorial in the Los Angeles Times urges the international community to intervene in support of a cease-fire (7). International envoy Tony Blair sees the closure of Hamas’ underground tunnels as the key to attaining a cease fire (10). United States Congressman David Price stresses the importance of diplomacy in an op-ed for the Charlotte Observer (14).

American Task Force on Palestine - 1634 Eye St. NW, Suite 725, Washington DC 20006 - Telephone: 202-262-0017