January 5th, 2009

Israel Strikes Before an Ally Departs
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Scott Shane - January 4, 2009 - 1:00am

For nine days, as European and United Nations officials have called urgently for a cease-fire in Gaza, the Bush administration has squarely blamed the rocket attacks of the Palestinian militant group Hamas for Israel’s assault, maintaining to the end its eight-year record of stalwart support for Israel. Mr. Bush, in his weekly radio address on Saturday, said the United States did not want a “one-way cease-fire” that allowed Hamas to keep up its rocket fire, and Vice President Dick Cheney on Sunday echoed the point, declaring that only a “sustainable, durable” peace would be acceptable.

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How much time is left for the IDF to operate in Gaza?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Amos Harel, Avi Issacharoff - January 5, 2009 - 1:00am

The eastern outskirts of Gaza City was where the Israel Defense Forces encountered the most serious resistance yet since the Gaza ground incursion began Saturday. Troops who raided the home of a Hamas man in the area Sunday discovered that the house served as cover for the entrance of no fewer than three underground tunnels, from which Hamas gunmen fled to nearby houses and fired.

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Gaza conflict: Who is a civilian?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
by Heather Sharp - January 5, 2009 - 1:00am

The bloodied children are clearly civilians; men killed as they launch rockets are undisputedly not. But what about the 40 or so young Hamas police recruits on parade who died in the first wave of Israel's bombing campaign in Gaza? And weapons caches are clearly military sites – but what about the interior ministry, hit in a strike that killed two medical workers; or the money changer's office, destroyed last week injuring a boy living on the floor above?

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Wounded Gaza family lay bleeding for 20 hours
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Amira Hass - January 5, 2009 - 1:00am

Three hours after the Israel Defense Forces began their ground operation in the Gaza Strip, at about 10:30 P.M. Saturday night, a shell or missile hit the house owned by Hussein al A'aiedy and his brothers. Twenty-one people live in the isolated house, located in an agricultural area east of Gaza City's Zeitoun neighborhood. Five of them were wounded in the strike: Two women in their eighties (his mother and aunt), his 14-year-old son, his 13-year-old niece and his 10-year-old nephew.

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Gaza City residents hunker down
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Rushdi Abu Alouf, Richard Boudreaux - January 5, 2009 - 1:00am

Reporting from Gaza City and Jerusalem -- As Israeli forces closed in on Gaza City, Mohammed Barbari joined the scramble by its most intrepid residents Sunday for dwindling supplies of food they would need while hunkering down at home. The first explosion tore through the central Firas Market at 11:30 a.m. as he approached from adjacent Palestine Square. Unable to turn his yellow Volkswagen Golf around in traffic, he kept driving toward the hail of shrapnel and the screams of scattering shoppers.

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For Trapped Gazans, Few Options for Safety
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Reyham Abdel Kareem, Craig Whitlock - January 5, 2009 - 1:00am

As Israeli forces attacked Gaza by land, sea and air, residents living in the congested coastal strip faced a fateful question: Flee the shelling and shooting, or hole up inside their homes and hope for the best? The five-member al-Jarou family decided to make a break for it around midday Sunday. They abandoned their home in the Shaaf neighborhood east of Gaza City and dashed by car to a relative's house a mile and a half away, thinking it would be safer, according to interviews with family members and neighbors.

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Hamas 'to attend' Cairo truce talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Jazeera English
January 5, 2009 - 1:00am

Palestinian group Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip, has announced it will send a delegation to Egypt for ceasefire negotiations as diplomatic efforts to end the fighting in Gaza intensified. Ayman Taha, a Hamas official told the Reuters news agency on Monday that a group would head to Cairo "answering an Egyptian invitation to hold discussions". Taha did not say whether the delegation would include Hamas members from Gaza or exiled leaders.

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Israel tightens grip on Gaza, fights off ceasefire pressure
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Agence France Presse (AFP)
January 5, 2009 - 1:00am

GAZA CITY (AFP) — Israeli warplanes carried out intensive raids on Hamas targets on Monday as ground troops surrounded Gaza's main city, while Israel faced mounting diplomatic pressure for a ceasefire. The senior Hamas leader in Gaza promised "victory is coming" for the Islamist group, but Israel's defence minister said "we have hit Hamas hard" while insisting the operation to halt Hamas rocket attacks would continue.

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January 4th

Israel’s attack on Gaza now includes a major ground offensive (1, 2). Several analyses probe both Israel’s and Hamas’ war intentions and prospects of success (3, 4, 5). Arab and Palestinian reaction to the conflict remains sharply divided (6, 7). Ha’aretz suggests that an Arab regional effort is needed to craft a workable cease-fire, Sultan Al Qassemi in The National argues that whatever happens, Hamas should step down from power (8, 12). Reema Ali and Aaron David Miller explore the requirements for progress on a peace agreement, (9, 10). An original ATFP translation of a Hassan Khadr article from the Palestinian daily Al-Ayyam argues that the Arabs are not learning the lessons of the past (13). The Dallas Morning News investigates the long-term effect of the Holy Land Foundation case on Muslim charitable giving, especially for Palestinian humanitarian causes (14).

Holy Land Foundation case puts burden on Muslim charities
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Dallas Morning News
by Jason Trahan - January 3, 2009 - 1:00am

American Muslims are finding it more difficult to donate money to help Palestinian refugees and other Middle Eastern causes because of court decisions showing that some charities were using the money for terrorism. On Nov. 24, the formerly Richardson-based Holy Land Foundation and five of its organizers were found guilty in a Dallas federal court of sending millions of dollars to Palestinian charity committees controlled by banned group Hamas.

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