December 18th

Hamas’s Response: As Ugly as Sin
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Asharq Alawsat
by Tariq Alhomayed - (Opinion) December 18, 2008 - 1:00am

Dr. Sami Abu Zuhri, the spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Hamas movement was kind enough to respond to my article entitled 'Religious Arrogance'. However, I wish he hadn't done so as his response was as ugly as sin. Hamas considered what I wrote “distortion” and “part of a campaign that is being carried out by some people in the interest of a political group whose aim is well known; to conceal the political downfall of Abu Mazen [Mahmoud Abbas], and to attack forces of resistance and opposition in the interest of settling matters,” according to the Hamas spokesperson.

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Will Bibi or Livni be any better?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
by George S. Hishmeh - December 18, 2008 - 1:00am

Unlike the just-concluded American election, where everyone is eagerly awaiting the change that has been promised, the ongoing election campaign in Israel which ends one month after President-elect Barack Obama settles in the White House, is noted for the absence of any similar commitments. If anything, the positions of the competing Israeli frontrunners have not been encouraging and even very alarming.

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UN aid agency suspends food supplies to Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
December 18, 2008 - 1:00am

A United Nations aid agency has suspended food deliveries to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip because it has run out of flour, the group said on Thursday. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) provided crucial supplies to 750,000 Palestinians in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip after Israel closed border crossings. "Food distribution for both emergency and regular programmes will be suspended ... until further notice," the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) said in a statement.

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Obama and the Israel-Palestine Conflict
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Counterpunch
by Jeff Halper - (Opinion) December 17, 2008 - 1:00am

Writing recently in The Washington Post ("Middle East Priorities," Nov. 21), Brent Scowcroft and Zbigniew Brzezinski, two former US National Security Advisors, a Republican and a Democrat, declared: "We believe that the Arab-Israeli peace process is one issue that requires priority attention [from the incoming Obama Administration]."

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Gaza and Israel brace for violence as truce nears end
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Nidal Al-Mughrabi - December 18, 2008 - 1:00am

As a six-month ceasefire with Israel neared its end on Thursday Palestinians in the Gaza Strip were divided on whether they wanted it renewed. But the majority seemed braced for a surge of violence. On its side of the tense border, Israel insisted the "lull" was in the Palestinians' interest and ought to continue indefinitely. But Israelis in the firing line of rockets from Gaza were also worried that the truce would soon be over.

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Gaza militants launch more retaliatory strikes on Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Agence France Presse (AFP)
December 18, 2008 - 1:00am

Gaza fighters on Wednesday continued their retaliation for the killing of a member of a Palestinian resistance group on Monday, firing rockets into the Zionist state. Two people received shrapnel wounds and three cars were damaged as one of 15 rockets fired at southern Israel struck outside a supermarket in the city of Sderot, the army said. Israeli forces immediately launched an air strike in northern Gaza, hitting a rocket launcher that was about to fire, a military spokeswoman said.

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Israel: Palestinian Militants Fire Rockets From Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Isabel Kershner - December 18, 2008 - 1:00am

Palestinian militants in Gaza fired barrages of rockets at Israel for a second day on Wednesday, escalating tensions before a six-month truce is due to expire on Friday. One rocket landed in the parking lot of a busy shopping center in Sderot, an Israeli town near the Gaza border, wounding two civilians. At least 13 more rockets landed in open areas, according to the Israeli police, and the air force destroyed an armed rocket launcher in northern Gaza. The truce, which began on June 19, started to unravel in early November.

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December 17th

The United Nations Security Council adopts its first resolution on the Palestine-Israel conflict in almost five years (1). Tariq Alhomayed in Asharq Alawsat decries the use of Islamic charities for terrorism financing (2). An Op-Ed by Richard Haass and Martin Indyck in The Financial Times urges President-elect Obama to broaden his administration’s Middle East focus (3). Rockets are fired from Gaza after Israeli forces kill a member of Islamic Jihad in the West Bank (4). President Bush plans to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the White House on Friday (5). UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown urges Ehud Olmert’s government to ease pressure on the Palestinian economy (6). The Quartet joins with the Arab League in urging a revival of peace talks (9).

The settlers' presence is a time bomb waiting to happen
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Saed Shukhy - (Opinion) December 17, 2008 - 1:00am

The settler riots earlier this month were some of the worst instances of violence in Hebron in many years. But they were not isolated incidents and cannot be divorced from the brittle situation in Hebron that is a direct result of the city's fanatical settler presence, nor from the provocation of the settlement project in occupied Palestinian territory in general.

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Middle East needs Obama’s touch
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Financial Times
by Richard N. Haass, Martin Indyk - (Opinion) December 17, 2008 - 1:00am

President Barack Obama will face a series of challenges in the Middle East demanding urgent attention: an Iraq that could still unravel, an Iran approaching the nuclear threshold, a faltering Israeli-Palestinian peace process, and weak governments in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories challenged by strong militant Islamist groups. He will also discover that time is working against him. But with changes in policy, the incoming president can capitalise on new opportunities rather than be overwhelmed by old realities in this critical and troubled region.

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