March 6th, 2008

Editorial: The Gaza Pressure Cooker
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Middle East Times
(Editorial) March 6, 2008 - 7:36pm

To understand what is happening with the Gaza Strip and why it is happening one needs only to look at a simple kitchen utensil: a pressure cooker with a malfunctioning release vent. Eventually the pot will explode.

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Avoid Bush's Mideast Policies, Report Says
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Middle East Times
by Federica Narancio - March 6, 2008 - 7:32pm

The Bush administration's attempt to reshape the Middle East after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks has not only failed but has also deepened existing conflicts and political instability, according to a report by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. The result is a "new" Middle East, though different from what was anticipated. This new Middle East is one in which the threat of nuclear proliferation and sectarianism will pose a serious challenge to the next U.S. administration, argue the authors of the report, published late February.

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Egypt: Anger Over Israel 'approaching Boiling Point'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Inter Press Service (IPS)
by Khaled Moussa Al-omrani, Adam Morrow - March 6, 2008 - 7:31pm

Fury erupted on the streets and in parliament this week following violent Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip. But as protests were held nationwide in support of besieged Palestinians next door, Cairo continued to keep the volatile Rafah border crossing -- the only means out of the strip not under direct Israeli control -- tightly sealed.

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Karim Edwan's Skepticism About The U.s.-backed Middle East Peace Process Is Rooted In His Morning Commute.
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Agence France Presse (AFP)
March 6, 2008 - 7:30pm

British humanitarian agencies said Thursday that the situation in the Gaza Strip was the worst in 40 years and urged the European Union to hold talks with Hamas, which runs the impoverished territory. They also called for an end of Israel's punishing blockade of Gaza, which has worsened an already desperate state of affairs for the civilian population.

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West Bank Barriers Keep Rising Despite Promises Of Relief
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Griff Witte - March 6, 2008 - 7:28pm

Karim Edwan's skepticism about the U.S.-backed Middle East peace process is rooted in his morning commute. To travel from his home in this West Bank village to his job as an emergency room doctor, the 35-year-old must take at least two cabs, skirt a barbed-wire fence, climb a dirt mound, talk his way through multiple Israeli checkpoints and remove his shoes for a full-body security check. Before the obstacles were imposed, the trip to his hospital in the West Bank city of Nablus took 30 minutes. Now it takes two hours.

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Picking Up Pieces, Gazans Debate Israel Incursion
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Steven Erlanger - March 6, 2008 - 7:21pm

In a small shop by their rocketed, bullet-pocked apartment building, the Abed Rabo family argued raucously about the impact of the 48-hour Israeli military incursion, which killed nearly 100 Palestinians, including some neighbors. “We all support resistance to the Israelis,” said Hitam Abed Rabo, 33, a lawyer with the military court set up by Hamas, which she supports. “They talk about responding to rockets, but nothing justifies what the Israelis did here. They have to be confronted with strong resistance, so they don’t come back.”

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Under Pressure, Abbas Says He’ll Talk Peace, But Actual Dialogue May Be Remote
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Helene Cooper, Isabel Kershner - March 6, 2008 - 7:20pm

After coming under heavy pressure from the United States, Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, said Wednesday that he intended to resume negotiations with Israel on a peace plan. But he did not say when he would return to talks, and he is under political pressure at home not to do so if the Palestinian death toll continues to rise from Israeli attacks on Gaza.

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Palestinians Question Own Advocacy Group
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Nathan Guttman - (Opinion) March 6, 2008 - 7:19pm

The American Task Force on Palestine, a moderate group that has emerged in the past several years as the most prominent pro-Palestinian voice in Washington, is fighting off criticism from within the Palestinian American community that it has cozied up to the Bush administration at the expense of the Palestinian cause.

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March 5th

A Nathan Guttman opinion in The Forward examines the role of ATFP and the criticisms it faces in advocating for a two-state solution (1). The New York Times reports that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has agreed to resume talks with Israel, although when remains uncertain (2). In the Washington Post, Griff Witte discusses how barriers continue to be build in the West Bank despite promises of relief (4). The Middle East Times comments on a report released by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace concerning Bush’s mideast policies (7). Also in the Middle East Times an editorial analyses the current gaza situation (8).

Rice’s Insistence On Palestinian-israeli Talks Can Work – If She Means It
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
(Editorial) March 5, 2008 - 7:52pm

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has achieved a major breakthrough for her country's foreign policy by insisting that Palestinian-Israeli peace talks continue despite a dramatic increase in violence in the Gaza Strip. Undeterred by an Israeli onslaught that has killed more than 120 people - including dozens of civilians, among them at least 23 children - Rice has forced Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas back to the table after he demanded that a truce be put in place first.

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