February 5th, 2008

Gaza Blockade Collective Punishment Says Hrw
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Palestine Chronicle
(Editorial) February 5, 2008 - 7:27pm

Israel's crippling blockade of the Gaza Strip is a collective punishment of the 1.5 million population of the small, overcrowded territory, Human Rights Watch said in its annual report on Thursday, January 31. "The Israeli and Western economic embargo of Gaza, Israel's almost total closure of Gaza's border crossings, ongoing lawlessness in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, and heightened Israeli restrictions on freedom of movement in the West Bank contributed to a serious human rights and humanitarian crisis," said the report cited by Agence France-Presse (AFP).

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Egypt Wants Pa Back On Gaza Border
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al Jazeera English
February 5, 2008 - 7:25pm

Egypt has called on Hamas to allow the Palestinian Authority to oversee Egypt's border with the Gaza Strip, and warned Palestinians in Gaza not to test it's patience.

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The Smearing Of Obama
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
(Editorial) February 5, 2008 - 7:24pm

This week’s Forward carries an editorial responding to an Internet whisper campaign that claims Barack Obama is somehow hiding a secret Muslim identity behind his devout Christianity, and that he might represent some covert threat. In particular, we examine the anxious mindset that leads all too many Americans, including Jewish Americans, to give credence to distortions that we call “implausible” and “amateurish.” The editorial seeks to argue that liberals have not yet found effective answers when faced with this sort of fear-mongering from the right.

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Us Condemns Suicide Bombing In Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Agence France Presse (AFP)
February 5, 2008 - 7:23pm

The United States on Monday condemned the suicide bombing that killed a woman in Israel, saying it underscored the need to make progress on the Middle East peace process launched in November. The White House also called on the Palestinian Authority to crack down on terrorism and criticized the Islamist movement Hamas for backing such attacks.

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Olmert Takes 'responsibilty' For Failed War
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Agence France Presse (AFP)
February 5, 2008 - 7:23pm

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud  Olmert said Monday that he assumed full responsibility for failures  highlighted in a report last week by a government-appointed  commission into the 2006 Lebanon war. "The Winograd Commission said what it had to say, and what it  said was very harsh. I bear full responsibility for all the failures  - I never tried to shirk that," Olmert told an extraordinary  session of Parliament that convened to discuss the report.

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Security Experts Fear New Wave Of Terrorism In Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Speigel International
by Pierre Heumann - February 5, 2008 - 7:22pm

Terrorists struck again in Israel on Monday in the first suicide bombing the country has seen in a year. It was an attack that politicians and military officers say they have seen coming for days. The bloody deed, which claimed the lives of one Israeli woman and the two suicide bombers, came as no surprise for many Israelis. Now that the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt is open, it has become easier for terrorists to reach Israel from Gaza. Security experts have been warning that terrorists in Gaza would see this as a new opportunity -- and would take advantage of it.

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'the Palestinian Dream Is Over'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
by Khalil Al Assali - February 5, 2008 - 7:20pm

Occupied Jerusalem: Dr Mustafa Al Barghouthi, a member of the Legislative Council and a prominent Palestinian activist, could not find a better word than "disaster" to express his anger at the announcement made by Hamas officials regarding a study that aims to separate the economy from Israel and connect with Egypt. "These declarations are very risky and briefly mean the separation of the West Bank from the Gaza Strip and the end of the Palestinian dream," Dr Barghouthi told Gulf News.

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Suicide Bombing Revives Israeli Push To Finish Its Wall
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Ilene Prusher - February 5, 2008 - 7:19pm

In the aftermath of the first Palestinian suicide bombing in more than a year, many Israelis have returned to an old conclusion: build a barrier. Some politicians said that the answer to Monday's attack on the southern town of Dimona was to resurrect an existing, but never-implemented, plan to build some combination of a wall and fence between Egypt and Israel. The barrier would be similar to the West Bank wall that Israel started erecting more than six years ago, at a time when there was an almost nonstop cycle of violence between Israelis and Palestinians.

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Suicide Attack In Israel Kills One
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Isabel Kershner - February 5, 2008 - 7:18pm

A Palestinian suicide bomber who may have sneaked into Israel from the Egyptian Sinai blew himself up at a shopping center in this southern desert town on Monday, killing an Israeli woman and wounding 11 other Israelis, emergency services officials said. A second attacker with him failed to detonate his explosives belt and was shot dead by a police officer at the scene.

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February 4th

Ilene Prusher of The Christian Science Monitor details the rejuvenation of talks to complete the Isarel/Egypt wall (2). In The Gulf News, Khalil Al Assali reports on Dr. Mustafa Al Barghouthi statement that Hamas is effectively ending ‘the Palestinian dream’ (3). A Forward editorial on religion and the Jewish vote in the American election warrants a clarification (7). Al-Jazeera breaks news that Egypt is calling for PA help in Gaza’s border management (8). Daniel Kurtzer of the Daily Star offers deep analysis of the peace process (10) while Akiva Eldar of Haaretz examines the irrelevancy of military superiority (12).

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