January 29th

Border Crisis Bolsters Islamists ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times by Jeffrey Fleishman - January 29, 2008 - 6:38pm Egypt's main Islamist party and other opposition groups are strengthening their appeal by using images of desperate Palestinians streaming out of the Gaza Strip to provoke wider protests against President Hosni Mubarak's 26-year-old government. » Read more

Israel Won't Resist Abbas Control At Egypt Crossing ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters by Adam Entous - January 29, 2008 - 5:59pm Israel will not stand in the way of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas taking control of Gaza's breached border with Egypt as part of a deal to sideline Hamas Islamists who rule the enclave, officials said on Tuesday. But it is unclear how Abbas, the Fatah leader, would be able to assert control over the crossing with Egypt given opposition from Hamas, which seized the coastal territory in June and blasted open the Egyptian border wall last week in defiance of an Israeli-led blockade. » Read more

Egypt Presses For Abbas To Control Border ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Steven Erlanger - January 29, 2008 - 5:59pm Egypt said Monday that it preferred that the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, take control of the breached border between Gaza and Egypt, seeming to exclude Hamas, the Islamist group that took control of Gaza from Mr. Abbas in June. » Read more

January 28th

My Talks With Hamas ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Dror Ze’evi - (Opinion) January 28, 2008 - 7:29pm Now I can reveal this: Several months ago, I participated in a series of meetings in Europe that involved a small group of Israeli and Palestinian public figures and academicians, including senior Hamas supporters. » Read more

Obama: Opponents Trying To Weaken My Support In Jewish Community ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Shmuel Rosner - January 28, 2008 - 7:28pm Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama said Monday that there is a "constant virulent campaign" being waged against him as he strives to win the party's nomination, aimed particularly at weakening support for him from within the Jewish community. Obama told Haaretz and writers from several Jewish-American newspapers that the campaign against him - calling him Muslim and accusing him of not pledging allegiance to the United States - is especially visible in the Jewish community. » Read more

57% Of Palestinians Live In Poverty ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News by Mohammed Mar’i - January 28, 2008 - 7:26pm The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) yesterday released a pessimistic report summarizing the living conditions of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 2007. The report said that 49 percent of Palestinian households in the West Ban and 79 percent in the Gaza Strip live in poverty. 34 percent of Palestinians face “food insecurity” (which is defined as households with income and consumption of 1.6 dollars per day). » Read more

Palestinian Factionalism Is Speeding Up Its Trip To Nowhere ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star (Editorial) January 28, 2008 - 7:26pm   Editorial » Read more

Gaza's Falling Wall Changes Middle East Map For Ever ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian January 28, 2008 - 7:25pm They came and went in lorries and gas tankers, in flatbed trucks loaded with cattle and sheep, in coaches and mini-buses, loaded by the dozen in the backs of trucks, all shuttling across Gaza's southern border. Four days ago they went on foot like refugees, but yesterday for the first time the trucks drove through and it felt like an unstoppable momentum had been reached. » Read more

Gaza’s Misery Has To Be Stopped ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Financial Times (Editorial) January 28, 2008 - 7:23pm The tens of thousands of Palestinians who burst out of Gaza into Egypt this week in search of food, fuel and medicine have temporarily broken the siege that had tightened like a noose around this teeming territory ever since Hamas took over the Gaza Strip last June. Like the lid coming off a pressure cooker, the blown-up border fence has avoided a bigger explosion – for now. But Gaza’s humanitarian disaster and conflict shows every sign it could escalate into war if it is not brought under control. » Read more

Palestinians Clash Over Control Of Border ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Times by James Hider - January 28, 2008 - 7:22pm The Palestinian Government of Mahmoud Abbas said yesterday that it had reached a deal with Egypt to take control of the Gaza border, which Hamas militants breached with blowtorches and explosives last week, allowing hundreds of thousands of people to cross. Within hours Hamas officials denied that any such agreement side-lining the Islamists had been sealed with Cairo, which is struggling to contain the chaos that erupted on its border last week. » Read more