January 25th

The Agony Of Gaza ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Boston Globe (Editorial) January 25, 2008 - 6:13pm THE BREACHING early Wednesday of the barrier separating Gaza from the Egyptian side of the border town Rafah allowed an estimated 300,000 Gazans to seek staples and a brief experience of liberty outside their enclosed, suffocating strip of land. The highly publicized breakout of those Gazans also made it impossible to ignore the collective punishment being imposed on them by Israel's policy of closure and economic blockade. » Read more

Israel Sees Upside In Hole In Gaza Wall ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor by Ilene Prusher - January 25, 2008 - 6:13pm When Palestinians toppled a metal wall separating the Gaza Strip from Egypt Wednesday, many expected Israeli officials to howl over Egypt allowing Hamas "terrorists" to rearm. After all, a cornerstone of the current peace process was supposed to be isolating Gaza. But the Israeli response has been surprisingly muted. In fact, some Israeli officials see some advantage in the breach. » Read more

Tens Of Thousands More From Gaza Enter Egypt Seeking Consumer Goods ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Steven Erlanger - January 25, 2008 - 6:12pm Tens of thousands more Palestinians flooded across the breached border crossing from Gaza into Egypt on Thursday, and Egyptian merchants greeted them with a cornucopia of consumer goods and higher prices than on Wednesday, when Hamas militants toppled large sections of the fence. Many more Egyptian police officers were at various ruptures in the barrier at Rafah, more of them in riot gear and some using batons with small electric charges to keep the huge, pushing crowds in some form of order. » Read more

Hamas Challenges Egypt's Bid To Close Gaza Border ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters by Nidal Al-mughrabi - January 25, 2008 - 6:11pm Egypt started to close its breached border with the Gaza Strip on Friday but Palestinian militants bulldozed a new opening in a challenge to Cairo and Israel's blockade of the Hamas-run territory. Palestinian crowds cheered as Hamas militants used a bulldozer to flatten sections of the chain and concrete fence. In a scene broadcast live on television around the world, Egyptian riot police watched from a distance as hundreds of people poured into Egypt. » Read more

January 24th

Opportunity In Gaza ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz (Editorial) January 24, 2008 - 6:07pm The closure imposed a year ago on the Gaza Strip by Israel and Egypt was effectively lifted yesterday after hundreds of thousands of Gazans overran the Egyptian border. According to United Nations reports, about 20 percent of Gaza's population crossed into the Egyptian side of Rafah on foot and in cars after explosives were used to destroy about two-thirds of the border barrier overnight Tuesday. » Read more

Analysis: Gaza Border Breach Shows Israel That Hamas Is In Charge ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Amoss Harel, Avi Issacharoff - (Analysis) January 24, 2008 - 6:06pm A few Israel Defense Forces Engineering Corps officers surely shed a tear yesterday while viewing the television reports from Rafah: The barrier built by the IDF with blood and sweat along the Philadelphi Route, on the Gaza Strip border with Egypt, was coming down. » Read more

Silence Of The Lambs ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News by George S. Hishmeh - (Special Report) January 24, 2008 - 6:06pm Before it is dark and when there is no communication with the world," wrote Dr Eyad Sarraj, the prominent human rights advocate, from Gaza last Tuesday night, "I want to tell you that current Israeli policy of squeezing on has the aim of pushing Egypt to open its borders with Gaza and bring the situation to prior 1967." He went on: "Israel will then close its borders with Gaza, separate the (Gaza) Strip from the West Bank and destroy the peace proposals of one or two states. In short Israel is fulfilling the (Ariel) Sharon unilateral withdrawal strategy. » Read more

Bush's Silence Won't Make Israel's Brutality Any Less Counter-productive ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star (Editorial) January 24, 2008 - 6:05pm Washington's refusal to endorse a draft United Nations Security Council statement condemning Israel's siege of Gaza effectively advocated the collective punishment of 1.4 million Palestinian men, women and children. The US ambassador to the United Nations said that the initial draft statement produced by Libya was "unacceptable" because it did not mention Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel. » Read more

Hamas 'spent Months Cutting Through Gaza Wall In Secret Operation' ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Times by James Hider - January 24, 2008 - 6:03pm As tens of thousands of Palestinians clambered back and forth between the Gaza strip and Egypt today, details emerged of the audacious operation that brought down a hated border wall and handed the Islamist group Hamas what might be its greatest propaganda coup. Hamas, which took control of the coastal territory last June after a stand-off with Fatah, has denied that its men set off the explosions that brought down as much as two-thirds of the 12-km wall in the early hours. » Read more

Rafah: Symbol Of Gaza's Isolation ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bbc News by Jonathan Marcus - January 24, 2008 - 6:02pm The mass breach of the Rafah crossing point illustrates many of the problems and pitfalls of Middle East peace-making. In recent times it was hoped Rafah would become a symbol of a new beginning for the Gaza Strip. What began as a European-monitored crossing with aspirations to become a permanently open link between the Gaza Strip and Egypt has in practice become, for many Palestinians, yet another symbol of their isolation and "imprisonment". » Read more