Gaza hides a war over the Arabs' future
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from
by Michael Young - (Opinion) January 1, 2009 - 1:00am

Amid the carnage in Gaza, it's not immediately obvious that what is taking place has less to do with Israelis versus Palestinians than with Arabs versus Arabs, principally to define the future of the Middle East. The Gaza conflict has become part of an ongoing confrontation between regimes emerging from the Arab state system established over six decades ago, and, with one exception, new regional players vying to take their place.

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‘Israeli assault of Gaza empowers Hamas objective’
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
by Barbara Ferguson - January 1, 2009 - 1:00am

As the siege of Gaza by Israel enters its fifth day, Ziad Asali, president and founder of the DC-based American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP), said the US should be working toward a cease-fire as its No. 1 priority of the moment. “All other political considerations have to be negotiated in the absence of fighting on both sides,” he said.

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Israel Rejects 48-Hour Cease-Fire Plan
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ethan Bronner, Taghreed El-Khodary - January 1, 2009 - 1:00am

After five straight days of punishing air attacks, Israel rejected a proposal for a 48-hour cease-fire in its military onslaught in Gaza on Wednesday, saying it would maintain pressure on Hamas. But it did not rule out future diplomacy and was open to ways of increasing humanitarian aid. The decision was announced after a security cabinet meeting here.

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Escaping the Gaza ghetto
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Chicago Tribune
by Kevin Clarke - January 1, 2009 - 1:00am

It's hard to watch the mayhem in Gaza, watch the bloodied faces of children and anguished parents, hard even to watch the death mask of even the most ardent, Israel-hating member of Hamas as he is carted off to his grave, easier to turn it off, and not think about this complex, seemingly intractable mess that is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

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No solution without a Palestinian peace plan
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Financial Times
by Roula Khalaf - January 1, 2009 - 1:00am

The residents of Gaza saw in the new year with more Israeli air strikes and the prospect of an imminent ground offensive. Unlike other wars, where populations run out of the conflict zone and refugee crises develop, Gazans have nowhere to go. Long before Israel’s latest offensive, the strip had been locked up from all sides, with no access to the outside world. Six days into the Gaza operation it is already looking like another mindless war, from which no one can emerge a winner. Israel has destroyed a good part of the Hamas infrastructure – it may, in fact, be running out of targets.

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Israel's goal, and Hamas': a cease-fire on better terms
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
by Mkhaimar Abusada - (Opinion) December 31, 2008 - 1:00am

The truce between Hamas and Israel ended in the early hours of December 19, but the accusations over why it ended have followed the missiles and rockets across the border. Hamas accuses Israel of not complying with the terms of the six-month Egyptian-mediated truce under which Israel was expected to end its siege and blockade of the Gaza Strip, reopen the commercial border crossing between Gaza and Israel and halt its military activities against Gazans.

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Israel Versus Hamas: How to Shape a Ceasefire
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Time
by Tony Karon - December 31, 2008 - 1:00am

In the end, Israel and Hamas both know that there will be a cease-fire in Gaza. Its timing and terms will be "negotiated" in bombs and bloodshed in the days ahead; it will be mediated by a third party or a combination of third parties; and it will be shaped by a complex regional power game involving an array of competing Israeli politicians, the rival Palestinian leaderships of Hamas and President Mahmoud Abbas, Egypt, Syria and even more distant players such as Turkey, Iran and, of course, the United States.

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In Dense Gaza, Civilians Suffer
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Taghreed El-Khodary - December 31, 2008 - 1:00am

A dentist stood at the bed of a doctor, his good friend Ehab Madhoun, 32, who had just died, his shrapnel-pitted body wrapped in a white shroud.

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Israel set to maintain offensive for 'weeks'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Financial Times
by Tobias Buck, Andrew England, Peggy Hollinger - December 31, 2008 - 1:00am

Israel said yesterday its military was ready for "weeks of action" in spite of growing diplomatic pressure and Arab anger over its bombardment of the Hamascontrolled Gaza Strip. The quartet of Middle East peace brokers - the United Nations, the US, Russia and the European Union - last night urged a ceasefire in Gaza and southern Israel. The UN said: "They called for an immediate ceasefire that would be fully respected." An emergency meeting of EU ministers in Paris was expected last night to call for a 48-hour truce to allow medical supplies through to Gaza's civilian population.

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IAF bombs Gaza mosque being used as weapons storehouse
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Amos Harel, Avi Issacharoff - December 31, 2008 - 1:00am

The Israel Air Force on Wednesday evening bombed a mosque in a southern Gaza Strip which Hamas had been using to store part of its rocket arsenal. Shin Bet officials said that over the last few days, Palestinian militants have been seen carrying Katyusha and Qassam rockets, as well as a large supply of other weapons, around the vicinity of the mosque. The Shin Vet said that these weapons were destroyed in the IAF strike.

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