Obama Defers to Bush, for Now, on Gaza Crisis
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Helene Cooper, Steven Lee Myers - December 28, 2008 - 1:00am

WASHINGTON — When President-elect Barack Obama went to Israel in July — to the very town, in fact, whose repeated shelling culminated in this weekend’s new fighting in Gaza — he all but endorsed the punishing Israeli attacks now unfolding. “If somebody was sending rockets into my house, where my two daughters sleep at night, I’m going to do everything in my power to stop that,” he told reporters in Sderot, a small city on the edge of Gaza that has been hit repeatedly by rocket fire. “And I would expect Israelis to do the same thing.”

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Gaza humanitarian plight 'disastrous,' U.N. official says
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from CNN
December 28, 2008 - 1:00am

(CNN) -- Israeli airstrikes pounding Gaza are deepening the humanitarian crisis in an area that was already in deep distress, according to a United Nations aid official. "The situation is absolutely disastrous," U.N. official Christopher Gunness told CNN on Sunday, as a second day of aerial attacks brought the death toll in Gaza close to 300. Hundreds more people have been injured.

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Obama Defers to Bush, for Now, on Gaza Crisis
Media Mention of Ghaith al-Omari In The New York Times - December 28, 2008 - 1:00am

WASHINGTON — When President-elect Barack Obama went to Israel in July — to the very town, in fact, whose repeated shelling culminated in this weekend’s new fighting in

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UN Security Council calls for immediate halt to Gaza violence
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Natasha Mozgovaya - December 28, 2008 - 1:00am

The United Nations Security Council called early on Sunday for an immediate end to all violence in Gaza after the death toll climbed past 270 on the second day of Israeli air strikes in retaliation for rocket and mortar fire by Gaza militants. The statement, agreed upon after four hours of closed-door council discussions, called on all parties to address "the serious humanitarian and economic needs in Gaza."

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Israel is poised for the latest act in a long history of tragic folly
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
December 27, 2008 - 1:00am

It is no secret that the period of Hamas' rule in Gaza since 2007 has been one of little or no accomplishment and of supremely unimaginative leadership. The Islamist movement has provided its enemy with a pretext to bring ruin on the very people whose rights a resistance group is supposed to defend.

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ATFP Calls for an Immediate Cease-fire in Gaza
Press Release - Contact Information: Hussein Ibish - December 27, 2008 - 1:00am

Washington, DC, Dec. 27 -- The American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP) called for an immediate cease-fire between all parties following Israeli military airstrikes against the Gaza Strip earlier today that killed approximately 200 Palestinians and injured hundreds more. ATFP deplored the disproportionate force employed by Israel and expressed deep concern for the well-being of the innocent civilian population in Gaza.


Hamas says it may consider new truce with Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Agence France Presse (AFP)
December 23, 2008 - 1:00am

GAZA CITY - A tense calm reigned over the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on Tuesday as the Palestinian Islamist group said it might be willing to agree to a new truce with Israel. Gaza militants fired one rocket which hit without causing damage or injury, and Israel did not launch any raids on the territory after Hamas announced on Monday that it would not launch rockets or fire mortars for 24 hours.

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Domestic politics fuels Gaza conflict
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Joshua Mitnick - December 23, 2008 - 1:00am

The collapse of a six-month Israel-Hamas calm last Friday unleashed a new wave of cross-border attacks and a spate of threats from leaders on both side about worsening violence. And although the Islamist militants called for a 24-hour halt in attacks on Monday for mediation, the region seems once again to be at the brink of another escalation over Gaza.

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Have politicians pushing for Gaza war forgotten Lebanon debacle?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Yoel Marcus - (Opinion) December 23, 2008 - 1:00am

As of writing these lines, no one had been killed by the rocket barrages after the official end of the cease-fire. This doesn't mean the situation is possible to live with, but it appears the hysterical reaction by the public as a whole and politicians in particular stems mainly from the fact that the country is in an election period. And when elections are in the offing people speak from the gut rather than the brain and demagoguery is rampant.

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The Gaza Time Bomb
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Middle East Times
by Patrick Seale - December 23, 2008 - 1:00am

PARIS -- With the ending of the truce between Israel and Hamas, Gaza is now one of the Middle East's most dangerous flashpoints. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has issued a cry of alarm, while Tony Blair, the Quartet's Middle East envoy, has urged Israel to defuse tensions by lifting the siege of Gaza. Everyone is aware that it would take only a spark - such as a Qassam rocket landing on a house in Sderot - to trigger a full-scale war. The paradox is that neither side really wants this to happen.

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