Egypt: Anger Over Israel 'approaching Boiling Point'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Inter Press Service (IPS)
by Khaled Moussa Al-omrani, Adam Morrow - March 6, 2008 - 7:31pm

Fury erupted on the streets and in parliament this week following violent Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip. But as protests were held nationwide in support of besieged Palestinians next door, Cairo continued to keep the volatile Rafah border crossing -- the only means out of the strip not under direct Israeli control -- tightly sealed.

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Karim Edwan's Skepticism About The U.s.-backed Middle East Peace Process Is Rooted In His Morning Commute.
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Agence France Presse (AFP)
March 6, 2008 - 7:30pm

British humanitarian agencies said Thursday that the situation in the Gaza Strip was the worst in 40 years and urged the European Union to hold talks with Hamas, which runs the impoverished territory. They also called for an end of Israel's punishing blockade of Gaza, which has worsened an already desperate state of affairs for the civilian population.

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West Bank Barriers Keep Rising Despite Promises Of Relief
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Griff Witte - March 6, 2008 - 7:28pm

Karim Edwan's skepticism about the U.S.-backed Middle East peace process is rooted in his morning commute. To travel from his home in this West Bank village to his job as an emergency room doctor, the 35-year-old must take at least two cabs, skirt a barbed-wire fence, climb a dirt mound, talk his way through multiple Israeli checkpoints and remove his shoes for a full-body security check. Before the obstacles were imposed, the trip to his hospital in the West Bank city of Nablus took 30 minutes. Now it takes two hours.

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Picking Up Pieces, Gazans Debate Israel Incursion
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Steven Erlanger - March 6, 2008 - 7:21pm

In a small shop by their rocketed, bullet-pocked apartment building, the Abed Rabo family argued raucously about the impact of the 48-hour Israeli military incursion, which killed nearly 100 Palestinians, including some neighbors. “We all support resistance to the Israelis,” said Hitam Abed Rabo, 33, a lawyer with the military court set up by Hamas, which she supports. “They talk about responding to rockets, but nothing justifies what the Israelis did here. They have to be confronted with strong resistance, so they don’t come back.”

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Under Pressure, Abbas Says He’ll Talk Peace, But Actual Dialogue May Be Remote
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Helene Cooper, Isabel Kershner - March 6, 2008 - 7:20pm

After coming under heavy pressure from the United States, Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, said Wednesday that he intended to resume negotiations with Israel on a peace plan. But he did not say when he would return to talks, and he is under political pressure at home not to do so if the Palestinian death toll continues to rise from Israeli attacks on Gaza.

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Forward From Gaza: How The U.s. Can Lead ((interview With Daniel C. Kurtzer)
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Middle East Progress
by S. Daniel Abraham - (Interview) March 5, 2008 - 7:51pm

The problem right now is that everyone is looking only at tomorrow. There is no long-term thinking or activity taking place. The Israelis and Hamas are engaged in an effort to hurt each other. Hamas finds it in its own very significant interest right now to not only inflict some pain on Israel but to demonstrate that it has the capacity to hit Ashkelon and to withstand Israeli incursions.

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Rice Encircled By Mideast Troubles
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Middle East Times
by Sana Abdallah - March 5, 2008 - 7:49pm

The mission of U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to restart the Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations was Tuesday facing serious challenges as the Palestinian leadership insisted that Israel first halt its military operations in the Gaza Strip. Following talks with Rice in Ramallah, Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas said he was committed to the peace process, but blamed the Israeli attacks and the siege of Gaza for sabotaging the negotiations.

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Hamas Rejects Arab-league Proposal For Truce With Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Media Line
March 5, 2008 - 7:48pm

Hamas has turned down a recent proposal by the secretary general of the Arab League, ‘Amru Mousa, for a unilateral truce stopping rocket firing into Israel, sources in Gaza said.   The proposal, which was presented to Hamas leader, Khalid Mash’al during Mousa’s visit to Damascus last week, also suggests declaring a unilateral cease-fire with Israel.   The plan, according to the League’s sources, was meant to stop the current military operation against Hamas and avoid further escalation and a likely massive Israeli invasion of Gaza.   Mash’al

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Palestinian Drag Queens At Odds With Nearly Everyone
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from McClatchy News
by Dion Nissenbaum - March 5, 2008 - 7:47pm

His friends call him "The Bride." This night, he was standing behind a storefront art-gallery window in a bloodied wedding dress. His face was ghostly, and he was clutching a large rock in his right hand. A small crowd had gathered on a south Tel Aviv street as The Bride opened his mouth and began to sing — in Arabic. To be more accurate, The Bride was lip-synching the words of a political anthem by one of Lebanon's best-known divas.

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Gaza Clashes Cloud Rice's Trip
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Time
by Tim Mcgirk - March 5, 2008 - 7:46pm

In the southern Israeli port city of Ashkelon, the bull's-eye of Palestinian rocket attacks, pharmacists noted that the sale of tranquilizers shot up by more than 60% in the past week as residents sought to calm their shattered nerves. But with Ashkelon's 120,000 citizens now in the range of the Russian-made Grad rockets recently hauled out of Hamas' arsenals to escalate the confrontation, the drug of choice for Israeli leaders and U.S. officials trying to revive peace talks is more likely to be aspirin or any other pain reliever to help treat their frequent headaches.

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