Suicide Attack In Israel Kills One
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Isabel Kershner - February 5, 2008 - 7:18pm

A Palestinian suicide bomber who may have sneaked into Israel from the Egyptian Sinai blew himself up at a shopping center in this southern desert town on Monday, killing an Israeli woman and wounding 11 other Israelis, emergency services officials said. A second attacker with him failed to detonate his explosives belt and was shot dead by a police officer at the scene.

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Hamas Claims Dimona Attack, Says Bombers Came From Hebron
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Amoss Harel - February 4, 2008 - 8:01pm

Hamas' armed wing claimed responsibility for a Palestinian suicide bombing that killed a woman in Dimona on Monday, the first such attack inside Israel claimed by Hamas since 2004, a Hamas source told Reuters. Both the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Bridgade and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine claimed responsibility for the attack earlier in the day.

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Writing Responsibly On The Middle East
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Quarterly
by Azriel Bermant - (Opinion) February 4, 2008 - 7:57pm

In the last few years, the international media has devoted an unprecedented amount of attention to the Arab–Israeli conflict. Although those following the turbulent events in the Middle East have no shortage of news resources to choose from, the journalism available isn’t always of

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Israeli Defense Minister To Stay In Olmert Coalition
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Isabel Kershner - February 4, 2008 - 7:44pm

Ehud Barak, Israel’s defense minister and the leader of the Labor Party, announced Sunday that he would remain in the government, stabilizing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s coalition despite last week’s harsh report on the political and military leaders’ handling of the Lebanon war in 2006.

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Palestinian Majority Opposes Rocket Attacks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Angus Reid Global Monitor
February 1, 2008 - 6:38pm

Many residents of the Palestinian Territories believe a series of rocket attacks launched from the Gaza Strip into Israel should stop, according to a poll by An-Najah National University. 52.7 per cent of respondents share this view.

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Putting Humpty Together Again In Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Time
by Tim Mcgirk - February 1, 2008 - 6:27pm

Egypt's efforts to restore order on its breached border with Gaza suffered a setback Wednesday in Cairo, when Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas refused to talk to the leaders of Hamas. Needing a Palestinian partner to police the Rafah crossing, President Hosni Mubarak had invited his Palestinian counterpart to meet with leaders of the Islamist movement that has, since last summer, been the only effective authority in Gaza. But Abbas's refusal to acknowledge the facts on the ground created by Hamas's takeover of the territory left the Egyptians with no easy way forward.

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The Shifting Balance Of Power
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Economist
February 1, 2008 - 6:27pm

ABSORBED by speculation about their government's future after an inquiry commission this week released its final report on the 2006 Lebanon war (see article), Israelis seemed briefly to forget about last week's dramatic breach of the Gaza-Egypt border by Hamas, the Islamist movement that controls the Gaza Strip. Yet in Gaza as in Lebanon, the short-sighted planning that the Winograd commission criticised was much in evidence.

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The Aftermath Of The Gaza Tsunami
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
by George S. Hishmeh - (Opinion) January 31, 2008 - 6:08pm

It was very uplifting to see Palestinian men, women and children, hundreds of thousands of them, climb up the corrugated iron wall that separated their Israeli-besieged Gaza Strip from Egypt and watch them on Al Jazeera run freely to shop for much-needed supplies, visit with relatives and friends they have not seen for years, and play joyfully. The scenes of cows, camels and bicycles carried by cranes across the border will not be easily erased from anyone's fondest memories.

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Hamas Sets Rafah Border Conditions
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al Jazeera English
January 31, 2008 - 6:07pm

A delegation led by Khaled Meshaal, the leader of Hamas, has proposed joint Palestinian-Egyptian control of the Rafah crossing.    They set down these conditions on Thursday on the second day of talks in Cairo geared towards resolving the week-old crisis on the Gaza-Egypt border as Egypt continued its mediating role between Hamas and Fatah.  

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Methodist Church Renews Drive For Divestment From Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Nathan Guttman - January 31, 2008 - 6:02pm

Tensions are re-emerging between Jewish organizations and some mainline Protestant churches in the wake of a renewed drive for churches to divest from companies doing business with Israel.

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