CNN NEWSROOM TRANSCRIPT EXCERPT: Crisis between Gaza and Israel deepens
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from CNN
January 5, 2009 - 1:00am

Aired January 5, 2009 - 09:00 ET HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Two huge stories and the world is watching this morning. Sirens well and explosions thunder in Gaza. The crisis with Israel deepens. And in Washington, an incoming president and his new challenges. Barack Obama gets to work today on the nation's lousy economy. New details on his plans and what they could mean to you. Good morning, everybody. I'm Heidi Collins. Today is Monday, January 5th and you are in the CNN NEWSROOM…. Joining us now from Washington, Dr. Ziad Asali. He's with the American Task Force on Palestine.

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Why Israel went to war in Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Chris McGreal - January 4, 2009 - 1:00am

It is a war on two fronts. Months ago, as Israel prepared to unleash its latest wave of desolation against Gaza, it recognised that blasting Hamas and "the infrastructure of terror", which includes police stations, homes and mosques, was a straightforward task.

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Egypt Pressed on Gaza From Without and Within
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Steven Erlanger - January 3, 2009 - 1:00am

Egypt is the crucial, if reluctant, intermediary between Israel and Hamas, which is no great friend of this moderate secular government. Still, a sustained Israeli ground operation in neighboring Gaza would sharply increase public pressure on President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt to do more to help the Palestinians there.

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Palestinians' factional split deepens over Gaza conflict
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Richard Boudreaux, Ashraf Khalil - January 3, 2009 - 1:00am

Reporting from Ramallah, West Bank, and Jerusalem — Israel's week-old assault on the Gaza Strip has widened the rift between Palestinians who back the search by moderate leaders for a peace accord with the Jewish state and those drawn to Hamas' call for armed struggle. The breach was on display Friday in the West Bank as the territory's U.S.-backed Palestinian Authority leadership, striving to contain rising anger over the death toll in Hamas-ruled Gaza, sent police to put down pro-Hamas demonstrations.

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Clinton, Familiar With Pitfalls of Mideast Politics, May Face Early Test in Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Mark Lander - (Opinion) January 2, 2009 - 1:00am

When Hillary Rodham Clinton ran for a New York Senate seat nine years ago, she labored to persuade skeptical Jewish voters of her support for Israel, after an incident in which she stood by as the wife of Yasir Arafat delivered an inflammatory attack on Israeli policies.

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Israel's Insane War in Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Dar Al-Hayat
by Patrick Seale - (Opinion) January 2, 2009 - 1:00am

Israel's war in Gaza is an act of political insanity. It is the product of a deeply disturbed society, able neither to curb its military arrogance nor calm its profound paranoia. The consequences are likely to be painful for Israel's long-term prospects. By radicalising the Palestinians, and by arousing great anger in the Arab and Muslim world, this savage war rules out the possibility of Israel's peaceful integration in the region for the foreseeable future. That may even be its cynical aim, since Israel wants dominance, not peaceful coexistence.

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Saudis blame Hamas amid calls for talks with Fatah
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Ian Black - January 1, 2009 - 1:00am

Saudi Arabia yesterday blamed Hamas for Israel's continuing offensive in the Gaza Strip and urged it to resolve bitter differences with the western-backed Palestinian Authority - even as divisions deepened with a new charge of treachery. Arab League foreign ministers meeting in emergency session in Cairo warned it was not possible to help until the Islamist movement in control of Gaza returned to national unity talks with its rival Fatah.

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Israel's Attacks On Gaza Deepen Palestinian Rift
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Griff Witte - January 1, 2009 - 1:00am

Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip has exacerbated the deep divisions between Palestinians who want to make peace with Israel and those who support Hamas's militant struggle against the Jewish state. The fractures are stark in the West Bank, where sympathy for Hamas appears to be rising in the streets even as the territory's leaders suppress pro-Hamas demonstrations and blame the Islamist movement for the breakdown of a six-month truce with Israel.

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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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Battered Hamas stands to gain in stature
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Orlando Sentinel
December 30, 2008 - 1:00am

For anyone watching the plumes of smoke rising from Gaza in recent days, Hamas dominates the television news and newspaper headlines. It is not only the publicity, but the status conveyed on Hamas as the Palestinians' principal resistance. Its secular rival, Fatah, sits on the sidelines, marginal to the violence unfolding in Gaza, from which Hamas effectively expelled it at gunpoint in the summer of 2007.

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American Task Force on Palestine - 1634 Eye St. NW, Suite 725, Washington DC 20006 - Telephone: 202-262-0017