Shikaki: Hamas’ Popularity On Rise In Gaza After Tearing Down Wall With Egypt
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Council on Foreign Relations
by Bernard Gwertzman - (Interview) February 4, 2008 - 7:44pm

Khalil Shikaki, a leading Palestinian political scientist and polling expert based in the West Bank, says that Hamas, the radical Palestinian group opposed to Israel, has been losing popularity among Palestinians since it took over Gaza by force last June. But more recently, Israeli sanctions against Gaza in retaliation for the rocket attacks on Israel, and Hamas tearing down the wall separating Gaza from Egypt, have probably boosted Hamas’ popularity again, making it difficult for Hamas’ rival, Fatah, to contemplate defeating Hamas in another election.

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Olmert Walks Friendless On Road From Annapolis
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Financial Times
by Philip Stephens - (Opinion) February 1, 2008 - 6:33pm

Before I visited Israel the other day, some of my friends in the foreign policy community had admonished me for being overly pessimistic about the new road map drawn at Annapolis for a Middle East peace.

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For The Cause, The Settlements Must Go
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Sheldon Schreter - January 31, 2008 - 6:11pm

Israelis seem to have lost their belief in the rightness of our cause, as various observers have recently noted with alarm. Whether you attribute this to ideological fatigue, the universal tendency to pursue personal and material goals over collective ones, or loss in the belief of God's promise of this Land to Abraham, there is real cause for concern. Given Israel's challenges and the demands placed on its citizens, a national consensus on war and peace, relations with our Arab neighbors, and over societal priorities is no luxury, but a necessity.

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Olmert Survives, For Now
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
January 31, 2008 - 6:04pm

The retired justice Eliyahu Winograd, who headed the panel investigating Israel's 34-day war in Lebanon in 2006, said yesterday what everybody already knew. The ground offensive launched in the last 60 hours of the war "did not achieve any military objective, nor did it fulfil its potential". A total of 33 Israeli soldiers died, but the offensive did not reduce the number of Katyusha rockets falling on northern Israel, and it was also unclear how it affected the position of the Lebanese government or Hizbullah on a ceasefire.

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Bush Has Little Credibility Among Palestinians
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Angus Reid Global Monitor
January 31, 2008 - 5:57pm

Few residents of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank believe George W. Bush actually intends to assist in the creation of a Palestinian state by the end of this year, according to a poll by An-Najah National University. 80.3 per cent of respondents think the United States president is not faithful in his promise.

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Punishing Gaza Only Harms Those Backing Peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
by Daoud Kuttab - (Opinion) January 30, 2008 - 5:54pm

  When the Gaza Strip was plunged into darkness last week as a result of the Israeli fuel blockade, many people around the world were surprised. But the optimism produced by the Annapolis peace process, which included President George W. Bush's promise of an agreement in 2008 to create a Palestinian state, was clearly unrealistic.

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Bush's Delusions Die In Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Salon.com
by Gary Kamiya - January 30, 2008 - 5:44pm

It was a heart-wrenching story. Hundreds of thousands of people, trapped for endless years in an open-air jail and recently subjected to an airtight siege, blew up their prison wall and poured out to freedom.

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360 Days
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Israel Policy Forum
by M.J. Rosenberg - (Opinion) January 28, 2008 - 7:18pm

Reading about the Vietnam War, as I have been doing lately, is maddening. As President Lyndon B. Johnson makes fateful decisions that will ultimately leave 50,000 Americans dead and destroy his presidency, I almost want to shout out, “Stop! Are you blind? Can’t you see where this is leading?” But, of course, LBJ couldn’t see that.

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January 28, 2008 - Vol. 9, Issue 21
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Americans For Peace Now
by Middle East Peace Report - January 28, 2008 - 7:15pm

Military Escalation is a Boon for Hamas: Even before the breach of the Gaza-Egypt border, the escalation in cross-border attacks between Gaza and Israel had pumped up public support for Hamas. This was the principle finding of a poll conducted in the West Bank and Gaza by the Ramallah-based AWRAD research center, when compared with an AWRAD survey from shortly before the November Annapolis peace conference.

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Israel Considers Palestinian Proposal To Open Up Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Deutsche Presse Agentur
January 25, 2008 - 6:16pm

The Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad was offered a glimmer of hope Thursday that Israel would ease its blockade of Gaza. He used a discussion at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, to call on Israel to open up "passages" to the territory which he proposed the authority should oversee which he said should be set up within days. The Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak replied that his government had stated its willingness to consider the passages

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