Analysis: Hamas Outmaneuvers Israel With Three Quick Moves
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Amoss Harel - (Analysis) January 25, 2008 - 6:23pm

In a week when Israeli leaders were boasting about their successful adoption of the conclusions in the Winograd Committee's interim report, which included in their view the attack on Syria, recent events on the Gaza Strip and Egyptian border are raising concerns to the contrary: Perhaps not enough lessons were learned or have been implemented.

»

Israel Sees Upside In Hole In Gaza Wall
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Ilene Prusher - January 25, 2008 - 6:13pm

When Palestinians toppled a metal wall separating the Gaza Strip from Egypt Wednesday, many expected Israeli officials to howl over Egypt allowing Hamas "terrorists" to rearm. After all, a cornerstone of the current peace process was supposed to be isolating Gaza. But the Israeli response has been surprisingly muted. In fact, some Israeli officials see some advantage in the breach.

»

Analysis: Gaza Border Breach Shows Israel That Hamas Is In Charge
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Amoss Harel, Avi Issacharoff - (Analysis) January 24, 2008 - 6:06pm

A few Israel Defense Forces Engineering Corps officers surely shed a tear yesterday while viewing the television reports from Rafah: The barrier built by the IDF with blood and sweat along the Philadelphi Route, on the Gaza Strip border with Egypt, was coming down.

»

Hamas 'spent Months Cutting Through Gaza Wall In Secret Operation'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Times
by James Hider - January 24, 2008 - 6:03pm

As tens of thousands of Palestinians clambered back and forth between the Gaza strip and Egypt today, details emerged of the audacious operation that brought down a hated border wall and handed the Islamist group Hamas what might be its greatest propaganda coup. Hamas, which took control of the coastal territory last June after a stand-off with Fatah, has denied that its men set off the explosions that brought down as much as two-thirds of the 12-km wall in the early hours.

»

A Broken Society
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
(Editorial) January 24, 2008 - 6:02pm

If you bottle up 1.5 million people in a territory 25 miles long and six miles wide, and turn off the lights, as Israel has done in Gaza, the bottle will burst. This is what happened yesterday when tens of thousands of Gazans poured into Egypt to buy food, fuel and supplies after militants destroyed two-thirds of the wall separating the Gaza Strip from Egypt. It was the biggest jail break in history.

»

As Gazans Pour Across, A Region Alters
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Rushdi Abu Alouf, Richard Bourdreaux - January 24, 2008 - 5:55pm

The collapse of Egypt's border with the Gaza Strip on Wednesday altered the region's political and security landscape as suddenly as it changed the fortunes of Palestinians who poured out of the enclave to stock up on goods made scarce by an Israeli blockade. After masked gunmen used land mines to blast through a 7-mile-long border wall, tens of thousands of jubilant Gazans went on an Egyptian spree, buying gasoline, heating oil, rice, sugar, milk, cheese, cigarettes, tires, cement, television sets and cellphones.

»

Gaza Busts Out Of Its Blockade
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Dan Murphy, Ilene Prusher - January 24, 2008 - 5:54pm

In a coordinated effort using explosives and bulldozers, militants in the Gaza Strip pulled down much of a seven-mile border fence with Egypt Wednesday, allowing tens of thousands of Gazans to cross into Egypt to buy everything from fuel to baby formula.

»

Palestinian Group Sounds Like Al Qaeda But Forgoes Violence
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Ilene Prusher - January 22, 2008 - 7:01pm

A new fundamentalist player is emerging in Palestinian politics. The group sounds like Hamas – or even Al Qaeda – but doesn't support suicide bombings or secret militias. In recent months, it has shown it can put tens of thousands of supporters into the streets.

»

Gaza Tunnel Smugglers Stay Busy
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Dan Murphy - January 14, 2008 - 5:14pm

A visitor to the Palestinian border with Egypt completely ignorant of the problems of this part of the world might imagine for a moment that the Gaza Strip is home to a species of giant and unusually industrious ant. In dozens of spots along the narrow swath of land between the Palestinian town of Rafah and the metal fence that marks the Egyptian border, the region's sandy soil is piled high in crescents that fan out from holes leading underground.

»

Hopeless In Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Times
by Stefanie Marsh - January 9, 2008 - 6:21pm

We were in east Jerusalem, the day before we were due in the Jordan Valley to document the plight of Palestinian farmers, when the man from Oxfam burst in to the room. This was last week, when I spent five days in the occupied territories – Gaza, Hebron, the Jordan Valley and Bethlehem – inspecting living conditions in anticipation of President George Bush’s visit to Israel today.

»


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