Ban urges Arabs to back Abbas in Gaza crisis
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Louis Charbonneau - January 19, 2009 - 1:00am

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday urged Arab leaders to join together in backing Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in his efforts to reunite the war-ravaged Gaza Strip with the West Bank. Speaking a day after Israel and the militant Palestinian group Hamas announced separate ceasefires, Ban also said that Arab unity was crucial if the three-week Gaza conflict was not to be repeated in the future.

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Saudi Arabia offers $1 billion to rebuild Gaza as fragile cease-fires hold
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Borzou Daragahi, Raed Rafei - January 19, 2009 - 1:00am

The Saudi Arabian monarchy vowed to spend $1 billion to help rebuild the Gaza Strip after a devastating three-week war between Hamas and Israel but warned the Jewish state that an Arab 2002 peace offer was imperiled and that conflict could be renewed. "Israel must realize that the choice between peace and war will not always be open to it," King Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz said at a long-scheduled Arab League economic forum in Kuwait, according to the Persian Gulf state's official Kuwait News Agency. "The Arab peace initiative will not always remain on the table."

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Gaza ceasefire imminent as Israel negotiates deals with Egypt and US
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Times
by Martin Fletcher - January 16, 2009 - 1:00am

The Israeli military sought to inflict maximum damage on Hamas today before Ehud Omert's government submitted to an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire that would end the fighting before Barak Obama's inauguration on Tuesday. Amos Gilad, Israel's top negotiator, flew to Cairo to hammer out the remaining details of that ceasefire agreement. Tzipi Livni, the Foreign Minister, flew overnight to Washington where she and Condoleezza Rice are expected to sign a second agreement committing the United States to measures to stop Hamas re-arming itself.

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Mideast Awaits Signs of Obama’s Stance on Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Helene Cooper - January 16, 2009 - 1:00am

WASHINGTON — President-elect Barack Obama has promised that he will have plenty to say about the Israeli incursion into Gaza once he takes office next week, and expectations are high. But there is a growing consensus among the people who have followed the Arab-Israeli conflict for decades that Mr. Obama must take some quick, decisive steps — within days of being sworn in — or else face the prospect of coming across in the Arab world as continuing President Bush’s tilt in favor of Israel.

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Hamas: We will not accept Israel cease-fire demands
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Barak Ravid - January 16, 2009 - 1:00am

Hamas will not accept Israeli conditions for a cease-fire in Gaza and would continue armed resistance until the offensive ends, Khaled Meshal, the leader of the Palestinian Islamist group, said on Friday. Speaking at the opening of an emergency meeting on Gaza in Doha, Meshal called on the leaders present to cut all ties with Israel. However, Hamas is set to send a delegation to Cairo later on Friday to discuss Egyptian efforts to mediate a cease-fire in Gaza, a Hamas official told Al Jazeera television.

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On Day of Heavy Fighting, Moves Toward Gaza Peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Griff Witte - January 16, 2009 - 1:00am

After one of the most violent days of Israel's nearly three-week-old war against the Hamas movement in Gaza, the conflict appeared late Thursday to be moving toward a diplomatic solution.

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Hamas's Wars Are Greater than Itself
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Dar Al-Hayat
by Hassan Haidar - January 15, 2009 - 1:00am

Hamas is waging three wars at the same time, all deeply intertwined. Each of these wars requires top-notch military and political capabilities, advanced organizational abilities and suitable objective circumstances, all of which are neither present in nor available to the Hamas movement. Nevertheless, it insists on completing its struggle on all three fronts, in a manner that resembles suicide, which does not disagree with its ideology.

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Gaza War Generates Debate on Civilians
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Griff Witte - January 15, 2009 - 1:00am

A war that began almost three weeks ago as an effort by Israel to stop Hamas rocket fire from killing Israeli civilians has been consumed by a bitter debate over who is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip. As the Palestinian death toll topped 1,000 on Wednesday, medical officials and aid organizations said civilians accounted for at least half of the total. An additional 4,700 Palestinians have been injured.

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Egypt's Gaza truce plan is mostly bad for Hamas
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Amos Harel, Avi Issacharoff - (Analysis) January 15, 2009 - 1:00am

After 19 days of fighting and more than 1,000 Palestinian fatalities, the first significant signs that Hamas is breaking could be seen Wednesday night. Hamas representatives to talks with Egypt announced an agreement in principle on Wednesday to the Egyptian cease-fire proposal. They also demanded several clarifications, primarily from Israel.

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War on Hamas Saps Palestinian Leaders
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Isabel Kershner - January 15, 2009 - 1:00am

Israel hoped that the war in Gaza would not only cripple Hamas, but eventually strengthen its secular rival, the Palestinian Authority, and even allow it to claw its way back into Gaza. But with each day, the authority, its leader, Mahmoud Abbas, and its leading party, Fatah, seem increasingly beleaguered and marginalized, even in the Palestinian cities of the West Bank, which they control. Protesters accuse Mr. Abbas of not doing enough to stop the carnage in Gaza — indeed, his own police officers have used clubs and tear gas against those same protesters.

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