Arab Moderates Succeed Despite Obstacles
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Asharq Alawsat
by Tariq Alhomayed - (Opinion) January 11, 2009 - 1:00am

Moderate Arab diplomacy has succeeded in creating a UN resolution [UN Security Council Resolution 1860] in New York calling for a ceasefire and an end to Israeli aggression in the Gaza Strip. Arab moderates succeeded [in pushing for a resolution] despite the regional and Arab obstacles of some seeing an opportunity to attack Saudi Arabia and Egypt, and other moderate Arab countries such as the United Arab Emirates [UAE] and Jordan.

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Israel says Gaza war nearing end as fighting rages
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Agence France Presse (AFP)
January 11, 2009 - 1:00am

Israel indicated for the first time on Sunday that an end was in sight to its war on Hamas, amid some of the heaviest clashes of an offensive that has killed nearly 900 people in the Gaza Strip. Israeli troops pushed deeper into Gaza's main city, sparking some of the fiercest battles yet of the 16-day-old war that Israel launched in response to rocket fire, but that has failed to completely stop the rockets.

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Israeli troops, militants battle in Gaza suburb
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
by Ibrahim Barzak, Matti Friedman - January 11, 2009 - 1:00am

Israeli troops battled Palestinian gunmen in a suburb of Gaza City Sunday in one of the fiercest ground battles so far as Israel's military inched toward Gaza's population centers. A top Israeli defense official said Hamas has been badly hurt by the offensive in Gaza - especialy by the deaths of senior militants and shortages of ammunition - but predicted that the group would fight on. The group "is not expected to raise a white flag," military intelligence chief Amos Yadlin told the Israeli Cabinet Sunday.

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Israeli forces pound targets, draw near Gaza City
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
by Ibrahim Barzak, Josef Federman - January 10, 2009 - 1:00am

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli forces pounded dozens of targets and edged closer to Gaza City on Saturday while southern Israel came under renewed rocket fire after one of its quietest nights in the two-week offensive against Hamas. In the day's bloodiest incident, an Israeli tank shell landed outside a home in the northern Gaza town of Jebaliya, killing nine people as they sat outside in their garden. Separately, a woman was killed by an Israeli airstrike in the southern town of Rafah.

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Egypt, Abbas see no foreign force on Gaza border
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
January 10, 2009 - 1:00am

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt and the Palestinian Authority said Saturday they did not envisage any international forces in Egypt or on the Gaza border under a possible truce agreement between Israel and Gaza. Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki said Egypt had received no request. "No one has asked for this, and this is a non-issue for us," he said. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, after talks in Cairo with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, said: "We want an international presence in the Gaza Strip, and not on the Egypt-Gaza border."

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Gaza: international plan hatched to bring back Fatah
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Times
by James Bone, Martin Fletcher - January 10, 2009 - 1:00am

A plan to create a new foothold in Gaza for the Palestinian Authority and to bring in international monitors was being drawn up by diplomats yesterday as a UN ceasefire call was dismissed by both sides.

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Israel rejects UN truce resolution, widens Gaza ground op
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Barak Ravid, Shlomo Shamir - January 9, 2009 - 1:00am

The diplomatic-security cabinet rejected on Friday a United Nations Security Council cease-fire resolution and ordered the Israel Defense Forces to expand its current ground operation against Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip.

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'Viva la Gaza!'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Aluf Benn - January 9, 2009 - 1:00am

The list of objectives for Operation Cast Lead that the political-security cabinet dictated to the Israel Defense Forces on the eve of the operation was characterized by restraint. It included halting the rocket fire and terror, reducing Hamas' capacity to rearm, continuing talks with PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, striking a blow to Hamas' rule in Gaza, preventing a humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, and improving the odds for the release of abducted IDF soldier Gilad Shalit.

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United Nations Security Council Resolution 1860
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from United Nations News Service
January 8, 2009 - 1:00am

SECURITY COUNCIL CALLS FOR IMMEDIATE, DURABLE, FULLY RESPECTED CEASEFIRE IN GAZA LEADING TO FULL WITHDRAWAL OF ISRAELI FORCES Resolution 1860 (2009) Adopted by 14 in Favour, Abstention by United States; Also Calls for Unimpeded Humanitarian Assistance, Welcomes Egyptian Initiative

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Mideast Mediators Seek Anti-Tunnel Plan
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Craig Whitlock - January 6, 2009 - 1:00am

The biggest hurdle to winning a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, according to diplomats and Israeli military officials, is a problem that has bedeviled Israel for years: how to stop Hamas from digging tunnels into Egypt in order to bring tons of rockets and other weaponry into Gaza.

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