Israel Election leaves Mideast peace in doubt
In Israeli Vote Results, A Setback for Obama. President Obama’s ambition to move quickly on Israeli-Palestinian peace suffered a significant setback yesterday with the rightward shift apparent in nearly complete Israeli election results, analysts said.
EU Urges Israel to Allow More Aid Into Gaza
EU Urges Israel to Allow More Aid Into Gaza, Reopen Checkpoints
European Union foreign ministers pressed Israel to allow more food and medicine into the Gaza Strip and reopen border checkpoints as the only way to ensure a lasting cease-fire after three weeks of fighting.
Israeli troops pulled out of Gaza last week, ending a 22-day land, sea and air offensive aimed at halting the shelling of Israeli cities by Hamas, the militant Palestinian faction that controls Gaza.
Gaza Still In the Grip Of Hamas
Battered Gaza Still In the Grip Of Hamas
Israel waged war on Hamas for 22 days, but on the rubble-strewn streets of Gaza there is little question that the group retains a firm grip on power.
Hamas policemen wearing fatigues and cradling assault rifles stand guard at their usual posts, even where the buildings they have been assigned to protect no longer exist. Movement officials — some still in hiding, some back in public — coordinate cleanup efforts. And pro-Hamas preachers celebrate their “victory” in mosques overflowing with followers who say their devotion to the group has only grown after a war that cost nearly 1,300 Palestinian lives.
Important to note, that Hamas is democratically elected by Gazan people.
Gaza crisis centered on Clinton’s diplomacy agenda
Hillary Clinton’s diplomacy will be focused on Gaza crisis:
In cyclone-like international phone-call diplomacy, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has centered the Middle East crisis on her agenda, showing her determination to challenge the tough issue.
Clinton has phoned leaders or her counterparts of Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Britain, France, Germany, Czech, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Mexico, spokesman Robert Wood said on Friday.
“The secretary expressed the desire to work closely with them,” Wood said, adding that most of the phone conversations were focused on the crisis in the Gaza Strip.
“The Obama administration hasn’t fully enunciated its Middle East policy. It will do so in “an appropriate time,” said the spokesman.
