OFF THE WIRE :

• Guinea's Military Leaders Lobby Sub-Regional Leaders for Support
[VOA, 31 Dec 08]
• Somali insurgents vow to keep fighting
[AP, 31 Dec 08]
• Bomb blast targets Basque TV site
[BBC News, 31 Dec 08]
• Israeli aircraft continue raids on Gaza
[International Herald Tribune, 29 Dec 08]
• Israel strikes key Hamas offices
[BBC News, 29 Dec 08]
• Somali President Resigns After Failing to Bring Peace
[Bloomberg, 29 Dec 08]
• Lebanese Army dismantles eight rockets aimed at Israel
[International Herald Tribune, 26 Dec 08]

THE MIDDLE EAST, TURKEY & NORTH AFRICA :

Washington Post, 31 Dec 08, by Sudarsan Raghavan and Griff Witte
Israel Rejects Proposed Cease-Fire
'Assault on Gaza Strip Continues for Fifth Day as Rockets Fall on Southern Israel'

Washington Post, 31 Dec 08, by Griff Witte
Behind Gaza Operation, An Uneasy Triumvirate
'The Israeli campaign is being led not by a single commander in chief, but by a triumvirate of politicians. The three are known to mistrust one another deeply, but all have staked their futures on a highly risky military operation aimed at breaking Hamas's capacity to fire rockets at Israel.'

Christian Science Monitor, 29 Dec 08, by Joshua Mitnick
Gaza: Why Israel and Hamas are trading rocket fire
'Both sides are maneuvering for another ceasefire, and Israeli troops are not likely to invade the Gaza strip, say analysts.'

Washington Post, 29 Dec 08, by Griff Witte
Israel Poised for Long Fight
'Israeli officials said that they were prepared for an extended campaign in Gaza, possibly including ground forces, and that the goal is to break Hamas's military capacity.'

International Herald Tribune, 29 Dec 08, by Taghreed El-Khodary and Isabel Kershner
Israeli aircraft continue raids on Gaza
'In a third straight day of deadly air strikes against the emblems and institutions of Hamas on Monday, Israeli warplanes pounded targets in Gaza including the Interior Ministry while the Israeli army declared areas around the beleaguered enclave a "closed military zone."'

International Herald Tribune, 29 Dec 08, by Ethan Bronner
Israel reminds its foes it has teeth
'Israel's military operation in Gaza is aimed primarily at forcing Hamas to end its rocket barrages and military buildup. But it has another goal as well: to expunge the ghost of its flawed 2006 war against Hezbollah in Lebanon and re-establish Israeli deterrence.'

[ recent stories from the Middle East ]

AFRICA :

International Herald Tribune, 29 Dec 08, by Jeffrey Gettleman
Somalia's president resigns
'Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, Somalia's combative ex-warlord of a president who has been widely blamed for his country's deepening crisis, resigned on Monday, casting Somalia into a deeper political abyss, but at the same time possibly creating an opportunity. ... His exit will most likely kick off an intense, clan-based scramble for his post, which in reality has become increasingly irrelevant as the government has veered toward collapse.'

International Herald Tribune, 29 Dec 08, by Jeffrey Gettleman
Islamist militants in Somalia begin to fight one another
'Somalia's Islamist militants, long a bane of the country's weakening government, are now officially fighting one another. On Sunday, a powerful, newly militarized Islamist group declared a "holy war" against other Islamist factions, and it seems to have the muscle to back up its intentions.'

International Herald Tribune, 26 Dec 08, by Neil MacFarquhar
Sudan's north-south war still smolders
'While much of the world's attention has been focused on the crisis in Darfur, the stakes are much higher in southern Sudan. At more than 40 years, the war in the south lasted longer and was far more brutal than what Darfur has endured. An estimated two million people were killed and four million displaced in the 15 years before the 2005 treaty.'

[ recent stories from Africa ]

ASIA & THE PACIFIC :

BBC News, 31 Dec 08
China suggests talks with Taiwan
'President Hu Jintao of China has called for talks with Taiwanese leaders to ease military and security tensions.'

Christian Science Monitor, 31 Dec 08, by Anuj Chopra
Hasina (and democracy) return to Bangladesh
'This week's election ended two years of rule by a military-backed caretaker government.'

Christian Science Monitor, 30 Dec 08, by
Why Al Qaeda isn't gaining a foothold in Cambodia
'The post-Khmer Rouge nation is a portrait of tolerance for Muslims, but the US worries that this could change.'

International Herald Tribune, 29 Dec 08, by Somini Sengupta
No easy Indian response to Pakistan's troop shift
'Pakistan's redeployment of troops late last week to its border with India, from its tribal areas in the northwest, raised fears. ... Fear of a conflict in South Asia is unlikely to pass quickly, as Pakistan has resisted a broad crackdown on the militants India says were behind the Mumbai assault.'

[ recent stories from Asia and the Pacific ]

COMMENTARY & ANALYSIS :

International Herald Tribune, 30 Dec 08, by Benny Morris
Why Israel feels threatened
'Israelis, or rather, Israeli Jews, are beginning to feel much the way their parents did in those apocalyptic days [of 1967]. ... The foreboding has two general sources and four specific causes.'

Christian Science Monitor, 31 Dec 08, by Alan M. Dershowitz
Israel, Hamas, and moral idiocy
'Much of the world's response is a false moral equivalence that simply encourages the terrorists.'

International Herald Tribune, 30 Dec 08, by editorial staff
There's plenty of blame to go around for Gaza's war
'Before the conflict spins out of control, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries will have to find ways to cajole or more likely threaten Hamas (or its patrons in Syria and Iran) to accept a new cease-fire.'

Christian Science Monitor, 30 Dec 08, by Timothy Rieger
Needed in Gaza: US inspectors, peacekeepers, and aid workers
'The US response thus far to Israel's military operations in the Gaza Strip suggests that this double dose of human betrayal will be every bit the geopolitical phenomenon in the 21st century as it was in the 20th. The politics are different from the past, as are the weapons, but the human willingness to shaft the lives of innocents in the name of realpolitik hasn't changed a bit.'

International Herald Tribune, 28 Dec 08, by Rory Medcalf
China's gunboat diplomacy
'... with growing wealth, pride and ambition come expectations that Beijing will contribute to the safety of an interdependent world. It was only a matter of time before China, along with the other awakening giant India, joined the club of maritime security providers, using their fleets simultaneously for self-interest and the common good, whether fighting piracy, interdicting smuggling or delivering disaster relief.'

International Herald Tribune, 28 Dec 08, by editorial staff
Obama and Putin: How to improve relations
'America's leverage over Russia's behavior has been limited further by the widespread conviction among Russians that so long as they appeared to be weak, the United States took advantage of them. The war with Georgia was one result; the recent announcement of $140 billion in military procurement is another.'

Christian Science Monitor, 29 Dec 08, by editorial board
Beyond bombs and rockets in Gaza
'Israel and Hamas need help looking beyond their immediate concerns.'

Christian Science Monitor, 29 Dec 08, by Bennett Ramberg
India: Let Kashmir go
'... the possibility of war may intensify in years to come if India ramps up its "Cold Start" military doctrine. Cold Start transforms New Delhi's traditional focus on defense and lumbering mobilization of hundreds of thousands of troops to one that prizes nimble strikes against its neighbor within hours of crisis onset. The strategy assumes that occupation of limited Pakistani territory would be the bargaining chip to force Islamabad to heel. It also assumes that it could do this without crossing the nuclear threshold – not an easy feat where rivalries run deep.'

Washington Post, 29 Dec 08, by Jackson Diehl
Olmert's Final Failure
'Israel's new battle with Hamas in Gaza means that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will be remembered for fighting two bloody and wasteful mini-wars in less than three years in power.'

BBC News, 29 Dec 08, by Jonathan Marcus
Are Israel's war aims achievable?
'For all the chaos and bloodshed in the Gaza Strip, this is not Israel's final reckoning with Hamas.'

[ recent commentary and analysis ]

AFGHANISTAN & PAKISTAN :

Washington Post, 31 Dec 08, by Shaiq Hussain and Haq Nawaz Khan
Pakistan Launches Assault in Northwest
'Pakistan's military launched a major offensive Tuesday in the northwestern tribal region known as Khyber Agency, temporarily closing a key route used to supply U.S. and allied forces battling insurgents in neighboring Afghanistan.'

Washington Post, 31 Dec 08, by Pamela Constable
Attack Brings Military Focus Home
'With Pakistan and its army distracted by revived hostilities with neighboring India, a brazen suicide bomb attack Sunday by Islamist radicals in a northwestern village served as a jolting reminder that Pakistan still faces a real war at home, from an enemy that increasingly threatens to destabilize the Muslim nation of more than 170 million.'

Christian Science Monitor, 29 Dec 08, by Mark Sappenfield and Shahan Mufti
Tensions rise as Pakistan moves troops
'Reports of provocative actions by both sides – with local residents confirming the redeployment of Pakistani troops from the Afghan border – have forced the international community to step up efforts to break the deadlock. Influential new players such as Russia and China are becoming involved.'

[ recent stories from Afghanistan and Pakistan ]