Hasan Abu Nimah: An impossible reconciliation

Palestinians in Gaza wearing masks of Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh call for unity between the feuding groups. (Wissam Nassar/MaanImages)

One major stumbling block has been hundreds of Hamas political detainees held in Palestinian Authority and Fatah-controlled prisons in the West Bank. (The Palestinian Authority routinely denied such arrests, although Abbas announced that 200 Hamas prisoners would be freed on the occasion of the start of Ramadan.) Hamas also demands that Fatah security forces supplied, trained and supervised by US General Keith Dayton halt their crackdown on resistance fighters from Hamas as part of the American-backed plan for crushing any form of resistance to Israeli occupation.

This really is the heart of the matter. Hamas is in effect asking its Fatah/Palestinian Authority (PA) opponent to abandon its primary role undertaken as part of its “peace strategy” and its commitments to the so-called “international community,” the Quartet roadmap, as well as the Dayton plan. Fatah and the PA apparatus it controls adheres to this US-sponsored anti-resistance strategy as the primary condition for the continuation of international financing for the PA.

For full article, visit http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10742.shtml

The pitfalls of Palestinian national consciousness

Fatah leaders, including some of those newly elected to the Fatah Central Committee, pray next to the tomb of the late Fatah leader and founder Yasser Arafat, 13 August 2009.

True, the conference was held on Palestinian soil, but, ironically, under the watchful eye of Israeli soldiers. The failure of the Palestinian Liberation Movement (Fatah) to achieve any of its declared goals was symbolized in its holding the conference under occupation. This reflects not only the demise of Fatah — the faction that dominated the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) for decades — but the general demise of contemporary Palestinian nationalism.

For full article, visit http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10728.shtml

What Actually Happened in Fatah’s Elections?

In his WINEP speech Dayton acknowledged this crackdown when he said, “I don’t know how many of you are aware, but over the last year-and-a-half, the Palestinians have engaged upon a series of what they call security offensives throughout the West Bank, surprisingly well coordinated with the Israeli army.” He further admitted that during the 22-day Gaza war last winter, U.S.-trained Palestinian security forces prevented Palestinians in the West Bank from organizing mass protests against the Israeli army, which ironically allowed for the reduction of the Israeli military presence in the West Bank in order to redeploy those troops to Gaza. Dayton added, “As a matter of fact, a good portion of the Israeli army went off to Gaza from the West Bank— think about that for a minute, and the (Israeli military) commander (of the West Bank) was absent for eight straight days.”

For full article, visit http://www.counterpunch.org/amin08142009.html

Fayyad: “We have no political prisoners in our jails”

Salaam Fayyad

Meanwhile, Hamas movement stated Sunday that political arrests against its members are on the rise, an issue which contradicts what the rival Fateh movement and its affiliated security forces and officials are saying.

On Sunday, Hamas accused Fateh of firing employees from their government jobs due to their political affiliation.

For full article, visit http://www.imemc.org/article/61463

Abbas orders the release of 200 political prisoners

Maan added that Abbas told Egyptian security officials who visited Ramallah recently that “Fateh movement agrees to all of the demands of Hamas under the condition that Hamas agrees to presidential and legislative elections in 2010”. 

The statements of Abbas surprised the Egyptian team who immediately headed to Damascus to hold talks with Hamas’ political bureau leader, Khalid Mashal, to listen to his response.

For full article, visit http://www.imemc.org/article/61460

Amira Hass: Fatah’s gauntlet

If the results have been so disastrous, why are they not discussed openly? It is hard to hold a debate on the weapons fantasy when thousands of families have lost loved ones because of it. It is hard to hold such a debate when thousands of Palestinians have paid with their freedom, including many who never held a gun. It is hard to hold such a debate when people who participated in this fantasy have been elected to Fatah’s central committee. Moreover, such a debate might have addressed the way senior Fatah members used the “armed struggle” to divert public criticism of the PA and its failures, and salvage Fatah’s prestige as a liberation movement.

For full article, visit http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1108571.html

Hamas political chief: Israeli settlement freeze essential

“There is a new language from President Obama, but we expect real pressure on Israelis,” Meshal said. “There are demands Israel stop the settlements but this is not the price we are after … although it’s an essential step.”

For full article, visit http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1091790.html

Hamas: Fatah raids disrupting talks

“What is happening in the West Bank cannot be accepted,” Khaled Meshaal said on Tuesday after meeting Omar Suleiman, the Egyptian intelligence chief.

“We will pursue our policy in co-operating with the Egyptian efforts to reach a real reconciliation, but the most difficult obstacle hampering reaching a Palestinian reconciliation is what is happening in the West Bank,” he said.

Meshaal’s comments to the Cairo-based Arab League came after raids were launched across the Israeli-occupied territory by Fatah, led by Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president.

For full article, visit http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/200969204138605884.html

PFLP chief, in message from prison, chides PA for jailing fighters

The imprisoned Secretary General of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Ahmad Sa’dat, leveled criticism at the Palestinian Authority on Thursday for jailing members of armed resistance groups.

“It is impossible to demand freeing the detainees [from Israeli prisons] while the Palestinian prisons are full of prisoners jailed for resistance background or internal disputes,” he said in a message smuggled from his cell in Israel’s Ashkelon prison.

For full article, visit http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=37328

Report: Egypt threatening to step down as Hamas-Fatah broker

Egypt has threatened to withdraw its sponsorship of Palestinian unity negotiations if rival parties Hamas and Fatah do not reach an agreement soon, an Egyptian newspaper reported on Thursday.

According to the newspaper Al-Masryoun, if no agreement is reached before the end of May, Cairo will no longer play the role of broker in the unity talks.

For full article, visit http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=37322