Fatah snubs new Hamas Palestinian unity initiative
Earlier in day, Hamas announced a reshuffle of its Gaza-based government, including the appointment of a new foreign minister.
By ReutersHamas has presented what it described as a new Palestinian unity initiative, a move widely seen as an attempt to pre-empt any public pressure for change in the territory it runs while revolt flares in the Arab world.
The proposal, raised with several factions at a meeting late on Wednesday, called for a unified leadership to handle Palestinian affairs until the Palestine Liberation Organization is restructured to include Hamas and the Islamic Jihad group.
Hamas's main rival, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement, boycotted the three-hour session and officials from other factions said no progress was made. Hamas, an Islamist group, seized Gaza from forces loyal to Abbas in 2007 and reconciliation efforts led by Egypt have gone nowhere.
Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said the new initiative showed the movement was serious about restoring unity. Fatah voiced scepticism.
"After four years of split, we need decisions not initiatives," Fatah spokesman Ahmed Assaf said in the West Bank, where the mainstream movement holds sway.
Drawing further Fatah criticism, Hamas announced on Thursday a minor reshuffle of its Gaza-based government, an administration sacked by Abbas after the 2007 armed takeover.
"The president had fired this government after Hamas carried out a coup, so the Hamas administration is illegitimate," said Assaf.
Hamas says Abbas, president since 2005, has no mandate to rule because Palestinian elections have not been held since 2006. Abbas said last month a poll promised by September would not take place if Hamas held fast to its refusal to allow voting in the Gaza Strip.
Rival factions had rejected a Hamas invitation to join the reshuffled government, which was approved by the group's legislators in Gaza on Thursday.
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Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa with Fatah and Hamas officials in Gaza, June 13, 2010. |
| Photo by: AP |
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to all mr. leftist and fake democracy lover like akiva,levy,sarid and benn and all rest how can you justify to make peace with group that they can not make peace within themself so you all are pissed off ok leave israel
give them a country to run together and you will have good fun watching them trying to make a go of it PA may do a lot worse than israel has been doing !
Fatah is dead. Their interests lie only within themselves and not the interests of Palestinians. The decent Fatah members are in jail or they have passed on.
Fatah has made many decisions in the past four years, including the decision to collaborate with the IDF against its own people, which is called genocide.
But no, Israelis only see bad things.
There's really not much that's actually positive about Hamas, not even for Palestinians, no matter what their act is. There COULD be, without a doubt, but its not likely to make the fundamental changes required for that to happen...and as long as that's true, its negative aspects will outweigh the positive, which is consistently reflected in Palestinian opinion polls.
I am praying that you will see the Truth, Israel is GOD's chosen nation. Those who are against Israel will be judged and punished by God. What you believe about my statement is no matter. What GOD believes, that is a huge difference. Read His Word and be at peace. Blessings.
And then there are hundereds other religions. Let's listen to what they say too, right?
Amazing how many just refuse to see it. And the thing is - it always works.
In fact, it is overdue. They take their orders from Washington, they stand in the way of Palestinian national unity, they think of nothing except filling their pockets, and now they are preparing to accept Natanyahu's plan. The Palestinians will get nowhere with these evil people in place. Another thing the Palestinians must learn. They must do something for themselves, or very soon they will find the world loosing interest in their cause and moving on to other causes. The world will not continue doing the lifting for them forever. And the first thing the Palestinians must do is change their leadership, starting with Abbas and Fatah.
They also suggest that no matter how much Fatah may be less than ideal, it is still preferred over Hamas by a substantial margin. Interestingly, that margin is even greater in Gaza, where Hamas actually rules.
I have not seen these polls, and I would very much want to know who ran them before I believe them, but that is not my point. My point is that the Palestinians need to clean up their act. They have a corrupt government and they need to change it. I am not urging them to replace Fatah with Hamas, that would be up to them. But they cannot expect the world to keep supporting them when their president sells them day in and day out and they do nothing to stop him.
....your performance is pathetic and the very opposite of the needs of your people. Shame on you. Before you come to the negotiating-table, and before you use UN as a lever in order to impose a solution on Israel, please - you have to sort out your own problems and get your act together. If you are unable to create reconciliation and peace among your own people, well then that says something about the prospects for a peacedeal between the palestinians and the israelis. Final point: the generation of Abbas has to go, and the iranian/syrian connection has to be severed. That would be good start.
Hamas is corrupt and steals the very truckloads of aid that Israel sends in daily. They resell parts of it to the highest bidder to finance their weapons purchases. Hamas intimidates imprisons tortures and murders their opponents. The population of Gaza is terrified. Fatah has given their people a better life because they have renounced terror, recognized Israel to some degree and do co-operate with Israel. The only way there will be peace with the Palestinians is when there is a unified leadership that can speak and negotiate properly with Israel. Until that happens no amount of concessions offered by Israel to Fatah will satisfy Hamas because they want to be in on the cash cow.
...that they are unable to do that. My comment was simply about this fact. The palestinian split is one of the biggest obstacles to peace. And nothing happens. Therefore, I repeat my conclusion: the palestinians deserves better leaders. The current protagonists, both in Gaza, Damascus and the West Bank, are useless. Shame on them.
Palestinian unity is not a good thing for Israel. Israel employs a lot of peope in a number of different intelligence services to keep various Arab factions at one another's throat, among the Palestinians and among various Arab nations. On one hand you can blame the Arabs for falling into this trap, but on the other hand, every person has their price. The job of Israeli intelligence is to determine the price for the behavior they want and then pay it. By using this method, it will work every time. Fatah are the long time dogs of Israel among the Palestinians. I suppose that Israel could pay off Hamas instead, but their price would be higher, and the Hamas "threat" actually works in Israel's favor. Fatah are the perfect dupes.
why do you think we are in this mess today.they are doing what isreal wants prolong the status qo,so they keep robbing and stealing,meanwhile Isreal steal more land and keep the occupation.get rid of these loosers,elect new govt,and move one.
what does that say "if" there is unity. At some point one of the partners will go back to their old ways and find a richer Sugar Daddy who can provide their side with even better goodies. Is that good for the Palestinian people--I think not. If I were a Palestinian Arab who lived in either Judea and Samaria, or Gaza. I would long for the "bad Israelis" who might have been nasty to me, but in the end they followed the rules if you insisted they stick to them.
Natalie, you are quite mistaken. If you think that Israeli intelligence needs to pay any attention, let alone money, in order to keep Arabs at each other's throats. They do this quite naturally without any assistanceor incentive.
They can't think for themselves or do for themselves; they have no motivations, no desires, no wants or needs other than what Israel tells them - that is essentially you point and it is a ignorant one. Actually Abbas and Fayyad have positioned the Palestinians better then Arafat, ever did or Hamas ever could. They are on the verge of getting a state and they have outmanuvered Israel on the international stage - some dogs