 by Khaled Abu Toameh Arab journalists are under growing pressure from the Palestinian governments in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to avoid “hanging the dirty laundry in the open.” Arab journalists are often taught that they should place the interests of their leaders, governments and homelands before above anything else, including the facts and the truth. Americans and Europeans who are pouring billions of dollars on Abbas and Fayyad need to be aware of the absence of an independent media in the West Bank. One can understand why the Iranian-funded Hamas is repressing journalists, but there is no reason why American and European taxpayers should be funding a regime that has no respect for independent reporters. If the West nevertheless insists on dealing with corrupt secular regimes to keep radical Muslims away, then Washington and its Western allies should demand good government and free media.
Western donors have every right to demand something positive in return for their money. The financial corruption and lack of democracy and freedom of expression is, meanwhile, driving many Arabs into the open arms of Hamas and al-Qaeda. Journalists are forced to go and work in the international or even Israeli media to be able to practice some form of real journalism. The absence of a free and independent media in the Palestinian territories has driven a majority of Palestinians to rely on foreign media outlets as a reliable source of information. Public opinion polls have even shown that most Palestinians prefer Al-Jazeera to the Hamas and Fatah media. The pressure is taking place in the context of the power struggle between Fatah and Hamas that has been raging in the Palestinian territories since the Islamist movement won the parliamentary elections in January 2006. Since then, the two rival parties have been waging a smear campaign against each other, using every available platform to discredit and undermine one another. Many local journalists have found themselves caught in the middle of this ongoing dispute. In the West Bank, the Western-backed “moderate” government of Mahmoud Abbas and Salam Fayyad has been exerting pressure on journalists to “toe the line” and refrain from reporting news that might reflect negatively on the two men. Abbas and Fayyad are using the US-trained Palestinian policemen not only to crack down on Hamas supporters in the West Bank, but also to silence critics and intimidate local reporters and editors. Some journalists who have dared to publicly criticize the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank have either found themselves behind bars under the pretext of “supporting” Hamas - an allegation aimed at keeping human rights organizations and Westerners silent. Other journalists who are not renowned as Fatah loyalists often receive threats over the phone directly from officials close to the Palestinian leadership in Ramallah. This policy has resulted in the creation of a media that is not much different than the ones existing under Arab dictatorships. The three major Palestinian newspapers, Al-Quds, Al-Ayyam and Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, are controlled, directly and indirectly, by Abbas and Fayyad loyalists. Criticism of these two men and their policies in the local media is unheard of. Moreover, the overwhelming majority of journalists who seek jobs with the Palestinian media in the West Bank are required to be Fatah loyalists. Of course no one is expecting Abbas and Fayyad to employ Hamas-affiliated journalists, but what about those who don’t belong to any political faction? And there’s certainly no shortage of fine and independent Palestinian journalists. Hamas’s attitude toward Palestinian journalists in the Gaza Strip has not been any better. Many journalists living there are afraid to speak out or report stories that might anger Hamas. Under this frightening atmosphere, many of these journalists nowadays sound as if they are Hamas spokesmen. A free media is one of the basic foundations of a healthy and prosperous society. It’s also an important element in the construction of a solid infrastructure for the much-desired Palestinian state. Hudson New York 
 Gaza's Hamas rulers have suffered back-to-back setbacks with Israel's successful test of a rocket shield and Egypt's push to block smuggling tunnels. The Iron Dome rocket defense system, reportedly to be deployed near Gaza in May, would deprive Hamas of its main leverage against Israel – the threat of rocket salvos. Egypt's underground anti-tunnel barrier of steel beams, now under construction, could eventually cut Hamas' supply of cash and weapons. The looming double squeeze is poised to limit Hamas' options and change the rules of engagement on Gaza's volatile, blockaded borders. However, the Islamic militants remain firmly entrenched in the territory they seized from their Western-backed Fatah rivals in 2007. Hamas has already struck back against the steel wall by trying to rally public opinion against Egypt and experts warn Hamas could attempt to renew suicide attacks in Israel if rockets are intercepted. Hamas "can adjust to any new circumstances," said Ahmed Yousef, a political adviser to Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, without giving specifics. He said more pressure on the movement would only make it more popular. Following IDF's cast lead operation in Gaza a year ago to stop the daily barrages, rocket and mortar fire ebbed but did not stop. Meanwhile, basic goods, cash and weapons kept coming in through tunnels from Egypt, in addition to limited humanitarian supplies Israel lets through one of its crossings into Gaza. Israel's Iron Dome and Egypt's steel wall could change the equation, analysts said. This "weakens the position of Hamas in the strip and confronts them with a challenge, on ... the Egyptian and the Israeli front," said Ephraim Halevy, former chief of the Mossad. "They will now have to devise a strategy to face up to these new developments." Israel announced Wednesday that it successfully tested the Iron Dome system, which intercepts short-range missiles of the type fired from Gaza and Lebanon. Developed at a cost of more than $200 million, it shoots down incoming rockets within seconds of their launch, the Defense Ministry said. The system is so sophisticated that it can almost instantly predict where a rocket will land, changing its calculations to account for wind, sun and other conditions in fractions of a second. Security officials acknowledged the system is expensive and will probably not be able to stop every rocket. Nonetheless, they said it is an important development in protecting Israelis and will strike an important psychological blow to Hamas. The first battery is to be deployed in May to shield the town of Sderot near Gaza, the most frequent target of rocket attacks in recent years. Uzi Rubin, a former top Defense Ministry official who was in charge of the long range anti-missile Arrow project, said changes will be profound. "Until now, we were totally exposed to anyone in Gaza who had a rocket to shoot at Israel," he said. "The ability (of Hamas) to cause losses and casualties in Israel will be greatly diminished." Abu Obeida, spokesman for Hamas' military wing Izzedine al Qassam declined comment on Iron Dome. A Hamas security officer in Gaza City, who is not linked to the military wing, shrugged off Israel's shield, saying it would be very expensive to shoot down every rocket. He refused to be quoted by name, in keeping with Hamas practice. Ted Postol, an expert on missile defense at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said he was not familiar with all the details of Iron Dome, but believed it could help protect small communities from direct hits. However, he said it was not clear if the system could stop a massive rocket barrage, and the high cost could also be a problem. A homemade projectile costs less than $200, he said, while intercepting one would cost around $100,000. However, experts say the cost will drop once the system is in mass production. Rubin, the former Defense Ministry official, said the shield is worthwhile anyway, citing the high human and economic cost to communities that live under rocket threat. For now, cross-border friction typical of the recent years still plays itself out. On Wednesday, Hamas loyalists clashed with Egyptian troops over Egypt's border wall. An Egyptian border guard was killed and seven Gazans were wounded in a brief exchange of fire. Egypt's Foreign Ministry issued a stern warning, saying it would not stand for another violent protest on the border. Some, meanwhile, have questioned the effectiveness of the steel wall, saying tunnel smugglers could simply dig deeper. Khaled Hroub, a Hamas expert and lecturer at Cambridge University, said he believes the recent developments will restrict Hamas' military options, but not its control over Gaza. YNet
 Ali Waked The Palestinian Authority has arrested a Palestinian who was allegedly involved in last Thursday's shooting attack, which left Rabbi Meir Hai killed. Ynet has learned that the Palestinian military intelligence arrested the suspect, who is considered a close friend of the three cell members.
A Palestinian security official confirmed the arrest in a conversation with Ynet, but refused to say whether the man is suspected of being personally involved in the attack or whether he was arrested as part of the PA's efforts to prevent a response to the assassination of the three Fatah cell members in Nablus on Saturday.
The PA continued its efforts over the past day to calm the Fatah members and security officials who fear that the Nablus assassination marks the end of the truce with Israel and a return to the pursuit of wanted Palestinians.
The Palestinians fear that those who were pardoned by Israel will continue to be pursued. The last Palestinian detainee is also included in the list of Palestinians pardoned by Israel. The police forensics lab determined Sunday that one of the rifles seized from the Palestinians who were killed in Nablus was used in last week's murder of Rabbi Meir Hai.
The M-16 rifle, which belonged to Tanzim member Anan Sabah, was found to be compatible with the bullet shells found at the scene of Hai's murder. Sabah had been released from an Israeli prison as part of the amnesty deal with the Palestinian Authority in 2007, in which Israel agreed not to hunt down Palestinian gunmen who agreed to lay down their arms.
"No two weapons leave the same indentation on the ammunition," a police official said Sunday. The lab test results are admissible in court. YNet
 By KHALED ABU TOAMEH Egypt's decision to build an underground metal wall along its border with the Gaza Strip has triggered a crisis between Cairo and Hamas. Hamas leaders believe that the wall is being constructed as part of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's desire to punish the Islamist movement for its refusal to sign an Egyptian-engineered "reconciliation accord" with Fatah several weeks ago. Moreover, Hamas believes that Mubarak is also seeking "revenge" because the movement has preferred German mediation to Egyptian involvement in the negotiations with Israel over the release of IDF soldier Gilad Schalit. In both cases, Mubarak felt humiliated by Hamas's actions. In assuming the role of mediator between Hamas and Fatah, Mubarak was hoping to succeed where other Arabs, specifically the Saudis, Yeminis and Qataris, had failed. Just when the two sides appeared to be on the verge of signing a "reconciliation agreement" under the auspices of the Egyptians last October, Hamas bolted. Hamas justified its decision to stay away from the signing ceremony by citing Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas's failure to support a resolution at the United Nations in favor of the Goldstone Report into Operation Cast Lead. Hamas's decision not to sign the accord with Fatah was seen by Palestinians and Egyptians as a severe blow to Mubarak's personal prestige and Egypt's standing in the Arab world. Mubarak was hoping that the agreement would help Egypt restore its long-lost status as one of the most influential Arab countries. On the personal level, he was hoping that success in resolving the Hamas-Fatah crisis would reaffirm his standing as a powerful and historic leader, thus improving the prospects of his son, Jamal, to succeed him. Similarly, Mubarak was hoping that a prisoner-exchange agreement between Hamas and Israel would be achieved through Egyptian mediation. But in recent weeks he has been forced to see Hamas dump Egyptian negotiators in favor of German security officials. Some Hamas representatives have openly chastised Mubarak's negotiators for being "biased" in favor of Israel. In other words, Hamas is telling the world that it trusts the Germans more than it trusts its Muslim brothers in Egypt. Relations between Hamas and Cairo have been tense ever since the movement took full control of the Gaza Strip in June 2007. Since then, the Egyptians have done almost everything to isolate and weaken the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip. This includes the continued closure of the Rafah border crossing and other restrictions imposed by Egyptian authorities. The Egyptians' main concern is that Hamas would "export" its radical ideology to Egypt.
Reports about increased cooperation between Hamas militiamen and Egyptian smugglers and members of other Islamic fundamentalist groups in Sinai have prompted the Egyptian security forces to beef up their presence in the area. Tensions between Hamas and Cairo reached their peak last month with the death of a Hamas operative in an Egyptian prison. The victim was the brother of Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri. Hamas rushed to accuse the Egyptian General Intelligence Service of torturing the man to death. The allegation was broadcast on many Arab satellite TV stations, seriously embarrassing Mubarak, whose spokesmen have since been struggling to convince Arab and Muslim viewers that the Hamas man died of natural causes. Over the past few days, Hamas militiamen have opened fire several times on Egyptian border policemen and laborers who are involved in the construction of the metal wall. The shooting incidents have also escalated tensions between the Hamas leadership and Cairo. An all-out confrontation between Hamas and Egypt will undoubtedly undermine Mubarak, because it will make him appear as if he's helping Israel and the US in their war against the movement. A confrontation will also send the message that Mubarak is also involved in the "siege" on the Gaza Strip. Hamas, on the other hand, stands to win from a standoff with a regime that is regarded by many Arabs and Muslims as a puppet in the hands of the Israelis and Americans. And any victory for Hamas is also a victory for Damascus and Teheran. JPost
 GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — A healthy man in blockaded Gaza faked cancer, hoping the deadly disease would be his ticket out of the territory that has become an open-air prison for its 1.4 million residents. His ploy failed, but several thousand others succeeded in fleeing this shabby sliver of land this year using bribes and fake medical reports, a sign of Gazans' desperation over growing poverty and misery under the strict border closure enforced by Egypt and Israel since Hamas militants overran Gaza in June 2007. The blockade has few loopholes. Israel allows passage to top business people and a limited number of Gazans seeking treatment for serious illnesses. Egypt sporadically opens its border for university students and those with residency abroad. Everyone else is stuck, even as Palestinian polls suggest nearly half the population would like to leave if they could.
Deepening the Gazans' sense of imprisonment, they must now also obtain permission from the Hamas government before attempting to leave, further complicating an obstacle-ridden path to freedom. Those trying to bribe their way out usually approach middlemen who put them in touch with local doctors, Palestinian health officials or Egyptian bureaucrats and military officials. Akram Ghneim, 31, an unemployed father of six living off food handouts, told The Associated Press he promised $260 to a Palestinian middleman, who obtained for him a bogus medical report saying he had cancer. Ghneim said he hoped he'd get a rare spot on the list of Gaza patients with life-threatening illnesses who are allowed to enter Israel for treatment. Once in Israel, he planned to disappear and work illegally. But Israeli intelligence officials, who review applications, rejected him last summer, saying his cancer report was forged. "This is what the blockade does," said Ran Yaron, of the Israeli group Physicians for Human Rights, which helps bring Gazans into Israel for treatment by lobbing Israeli defense officials. "Most are frustrated and devastated people." Yaron said fakers are a minority, but clog up the system for real patients who have to go through longer checks as a result. Of more than 7,000 Gazans who crossed into Israel this year to seek medical treatment, some 500 haven't returned, said Col. Moshe Levi, an Israeli defense official. Some stay in Israel, while others move to the West Bank, a territory controlled by Israel but partly administered by Palestinians loyal to Fatah, bitter rivals of Hamas. One Fatah loyalist, a healthy 30-year-old woman, said she was desperate to leave Gaza after being harassed by Hamas officials. She bribed a Gaza doctor with $100 to certify she had "whatever cancer could only be treated in Israel." The doctor then paid off a physician serving on a Palestinian committee that certifies medical reports for Israeli military officials, the woman said. She eventually succeed in reaching the West Bank and spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of being sent back to Gaza by the Israeli authorities. More at FoxNews
 A shopkeeper from Bethlehem who was branded a terrorist in Sacha Baron Cohen's film Bruno is seeking $110m (£67.5m) in damages. Ayman Abu Aita is suing Baron Cohen, US talk show host David Letterman and others for libel and slander according to a lawsuit filed in the District of Columbia federal court last week. The actor and comic Baron Cohen plays a gay Austrian fashion journalist in the film, which was released in the UK in July. Keen to become what he calls "the most famous Austrian since Hitler," Bruno travels to the middle east, and in a short interview with Abu Aita, asks to be kidnapped in an attempt to become famous. A caption labels Abu Aita as a member of the militant al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, the armed wing of the Fatah movement. He is a member of the board of the Holy Land trust, a non-profit organisation that works on Palestinian community-building. Cohen was interviewed on David Letterman's talkshow in the US, and said finding a "terrorist" to interview for the movie took several months and some help from a CIA contact. He said he had feared for his safety during the interview with Abu Aita, which he claimed took place at a secret location. According to the lawsuit, however, the interview with Abu Aita took place at a hotel chosen by Cohen in a part of the West Bank that was under Israeli military control. The film's distributor, NBC Universal, and the director, Larry Charles, are also named in the proceedings. Abu Aita case is that before the film he "enjoyed a good reputation for honesty and a peaceable nature" in his community. His lawyers write that any accusations or insinuations that Abu Aita is or ever was associated with the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, or any other terrorist activity, is "utterly false and untrue." His US lawyer, Joseph Peter Drennan, said Abu Aita was never offered a release to sign to appear in the film. "This is an important lawsuit because it is about the dignity of a specific person. It is about his reputation, about his standing in the community." Drennan said he expects a hearing in late January. Hatem Abu Ahmad, Abu Aita's Arab-Israeli lawyer, said Baron Cohen made millions "on the back of my client." His 2006 film Borat also attracted lawsuits, including one for $30m from two residents of the Romanian hamlet where Borat's "home town" scenes were filmed. Most of the cases were thrown out. Guardian
 Fatah had made a strategic decision to declare a third intifada against Israel, movement officials told Nazereth-based newspaper Hadith Anas, citing the failed peace talks as the reason for their resolution.
The newspaper report quoted Fatah Central Committee members as saying that the movement wished to implement a decision made during its sixth convention, which assembled last August in the West Bank city of Bethlehem.
One of the movement's top officials interviewed by Hadith Anas said the third intifada will have a widespread popular base, adding, however, that unlike the previous popular struggle against Israel, which was sparked in September 2000, the movement will not endorse an armed struggle or the use of firearms.
"We want thousands of Palestinians to demonstrate daily near the settlements of the occupation, carrying out a human siege, and calling for the end of the occupation," one senior official said.
According to the report, Fatah chief and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas agreed to the resolution in principle, stipulating only that the struggle mustn't become a violent one.
Sources estimate that Abbas could prepare the conditions which would allow for such a move by stepping down as PA President as well as by declaring the dissolution of the PA by the end of the year.
Fatah officials had commented recently on the need to duplicate the weekly anti-separation fence rallies in the villages of Na'alin and Bil'in in locations across the West Bank, as well as turning some of those demonstrations against nearby settlements.
A senior member of an Arab-Israeli Knesset party, who maintains close ties with top Fatah and PA officials, said that anti-separation fence rallies could spark renewed popular resistance, if they continued to escalate as they did week ago near the Kalandia checkpoint.
The official said that PA sources have come to understand that unarmed popular resistance, centering on symbols of the West Bank occupation, could garner sympathy for the Palestinian cause in international circles as well as embarrassing the Israeli government.
"The first intifada gained significant diplomatic ground as far as the Palestinians are concerned since its symbol, a boy throwing rocks at a tank, made it impossible for Israel to claim it was defending itself against terror as it did in the second intifada, followings the city-center bombings," the official said.
 Hamas authorities did an about face on Saturday and dropped a plan to keep schools in the Gaza Strip open on a Palestinian holiday founded by the rival Fatah faction. An official with Gaza's Education Ministry said schools would shut down on Sunday, designated as an "independence day" for Palestinians, "in order to avoid misinterpretation of the decision to keep it a regular school day". A ruling issued on Friday to keep the schools open drew criticism from non-Hamas factions in Gaza as well as ordinary people who have been living under the Islamist movement's administration since it seized control from the Western-backed Fatah in the territory in 2007. Fatah still holds sway in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and enjoys US recognition, while Hamas is largely isolated in Gaza over its refusal to accept permanent co-existence with the Jewish state. Egypt has been trying to broker factional reconciliation. Sunday is the anniversary of the symbolic Nov. 15, 1988 declaration of independence by the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Arafat, and Fatah, subsequently negotiated interim peace accords with Israel that secured Palestinians some self-rule. Source: Ynet
 FOR all the talk of road maps and roads to peace, if ever harmony comes to the Middle East, it will need to travel along Highway 60 -- the road that winds north from Jerusalem towards the troubled Palestinian city of Nablus. It is in Nablus, one of the oldest and most important cities on the West Bank, that so many of the tensions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict intersect. A frail ceasefire exists between three Palestinian factions -- Hamas, Fatah and the Islamic Jihad -- while the Israeli Defence Forces stand at the main checkpoint into Nablus. This city of about 200,000 people still has many problems but it has made great progress. During the worst of the second intifada, in 2002 and 2003, this was a war zone. Palestinian youths clashed nightly with Israeli troops. Nablus is rebuilding after the disaster of the intifada. These days, its youths seem more interested in turning up to An-Najah University than confronting Israeli soldiers. Markets were doing well, building was going ahead and if the standard of cars -- four Mercedes in one block -- is anything to go by, at least some people were doing well. It is impossible not to notice on the top of a mountain overlooking Nablus the palace of the wealthiest man in the West Bank, billionaire Munib al-Masri, whose company Padico owns the lion's share of the Palestinian Securities Exchange. Cities such as Nablus, Jenin and Ramallah have become important beacons for two key players -- the Palestinian Authority and Israel. The PA points to Nablus to argue that their more moderate positions -- which include doing business with Israel -- lead to economic benefits as opposed to Hamas's "armed resistance" model under which 1.5 million Gazans live in despair. The Israelis point to Nablus to argue that for any peace to hold, Palestinians need to have a stake in economic benefits. There are some bright spots, such as the first new cinema in Nablus in 22 years. Cinemas were closed during the first intifada, in 1987, as people stayed at home at night to avoid the fighting. Cinema director Bashir al-Shakah says opening such a complex five years ago would have been impossible. "No one will invest money in a war zone," he says. Attendances at the 175-seat cinema have been good and it has already hosted a film festival. Nudity is a no-no on screen but violence is permitted. Shakah says since the cinema opened in June, Muslim women, dressed in hijabs, have come to see what it's like watching a film in public. Many businesses, he says, closed during the second intifada. Whom do those people blame? "Both sides," he says. Today, Nablus is improving but the recovery is tenuous. Palestinian businessman Ahmad Aweidah wastes no words when asked the state of the Palestinian economy: "It's in tatters." Aweidah, 38, runs the Palestinian Securities Exchange, which has more than $US7 billion in deposits and $US2bn in loans. The stock exchange receives 15 per cent of its funds from foreign investors. Aweidah is contemptuous of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's claim he is trying to bring peace by boosting the Palestinian economy. "It's bull," he says. "It's just for media consumption. "Netanyahu doesn't want to pay the price for peace. He's not interested in removing settlements, he's not interested in a two-state solution but he has to say something. What he actually believes in is that Palestinians should pick up and go to Jordan." Aweidah says contrary to a professed desire to assist the Palestinian economy, Israel has introduced obstacles. "If Israel wants to see economic development on the West Bank, why do they keep all those restrictions on the Palestinian economy and the Palestinian Authority to do business? "If Israel is so interested in helping the Palestinian territories, why was the biggest direct investment into the Palestinian economy -- $US700 million for another phone system -- delayed for three years by Israelis?" The theme of deliberate obstruction is echoed in another meeting with a deputy mayor of Nablus, academic Hafez Shaheen. He says the world soccer federation, FIFA, has told Nablus it will pay the entire construction cost of a new football and sports stadium on the edge of the city. But Shaheen says the site approved by FIFA is part of "Area C" of the West Bank, which means that under the Oslo accords it is under Israeli army control. Nablus has paid for the site to be levelled but Israel, he says, has refused to approve the soccer stadium. "We are still under occupation," Shaheen says. "The Israeli army are only 10m from Nablus. "I can't leave the country without their permission, I need their permission to dig a well, I need their permission to construct a football field." But nor does Shaheen speak well of the Palestinian Authority. PA security officers turned up to the council one day and took him away, detaining him for two days. They also took away two of his sons. One son was held for months and still will not tell his father what happened in detention. Somehow, through all of this, Nablus and the West Bank more broadly need to find peace in their own ranks before they can bring about a peace with Israel that will hold. The Australian
 Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal urged Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Friday to stop seeking compromise with Israel but offered him an olive branch, saying Palestinians must end their divisions. Sounding conciliatory after raising the political ante against Abbas following his call for national elections last month, Mashaal said the Islamist group Hamas "stretches its hand" to Abbas' Fatah faction to end divisions between the two sides undermining the Palestinian cause. "Courage dictates that we, as leaders of the Palestinians, be frank with our people and evaluate what compromise has brought us, decide together to suspend or freeze the political settlement process and pursue our real national options," Mashaal told a rally in the Syrian capital. He said compromise with Israel, starting with the 1993 Oslo Accords, had failed to stop Israeli settlement expansion and brought Palestinians no closer to establishing an independent state in the land Israel has occupied since the 1967 war. Abbas suspended talks with Israel during the Israeli invasion of Gaza in December and US efforts to re-start them have since failed. Hamas has opposed the talks and rejected Western demands to recognize Israel, renounce armed struggle and accept existing interim peace deals. "Any leader who insists on the right of return for the Palestinian refugees and on restoring the land, even to the 1967 borders ... must know that the way to do this is not through negotiations or betting on the Americans but through holy struggle, resistance and national unity," Mashaal said. "Our hand is stretched out to reconcile with our brothers in Fatah and the Palestinian presidency to achieve our national project," he said, but did not make any new proposals for reconciliation after Hamas rejected an Egypt-mediated deal. Hamas won a Palestinian parliamentary election in 2006, defeating the once-dominant, more secular Fatah, and won a brief civil war the following year in the Gaza Strip against Fatah. Abbas then sacked the Hamas government and appointed his own administration in the West Bank.
 Hundreds of Fatah terrorists from Gaza have been living in Yehudah and Shomron (Judea and Samaria) for more than two years after fleeing from Hamas during bloody fights for control of Gaza in 2007. The Palestinian Authority has now filed an official request asking Israel to allow Fatah members to stay where they are. The roughly 400 terrorists who fled Gaza are unable to move freely throughout Yehudah and Shomron for fear that they will be stopped at a checkpoint and forced to return to their place of residence – Gaza – where, they say, they could face revenge attacks. A PA source said Israel has not refused the request outright, but has asked each of the 400 to submit an individual request for Yehudah and Shomron residency.
Israel is generally cautious about granting Gaza residents permits to move to Yehudah and Shomron out of concern that terrorists could move from place to place in order to set up new terror cells and plan attacks. Several dozen Fatah terrorists were killed in the 2007 battle for Gaza, and hundreds were wounded.
Intermittent Fatah-Hamas clashes have been reported in Gaza, Yehudah and Shomron over the past two years as well, and hundreds have been killed or wounded. Source: INN
 Craig Nelson, Associate Editor Hamas yesterday declared that it would not allow elections in the Gaza Strip early next year, further ratcheting tensions between the Islamist movement and Fatah.
The Hamas-run interior ministry in Gaza City said last week’s decree by the president, Mahmoud Abbas, calling for parliamentary and presidential voting on January 24 was made “by someone who has no right to make such an announcement”. Any campaigning was therefore illegal, said a ministry spokesman, Ehab al Ghsain. “Any preparations, any committees, any collecting of names will be regarded as an illegal action that we will pursue,” Mr al Ghsain said.
There was no immediate reaction from Mr Abbas’s office in Ramallah.
With the scheduled elections still 11 weeks away, it was not immediately clear if Hamas would follow through on its threat to ban campaigning and balloting in the Gaza Strip or whether it was another move in a game of political brinkmanship between the movement and the Washington-backed Mr Abbas.
The two have been sharply at odds since the long-dominant Fatah was defeated in parliamentary elections in 2006 and was driven out of Gaza 17 months later in a spate of violent confrontations.
The latest tiff in their long-running quarrel began last week, when Hamas spurned a draft reconciliation deal brokered by Egypt, which would have set June 28 as the date for the next election.
Although Mr Abbas and Fatah approved the pact, the Damascus-based leader of Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, insisted that the draft agreement must be amended to say Palestinians have the right to keep fighting Israel. In response to the rebuff, Mr Abbas issued the election decree, apparently in the hope of pressuring Hamas into shifting its position. With the latest imbroglio, both the Hamas government in Gaza City and the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority centred in Ramallah are apparently hoping that the election card will work in their favour. Mr Abbas could proceed with elections solely in the West Bank, and Hamas could act on its threat to hold its own balloting in the Gaza Strip – each camp blaming the other for the deep fault line running through Palestinian politics. In this game of chess, however, each side courts the risk that it will be held most to blame by Palestinians for that fault line.
Hamas has already been weakened by the continued economic embargo of the Gaza Strip, while Mr Abbas has been publicly reviled by many Palestinians for agreeing – under pressure from the United States – to delay action on a United Nations report detailing evidence of possible war crimes, mainly by Israel, but also by Hamas last winter. Mr Abbas has since reversed his position, but the renewed perception that he is more attuned to Washington and Israel than to the grievances of Palestinians has hurt him. For one thing, it appears to have emboldened Hamas in the latest scrap.
“We still stress the need for a reconciliation, but there were some changes on the ground, most important of which was the behaviour of the Palestinian Authority … which caused wide anger inside and outside Palestine,” Sami Khater, a Hamas official in Syria, told the Associated Press last week.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian divide gives the Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu a potent excuse to avoid dealing with the Palestinian issue at all and significantly weakens the demands of the Obama administration that it do so.
The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, is due on Sunday in Jerusalem and Ramallah, where she is expected to press Mr Abbas to reopen talks with Israel on a peace agreement.
Source: The National
 The Palestinian Authority, led by the Fatah party, admitted to a British newspaper that its security forces commonly use torture on prisoners, as charged by the Hamas terrorist organization.
The PA is heavily funded by overseas contributions as well as taxes collected for it by the Israeli government.
“This is a shame on the Palestinian Authority,” Haitham Arar, head of the human rights department of the PA Interior Ministry, told the Mail.
She admitted that torture, beatings and extra-judicial murders have been common in the Abbas administration.
Britain is sending police and intelligence officers to the PA to help train a new department on how to question prisoners without torturing them.
Most of the victims are supporters of Hamas, which took over control of Gaza in violent clashes with Fatah forces two years, resulting in dozens of deaths.
The London newspaper said that many of the torture victims were too afraid to talk of their ordeal. It quoted one young man who disclosed he had been “assaulted with a high-voltage device with electrodes ‘like fingers.’”
Source: INN
 Efrat Weiss Nine police officers were lightly injured Sunday stones and Molotov cocktails hurled at forces stationed at the Temple Mount as part of the high state of alert in the area. A female Australian reporter was lightly injured by stones in the Old City. Forces patrolling the area also noticed oil poured on the floor, apparently in order to cause the officers to slip and make their activity in the area more difficult. A police force entered the Temple Mount compound in order to catch the stone throwers, using shock grenades.
More than 18 people were arrested on the Mount and in its surroundings, including senior Fatah member Khatem Abdel Kader, who is charge of the Jerusalem portfolio in the Palestinian organization. Palestinians and members of the Waqf reported that at least eight worshippers were injured, but the police said they were unaware of any injuries.
Abdel Kader was arrested at the Temple Mount plaza after allegedly rioting, assaulting policemen and calling on worshippers to launch a parade. He was taken in for questioning by the Jerusalem Police's minority unit.
Three masked Arab men were arrested in the afternoon hours after hurling stones at the security forces in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Ras al-Amud. Police also detained Ali Abu Sheikha, No. 3 in the Islamic Movement's northern branch.
Abu Sheikha was arrested on suspicion of rioting and calling on residents to go out and demonstrate. In mid October he was detained on suspicion of inciting Arabs near the Temple Mount during the riots which began on Yom Kippur Eve.
Another incident was recorded when Knesset Member Ahmad Tibi (United Arab List-Ta'al) tried to enter the Temple Mount but was stopped by the police. "This is extremely severe," Tibi said in response. "The police are violating the law. It's not in their authority. The al-Aqsa Mosque is not a closed military zone."
Police Commissioner Dudi Cohen told reporters while visiting the Mount, "I identify many large groups of east Jerusalem Arabs and Israeli Arabs who have arrived here following calls made by the Islamic Movement, whose leaders are here. I call on them to practice restraint and calm and not to incite.
"The Jerusalem Police will act firmly against any rioters on the Temple Mount. The inciters are the same people you know. It's impossible that the Israel Police will have to deal with the Islamic Movement every Sunday, and so we will handle this on the investigative level."
He clarified that the police did not enter the al-Aqsa Mosque and had no plans to do so.
The Jerusalem Police accused elements in the Islamic Movement and Hamas of inflaming the situation after calling on youngsters to riot on the Temple Mount on Saturday.
Read more here,,,,
Source: YNet
 Today, Fatah and Hamas were supposed to sign their reconciliation agreement in Cairo. Unsurprisingly, there is no agreement to sign. Palestinian politics is played as a game of chicken, with brinkmanship the increasingly preferred tactic in the struggle for control of the Palestinians’ ideological future. Mahmoud Abbas’s unilateral declaration on Friday that elections will be held in late January drew harsh criticism from Hamas, which now threatens to hold a parallel election in the Gaza Strip. For Fatah, it is a calculated bet that Hamas will be forced to participate in the polls or risk becoming irrelevant. Hamas hopes its intransigence will wring concessions from Fatah and thus bolster its waning legitimacy. Successive attempts at forging a unity agreement after the ejection of Fatah from Gaza in 2007 have failed to make any headway.
Hamas is unwilling to cede the gains it made in the 2006 elections by sharing power with Fatah, and Fatah is unwilling to give a majority stake in government to a party that seeks to erase or reshape decades of political agreements with the Israelis.
The deadlock has persisted for so long because neither party had enough clout among Palestinians to force concessions from the other. That is now changing, mostly because of the actions of Hamas; it has overplayed its hand.
While it was technically elected to power by the Palestinians in their first election in 10 years, Hamas had reason to object to a key proponent of the unity agreement: ceding sole control of the Gaza Strip. However, its term of office will be over in January 2010. Mr Abbas can legitimately call for elections; should Hamas make good on its threat to hold separate elections in Gaza, it would become as culpable as Fatah. The greatest criticism levelled at Fatah, and what ultimately led to its defeat in the 2006 elections, is its tendency to be above the law. Yet Hamas is in danger of becoming seen as the same, and, even worse, duplicitous. When Mr Abbas’s term as president expired in January, Hamas demanded that he step down. Instead, he unilaterally extended his term by an additional year. Now, when Mr Abbas makes good on his promise to hold elections for both the legislative council and the presidency, Hamas is opposed to the idea. To the ordinary Palestinian, Hamas’s machinations are growing increasingly tiresome. This is especially true given Hamas’s poor governance of Gaza. While the Gaza Strip was blockaded by Israel, international aid was funnelled through Fatah into the West Bank and training was given to the Palestinian security forces to turn them into an increasingly respected police force. Hamas’s policy platitudes appeared hollow as the people of Gaza suffered deprivations while the West Bank was relatively secure and prosperous. Hamas continues to assure the Palestinians of their impending victory over Israel, but all the Gazans see is a defunct economy in which basic necessities are difficult to come by. Hamas’s prevarications have been exposed, and so it fears the ballot. The danger is that in the absence of a popular mandate, Hamas will resort to arms to reassert itself. But unless it is willing to honour previous agreements made in the peace process there is no room for it at the bargaining table. Its zero-sum politics have failed to accomplish anything meaningful, and it is past time that it turned to more productive paths to achieve what it says it wants: a Palestinian state. Source: The National
 by Khaled Abu Toameh
Hamas and Fatah have once again demonstrated that the power struggle that has been raging between the two parties for the past three years is not over who is going to bring democracy and prosperity to Palestine.
Nor is it over who is going to build schools, universities and hospitals.
They are not fighting over what is good for the Palestinians. They are fighting over money and power. This power struggle is one of the main reasons why the Palestinians are still far from reaching their goals, first and foremost the establishment of an independent state.
The two sides despise one another so tremendously that some Palestinians have been arguing that Hamas and Fatah hate each other more than they hate Israel.
Had it not been for Israel’s physical presence between the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip and the Fatah-dominated West Bank, it is highly likely that these two entities would be dispatching rockets and suicide bombers against each other.
Ironically, it is Israel that is preventing Muslims from killing Muslims. In the summer of 2007, when Hamas launched its “military coup” in the Gaza Strip, it was Israel that saved the lives of hundreds, if not thousands, of Fatah members and their families.
These Fatah operatives first tried to run away toward Egypt, but most were blocked by Egyptian security forces, which sent them to knock on Israel’s door for help. Israel was the only country that sent ships, ambulances and helicopters to save Muslims from being slaughtered by their Muslim brethren, to save Fatah from being destroyed by Hamas. Today, it is Israel’s presence in the West Bank that is preventing the ... Read more here,,,
 Ali Waked
Hamas decided to delay the signing of a reconciliation treaty with Fatah due to pressure from Iran and Syria, Senior Fatah figure Mohammed Dahlan said Monday.
Dahlan, a member of Fatah's Central Committee, told reporters in Ramallah that "due to the nature of its relations with Iran and Syria, Hamas is finding it difficult to reach a decision and is impeding internal (Palestinian) reconciliation because of foreign interests."
Egypt has been struggling to broker a reconciliation agreement between the two main Palestinian factions for months and this month proposed an agreement that would see new elections held in June.
Fatah has signed the agreement while Hamas has repeatedly postponed its official response, saying it needs more time to mull the deal.
"Hamas has a bigger stock of lies than Netanyahu," Dahlan said during the press conference, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
"They got everything they asked for in the Egyptian document, and we in Fatah knew that our position would draw fire from the sons of Fatah... But despite all this we agreed to it," he said. Dahlan insisted that in the absence of a deal Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who heads Fatah, would call elections for January in accordance with the constitution.
"We have taken our final decision to go to elections at the constitutionally appointed time... because we respect the law," he said.
Read more here,,,,
Source: YNet
 DAMASCUS, Syria — The Syrian-based leadership of the militant Palestinian Hamas said Thursday it has rejected an Egyptian-mediated proposal to reconcile with the rival Fatah group. Hamas and seven other Damascus-based Palestinian factions issued a joint statement saying the reconciliation plan must be revised to include a reference to the Palestinian right to resist Israeli occupation. "The wording submitted by Cairo to the factions makes no reference to the struggle (with Israel) and the aggression against our people," the statement said, adding the groups wouldn't sign the proposal unless it's amended. Hamas, a bitter rival of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah group, seized control of Gaza two years ago after routing out Fatah forces. The Palestinians have since had two rival governments, with Hamas in control of Gaza, while the Western-backed Fatah governs the West Bank. Egypt has been trying to mediate between the Palestinians, in a prelude to wider Mideast peace efforts that would include a peace deal with Israel. Fatah on Wednesday said it has accepted the Egyptian proposal to hold presidential and legislative elections next year as part of a broad package meant to end the bitter rivalry with Hamas, which has complicated U.S.-led efforts to forge peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Fatah says it signed the proposal and dispatched an envoy to Cairo with the response Thursday. Under the proposal, the Palestinians would hold presidential and legislative elections on June 28. In the meantime, Hamas would allow some 3,000 Fatah loyalists to return to duty in the security forces in the coastal Gaza Strip. Monitoring committees would work toward establishing a unified Palestinian security force for Gaza and the West Bank, while the rival sides would form a separate committee to work together to prepare for the elections. The Egyptian proposal has failed to address some key issues in the dispute — most importantly whether a unified Palestinian government would accept international demands to renounce violence and recognize Israel's right to exist. Hamas' refusal to recognize Israel was a major point of friction in a short-lived Palestinian unity government that disintegrated during the Gaza infighting. Hamas' top leaders live in exile in Syria because of fears of assassinations by Israel in the coastal area. The group's officials in Gaza made no immediate comment on the Damascus statement. There was also no word from Fatah in the West Bank, although the mainstream group threatened earlier Thursday to call an election before Jan. 25 if Hamas doesn't sign the Egyptian proposal. Source: FoxNews
 By KHALED ABU TOAMEH In another sign of increased tensions between Hamas and Fatah in light of the Palestinian Authority's controversial decision to abandon a vote at the UN Human Rights Council on the Goldstone Report, the Islamic movement on Sunday warned PA President Mahmoud Abbas against unilaterally calling new elections. The Fatah Central Committee on Saturday night urged Abbas to issue a presidential decree on October 25 for holding presidential and parliamentary elections. According to PA laws, Abbas is supposed to declare new elections three months before the end of his term and that of the Palestinian parliament. Hamas and Fatah were supposed to sign a "reconciliation agreement" in Cairo on the same day.
But the signing ceremony has been delayed at the request of Hamas, whose leaders made it clear that they would not be able to shake hands with Abbas following his decision to ditch the Goldstone Report. The Egyptian-brokered agreement calls for holding the elections during the first half of 2010. But now that the agreement has been delayed indefinitely, Fatah leaders are pressing Abbas to unilaterally declare new elections. Some have even gone as far as demanding that Abbas ban Hamas from participating in the vote. Members of the Fatah Central Committee strongly condemned Hamas for postponing the reconciliation ceremony and accused the movement of taking advantage of the Goldstone report "to undermine the legitimacy of the Palestinian Authority and President Mahmoud Abbas." Read more here,,,, Source: JPost
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by Khaled Abu Toameh
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