The Hamas-Fatah Reunion

[Jroc]

The cruel farce known as the peace process took another downturn this week as Fatah and Hamas signed a unity agreement in Doha, Qatar.

It’s not the first such agreement they’ve signed, and none of the previous instances was a smashing success. Most notably, the two sides’ Mecca Agreement of February 2007 collapsed four months later in Hamas’s bloody ouster of Fatah from Gaza; and the agreement reached in Cairo last May never got off the ground.

This time, though, there may be a crucial difference. It has to do with the mounting momentum of what’s called the Arab Spring.

Hamas was long the Sunni odd-man-out in Iran’s Shiite-dominated alliance. This year, though, top Hamas officials have had to leave Syria for refusing to support Bashar Assad’s brutality against the largely-Sunni populace. Meanwhile Hamas’s star has been rising again in the Sunni world—as evidenced by Gazan Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh’s recent well-received tour of Turkey, Tunisia, Egypt, and Bahrain.


Israeli analyst Jonathan D. Halevi suggests Hamas is “trying to implement the strategy of the Arab Spring in the Palestinian arena.” On the background of the Islamist ascendancy in the region, Hamas sees its position among the Palestinians as strong and believes it will easily defeat Fatah in the elections envisaged by the Doha agreement.

If so, what’s in it for Fatah? In Halevi’s view, its leaders have the same perception as Hamas and believe their brand of relatively secular nationalism is on the downswing in the West Bank and Gaza as in most of the Sunni Arab world. Hence, in signing the Doha agreement, “the Fatah leaders prefer swimming with the current”—trying to hitch themselves to Hamas instead of fighting it—“to sinking beneath it.”

The terms of the agreement seem to bear out that analysis. A new unity government of technocrats is supposed to be set up, with Abbas as prime minister—but only for an interim stage. This government’s main task would be preparing for presidential and parliamentary elections in the West Bank and Gaza. Since Abbas is currently president, his own rule would be on the line.

The Hamas-Fatah Reunion | FrontPage Magazine

 

[Jroc]

I think not..

Panetta: Israel, Get to the "Damn Negotiating Table"

US President Barack Obama declared in ringing tones Wednesday, Nov. 30, "We don't compromise when it comes to Israel's security. No ally surpasses Israel in importance to the US." Three days later, US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta in a lecture to the Brookings Institute was crystal-clear about what America expects Israel to deliver in return.

He cited "Israeli estimates" to argue against an Israeli strike against Iran's nuclear facilities because "it would set back (the program) by one to two years at best." He urged Israel to take risks and get to "the damn negotiating table" with the Palestinians, and "mend fences with countries like Turkey, Egypt and Jordan, which share an interest in regional stability"- in view of Israel's "growing isolation in a volatile region."

The content and tone of the defense secretary's lecture were clearly designed to rebut Israel Defense Minister Ehud Barak's comments Thursday, Dec. 1, that as a sovereign state, Israel is bound to determine its own security needs and the ultimate responsibility for its national security rests with the government in Jerusalem and the Israeli Defense Forces - no one else.

 

[Ropey]

He's making it clear who he thinks is at fault. Jroc. Small wonder Israel now sees the Obama administration as no friend.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZBjTGSDNT4]IceCream.flv - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Jroc]

He's making it clear who he thinks is at fault. Jroc. Small wonder Israel now sees the Obama administration as no friend.

IceCream.flv - YouTube

Yep.... Smoke and mirrors, Obama and his people are good at it that's for sure. Sadly too many American Jews don't see it

 

[Ropey]

He's making it clear who he thinks is at fault. Jroc. Small wonder Israel now sees the Obama administration as no friend.

IceCream.flv - YouTube

Yep.... Smoke and mirrors, Obama and his people are good at it that's for sure. Sadly too many American Jews don't see it

Well, they are far more concerned with America Jroc. It's understandable that the average people are not getting this double speak.

What I don't get is that the above average thinkers should see the incongruities between the words. Those trained in any understanding of diplomacy?

They know!

 

[Jroc]

He's making it clear who he thinks is at fault. Jroc. Small wonder Israel now sees the Obama administration as no friend.

IceCream.flv - YouTube

Yep.... Smoke and mirrors, Obama and his people are good at it that's for sure. Sadly too many American Jews don't see it

Well, they are far more concerned with America Jroc. It's understandable that the average people are not getting this double speak.

What I don't get is that the above average thinkers should see the incongruities between the words. Those trained in any understanding of diplomacy?

They know!

Maybe... but one can be so blinded by their political ideology they can't see clearly, that’s the problem, it's happened throughout history



[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FO725Hbzfls"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FO725Hbzfls[/ame]

 

[P F Tinmore]

I have my doubts about the reconciliation. Abbas refuses to keep up his end of the bargain.

As Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said in response to Doha:

the Palestinian Authority must choose between an alliance with Hamas and peace with Israel. Hamas and peace do not go together…. I say to Abu Mazen [Abbas]: You cannot hold the stick by both ends. It is either peace with Hamas or peace with Israel; you cannot have it both ways.

Of course there is no peace with Israel. They have been holding fake peace talks for 20 years and they are farther from peace now than they were then.

 

[P F Tinmore]

RAMALLAH, (PIC)-- Hamas MP Fathi Qarawi has said that the Doha declaration proved Hamas’s keenness on reconciliation and constituted a test for PA chief Mahmoud Abbas.

The lawmaker told the PIC on Sunday that there were various opinions within Hamas on this declaration but said that it reflected a positive aspect.

Qarawi lashed out at the PA in Ramallah for not abiding by any of the reconciliation requisites, adding that arrests were still going on in the West Bank and dismissals for political affiliation were still rampant.

Hamas has done whatever it could to ensure success of the reconciliation and the ball now is in Abbas’s court, he elaborated.

MP: Doha declaration proves Hamas

 

[Sunni Man]

Obama's second term is going to be great for America.

Israel..................not so much

 

[P F Tinmore]

WEST BANK, (PIC)-- All inter-Palestinian reconciliation agreements especially the last one known as the Doha declaration seem to have not curbed the Fatah-controlled Palestinian authority and its forces from carrying out political arrests and job purges against Hamas cadres and supporters.

In Tulkarem city, the family of detainee Anas Raddad said the PA security apparatuses refused to comply with a court decision issued three months ago ordering the release of its son.

Even with Doha agreement, political arrests and purges ongoing in W. Bank

 

[docmauser1]

Obama's second term is going to be great for America.

Shariatically speaking.

Israel..................not so much[

Oh, that arab dream of the US fighting their war for them, like in Kosovo, of course.