Fatah

Once-legendary Fatah figure makes a comeback

by Paul Woodward 09.01.2009

Once-legendary Fatah figure makes a comeback By Richard Boudreaux, Los Angeles Times, September 1, 2009 He ran the Gaza Strip like the Godfather, dispensing brutal punishment and benevolent largess. But that was before his summer of disgrace, two years ago, when Hamas militants drove out his armed followers and allowed looters to pick apart his [...]

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Big challenges ahead for Mahmoud Abbas

by Paul Woodward 08.18.2009

Big challenges ahead for Mahmoud Abbas By Helena Cobban, IPS, August 14, 2009 Mahmoud Abbas, the 74-year-old leader of the Palestinian Fatah movement, registered a significant achievement in holding the movement’s Sixth General Conference, which has been wrapping up its business in Bethlehem in the Israeli-occupied West Bank this week. But veteran Palestinian analysts say [...]

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Jewish Fatah delegate nominated to Revolutionary Council

by Paul Woodward 08.09.2009

Jewish Fatah delegate nominated to Revolutionary Council Ma’an, August 9, 2009 A Jewish member of Fatah was nominated for a spot on the movement’s Revolutionary Council on Saturday. Vowing to step up lobbying efforts worldwide if elected, Dr Uri Davis told Ma’an one of Fatah’s weakest attributes has been its failure to establish ties with [...]

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Fatah: We’ll sacrifice victims until Jerusalem is ours

by Paul Woodward 08.08.2009

Fatah: We’ll sacrifice victims until Jerusalem is ours Haaretz, August 8, 2009 The status of Jerusalem as the future capital of a Palestinian state is a red line that no Palestinian leader is permitted to cross, President Mahmoud Abbas’ ruling Fatah faction declared in the West Bank on Saturday. According to Israel Radio, the Fatah [...]

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Forecasts of West Bank violence may well come true

by Paul Woodward 08.05.2009

Forecasts of West Bank violence may well come true By Avi Issacharoff, Haaretz, August 5, 2009 Last weekend the State of Israel discovered the “other” West Bank. With suspicious timing, almost all the Israeli media devoted broad coverage to the improvement in the living conditions of the Palestinians in the West Bank, the increased freedom [...]

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Fatah conference aims to boost its radical credentials

by Paul Woodward 08.04.2009

Fatah conference aims to boost its radical credentials By Tony Karon, Time, August 4, 2009 While much of the younger generation of Fatah — and many of its leaders who remain in exile — are contemptuous of the leadership of Mahmoud Abbas, to which they attribute their movement’s political demise, they don’t plan to try [...]

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Hamas chief outlines terms for talks on Arab-Israeli peace

by Paul Woodward 07.31.2009

Hamas chief outlines terms for talks on Arab-Israeli peace By Jay Solomon and Julien Barnes-Dacey, Wall Street Journal, July, 2009 The chief of Palestinian militant group Hamas said his organization is prepared to cooperate with the U.S. in promoting a peaceful resolution to the Arab-Israeli conflict if the White House can secure an Israeli settlement [...]

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Fatah’s leadership crisis deepens

by Paul Woodward 07.25.2009

Fatah’s leadership crisis deepens By Helena Cobban, IPS, July 24, 2009 Fifty years ago, a small group of Palestinian teachers and engineers living in Kuwait founded a secretive movement aimed at liberating those portions of previously British-ruled Palestine that became the State of Israel in 1948. The group they founded, Fatah, went on to dominate [...]

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NEWS & ANALYSIS: Trusting Hamas

by Paul Woodward 02.03.2008

All power to Hamas … By Sami Moubayed, Asia Times, February 2, 2008 During the years 2000-2006, Hamas obtained all the war medals it needed by steering what has become called the al-Aqsa Intifada. There was no higher reward for the leaders of Hamas than an esteemed reputation in the Islamic world, the ability to [...]

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NEWS & OPINION: Winograd; Jerusalem; Palestinian talks

by Paul Woodward 01.31.2008

Olmert: His own shlemiel, or Bush’s? By Tony Karon, Rootless Cosmopolitan, January 31, 2008 While Israel’s Winograd Commission has certainly pulled no punches in excoriating the Israeli military and political leadership for their botched war in Lebanon last summer, there appears to be a massive lacuna in its conclusions. (I’m not even going to get [...]

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NEWS, ANALYSIS & OPINION: Hamas calls the shots

by Paul Woodward 01.25.2008

Hamas accepts invite to host Hamas-Fatah talks in Cairo Haaretz, January 26, 2008 Hamas on Friday accepted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s offer to host talks between rival Palestinian Fatah and Hamas leaders in Cairo. Mubarak’s offer was made in an apparent effort to raise his country’s role as Mideast peace broker and ease the pressure [...]

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ANALYSIS & EDITOR’S COMMENT: “Hamas chalked up a real coup”

by Paul Woodward 01.24.2008

Gaza border breach shows Israel that Hamas is in charge By Avi Issacharoff and Amos Harel, Haaretz, January 24, 2008 A few Israel Defense Forces Engineering Corps officers surely shed a tear yesterday while viewing the television reports from Rafah: The barrier built by the IDF with blood and sweat along the Philadelphi Route, on [...]

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NEWS, ANALYSIS & OPINION: A deadbeat’s peace process

by Paul Woodward 01.20.2008

Gaza City plunged into darkness BBC News, January 20, 2008 The only power plant in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip has shut down because of a lack of fuel, Palestinian officials say, blaming Israeli restrictions. Gaza City was plunged into darkness after the plant’s turbines stopped. Israel’s closure of border crossings amid continued rocket fire from [...]

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NEWS: Hamas no compromise on prisoners; Fatah’s popularity falling

by Paul Woodward 01.04.2008

Meshal: No compromise on terms for Shalit deal AP, January 4, 2008 The exiled leader of the militant Palestinian Hamas group said Friday that Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit, captured by Hamas-linked militants in a cross-border raid in June 2006, will not be released without the freedom of Palestinians held in Israeli jails. “The [...]

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NEWS & ANALYSIS: Aid to Abbas; divide and rule hasn’t broken Hamas

by Paul Woodward 12.19.2007

Palestinians ‘win $7bn aid vow’ BBC News, December 17, 2007 Foreign aid of at least $7bn (£3.5bn) has been pledged to the Palestinians at a major donors’ conference in Paris, France’s foreign minister has said. The figure cited by Bernard Kouchner exceeded the $5.6bn over three years which Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas had asked for. [...]

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NEWS & OPINION: IDF moves into Gaza; two non-states for one people

by Paul Woodward 12.12.2007

Israeli forces move into Gaza By Steven Erlanger, New York Times, December 12, 2007 Israeli troops accompanied by about a dozen tanks moved into southern Gaza on Tuesday, a day before Israelis and Palestinians were due to hold their first talks on a comprehensive peace following the American-led conference in Annapolis, Md. The Israelis went [...]

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OPINION & INTERVIEW: A process that can’t be faked

by Paul Woodward 12.10.2007

Saudis welcome Meshal in bid to broker new Hamas-Fatah talks By Avi Issacharoff, Haaretz, December 10, 2007 Saudi Arabia and Egypt are pushing Hamas and Fatah to meet in an effort to resolve the deep rift in the Palestinian movements, as Hamas political leader Khaled Meshal visits Riyadh this week. Hamas spokesman Ayman Taha said [...]

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NEWS, ANALYSIS & OPINION: After Annapolis

by Paul Woodward 12.03.2007

One PA – with Hamas By Zvi Bar’el, Haaretz, December 2, 2007 As much as the Annapolis conference sought to be “in favor” of the peace process, it measured its success in its ability to be “against” – against Iran, against Hezbollah, against Syria and against Hamas. This is an ostensibly simple and convincing method [...]

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The Annapolis Peace Train

by Paul Woodward 11.28.2007

The Annapolis Peace Train – destination unknown By Paul Woodward, War in Context, November 28, 2007 For an event which right up to the last minute was scrambling in search of content (Glenn Kessler provides a useful decoding of the declaration), no effort was spared in putting together a solid stage presentation. The image behind [...]

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NEWS, ANALYSIS & OPINION: Annapolis in context

by Paul Woodward 11.26.2007

In Annapolis, conflict by other means By Robert Blecher and Mouin Rabbani, Middle East Report, November 26, 2007 Both Abbas and Hamas are betting, in opposite directions, on the Annapolis meeting and the process it may spawn. Abbas hopes to show that bilateral negotiations can achieve what resistance cannot, both in terms of diplomatic process [...]

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NEWS: Abbas calls for overthrow of Hamas

by Paul Woodward 11.15.2007

Abbas calls for Hamas overthrow in Gaza AP, November 15, 2007 Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday called for the overthrow of Gaza’s Islamic Hamas rulers, his first explicit call that they be removed. “We have to bring down this bunch that took over Gaza with armed force, and is abusing the sufferings and pains [...]

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OPINION, NEWS & ANALYSIS: The Palestinian struggle

by Paul Woodward 11.13.2007

Hamas and Fatah are betraying Arafat’s legacy Editorial, Daily Star, November , 2007 Yasser Arafat has been dead for three years, harried to an early death by the Israeli siege of his battered presidential compound in Ramallah. Two camps – his own secular Fatah faction and the Islamist group Hamas – that claim to carry [...]

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NEWS & EDITOR’S COMMENT: PLO rejects recognition of Israel as religious state; Hamas and Fatah fight

by Paul Woodward 11.13.2007

Erekat: Palestinians will not accept Israel as ‘Jewish state’ By Barak Ravid, Haaretz, November 12, 2007 Saeb Erekat, chief negotiator for the Palestine Liberation Organization, rejected on Monday the government’s demand that the Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state. In an interview with Israel Radio, Erekat said that “no state in the world connects [...]

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NEWS: U.S. approves Gaza invasion; Abbas talks to Hamas

by Paul Woodward 11.03.2007

‘U.S. okays IDF wide-scale Gaza op’ By Yaakov Katz, Jerusalem Post, November 3, 2007 The United States has given a “green light” to an IDF operation in the Gaza Strip, the Lebanese newspaper, Al-Akhbar reported Saturday morning. The report cites “credible diplomatic sources” as saying that American approval came after Israeli intelligence impressed on US [...]

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