Hamas

Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas to form unity government

by News Sources 02.06.2012

The Guardian reports: The rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas have agreed to form a new unity government in the West Bank and Gaza, which will be headed by Mahmoud Abbas, it was announced on Monday. Reconciliation talks between the two factions have struggled to make progress since an agreement in principle was signed last [...]

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Turns out Hamas isn’t really an Iran proxy

by News Sources 02.01.2012

Paul Scham writes: One of the most enduring epithets for Hamas, right up there with “terrorist,” is “proxy.” If you Google “Hamas Iran proxy,” you get 1,750,000 hits. The idea that the relationship between Sunni Hamas, the Gaza affiliate of the Muslim Brotherhood, and Shia Iran was merely a marriage of convenience and not a [...]

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Hamas political chief to step down

by News Sources 01.21.2012

The Guardian reports: Khaled Meshaal, the political head of Hamas, is to step down from his position when elections for the leadership of the Palestinian Islamist organisation take place in the next few months. A statement from Meshaal’s office said the Damascus-based leader would not seek re-nomination after 16 years at the helm, but would [...]

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Israeli war drums ignore Hamas move for change

by News Sources 01.01.2012

Gideon Levy writes: The writing is clearly on the wall. The head of the Hamas political bureau, Khaled Meshal, has ordered his group’s military wing to stop terrorist attacks against Israel, saying his organization will make do with popular protest. Hamas is declaring that it supports a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders, and the [...]

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Hamas forces ordered to cease attacks on Israeli targets, Palestinian sources say

by News Sources 12.30.2011

Haaretz reports: Hamas leader Khaled Meshal has instructed the group’s military wing to cease attacks on Israeli targets, senior sources in Fatah say. The sources say Meshal issued the order based on understandings between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Meshal during their recent talks in Cairo. Israeli defense sources say they are unaware of such [...]

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Israel shouldn’t ignore Palestinian reconciliation deal

by News Sources 12.28.2011

Zvi Bar’el writes: [T]hanks to Syria’s murderousness, along with help from Egypt and support from Jordan, Hamas is reexamining the map of the region’s political topography and changing course: no more armed struggle against Israel, but a popular struggle, meaning demonstrations and civil disobedience, as well as a willingness to drop its previous preconditions for [...]

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Hamas’s Haniya applauds, Israel denounces PLO unity moves

by News Sources 12.24.2011

AFP reports: The Hamas premier of Gaza, Ismail Haniya, praised steps toward reconciliation taken by the Islamist group and its former rival Fatah, which were angrily denounced in Israel. Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal took steps in Cairo on Thursday towards reforming the Fatah-dominated Palestine Liberation Organisation, such that Hamas could [...]

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Hamas responds to the Arab Spring

by News Sources 12.22.2011

The Washington Post reports: Buoyed by the success of Islamist movements in countries swept by the Arab Spring, Hamas, the militant Islamist group that rules the Gaza Strip, is showing signs of pragmatism as its sense of isolation fades. The organization is jockeying to reposition itself amid shifting terrain in the Arab world. It is [...]

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Hamas moves away from violence in deal with Palestinian Authority

by News Sources 12.18.2011

The Guardian reports: Hamas has confirmed that it will shift tactics away from violent attacks on Israel as part of a rapprochement with the Palestinian Authority. A spokesman for the Hamas prime minister, Ismail Haniya, told the Guardian that the Islamic party, which has controlled Gaza for the past five years, was shifting its emphasis [...]

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Hamas edges closer to the mainstream: agreeing to nonviolence, opening the door to recognizing Israel

by News Sources 11.27.2011

Time magazine reports: The leaders of the two biggest Palestinian parties met in Cairo on Thanksgiving, and just going by the headlines afterward, you’d have thought nothing had happened. “Palestinians talk unity, no sign of progress,” said Reuters. AP: “Palestinian rivals talk, but fail to resolve rifts.” But read the stories, and it becomes clear [...]

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New winds in Mideast favor Hamas

by News Sources 11.23.2011

The New York Times reports: For years, the imposing black gate that sealed the border between Egypt and Gaza symbolized the pain and isolation that decades of conflict have wrought on this tiny coastal strip, especially under Hamas in recent years. But recently, the gate has come to represent a new turn for the increasingly [...]

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Jordan seeks Palestinian respect by offering Hamas a new home

by News Sources 11.23.2011

Zvi Bar’el reports: Jordan’s King Abdullah is not an innovative leader. But last week he surprised Arab leaders and the whole world by becoming the first Arab ruler to call on Syrian President Bashar Assad to resign. “If I were in his shoes, I’d step down,” he told the BBC. This declaration set off a [...]

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Hamas is becoming what it says it opposes

by News Sources 11.10.2011

Chris McGreal reports: Samah Ahmed is once again a prisoner of Gaza, but this time it is at the hands of Hamas not Israel. Years of travelling relatively freely after Israel lost control of the enclave’s border with Egypt came to an abrupt halt a few months ago when Ahmed’s strident criticisms of Hamas caught [...]

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Visions of slaughter: Jennifer Rubin, Rachel Abrams and the Washington Post

by Paul Woodward 11.08.2011

Here’s the post that got this story rolling. It’s written by Rachel Abrams and appears on her blog, Bad Rachel, and is her bloodcurdling response to the release of the Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, on October 18: GILAD!!!!!!!!!! He’s free and he’s home in the bosom of his family and his country. Celebrate, Israel, with [...]

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The flotilla and the siege of Gaza

by News Sources 11.08.2011

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Inside the Mideast prisoner swap

by News Sources 10.23.2011

Ali Abunimah writes: In recent days, we’ve witnessed the rare spectacle of Israelis and Palestinians celebrating at the same time. Ironically, this was the result of negotiations between the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Palestinian resistance organization Hamas, which Israel and the United States describe as “terrorists.” It was a moment [...]

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Why was Shalit deal reached now?

by News Sources 10.21.2011

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The value of talking to Hamas

by News Sources 10.19.2011

Gershon Baskin, a columnist for the Jerusalem Post and founder and co-director of the Israel Palestine Center for Research and Information, describes his role in securing the release of Gilad Shalit. But suppose a Post colleague of his such as Caroline Glick had been given the same opportunity. For the sake of upholding the “principle,” [...]

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Gilad Shalit and the end of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process

by News Sources 10.18.2011

Tony Karon writes: As momentous as Tuesday’s release of Sergeant Gilad Shalit and 477 Palestinian prisoners (with another 550 to freed within two months) may be, it is unlikely to be a game-changer — or a milestone on the road to peace. Indeed, while the spectacle of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu breaking the ostensible taboo [...]

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The deal behind the “Shalit deal”: prisoners, power, racism

by News Sources 10.18.2011

Toufic Haddad writes: Passing judgment on the Shalit deal cannot take place from a detached precipice of moral or political purity but, rather, must derive from an appreciation for the basic balance of forces at play between the contending parties and their historical precedents in relations between one another. There are no absolute criteria for [...]

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Israel, Hamas reach Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange deal, officials say

by News Sources 10.11.2011

Haaretz reports: Israel and Hamas have reached a prisoner exchange deal that will secure the release of abducted Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit, officials at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Tuesday. Officials in the Prime Minister’s Office said that “a brief window of opportunity has been opened that would possibly lead to [...]

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Hamas leader differs with Iran’s leader on Palestinian bid for statehood

by News Sources 10.04.2011

Richard Silverstein has a report which hasn’t appeared elsewhere in the English-language media. The article which originally appeared in Farsi on Iran’s Radio Farda says: Khaled Meshal, head of the political office of Hamas in Syria said that the request of Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian Authority, for recognition of an independent Palestinian state [...]

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Tony Judt: Israel is a country fast losing touch with reality

by News Sources 09.15.2011

On July 6, 2010, a month before Tony Judt died and shortly after Israel’s deadly attack on the Mavi Marmara, he was interviewed by Merav Michaeli, a columnist for Ha’aretz. Merav Michaeli: How do you see Israel’s actions in the Flotilla affair? Tony Judt: The characterization that comes to mind is “autistic.” Israel behaved in [...]

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The mysterious raid on Eilat: why no one wants to dig too deep

by News Sources 09.09.2011

Karl Vick and Khan Younis report: A month after an unusual terror attack killed eight Israelis along a desert highway approaching the Red Sea, the incident remains shrouded in mystery, especially in Gaza, where Israeli officials insist the complex, military-style attack was orchestrated but where no group has taken responsibility. “Usually the problem is more [...]

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