Diplomats: Hamas quietly scaling back Syria presence
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
by Nidal Al-Mughrabi - December 5, 2011 - 1:00am

GAZA CITY (Reuters) -- Dozens of Hamas operatives have quietly returned to Gaza from Damascus as the ruling party in the coastal strip scales back its presence in Syria and gauges the uncertain future of President Bashar Assad, diplomats said on Sunday. Hamas leaders deny they plan to quit the Syrian capital, where the group keeps its main headquarters outside the Gaza Strip. But diplomats and regional sources said the Hamas delegation in Damascus, which once numbered hundreds of Palestinian officials and their relatives, had shrunk to a few dozen.

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Iran threatening to cut Hamas funds, arms supply if it flees Syria
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Avi Issacharoff - December 5, 2011 - 1:00am

Iran had applied intense pressure to Hamas in an effort to persuade it not to leave Damascus, threatening even to cut off funds to the organization if it did so, Palestinian sources have told Haaretz. The Iranian pressure also included an unprecedented ultimatum - namely, an explicit threat to stop supplying Hamas with arms and suspend the training of its military activists.

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Hamas: Palestine is Palestine, Jordan is Jordan
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
December 2, 2011 - 1:00am

The Jordanian government understands that Hamas does not consider the possibility of Jordan as an alternative "homeland" for the Palestinian people, a member of Hamas's political bureau told pan-Arab daily Al Hayat in an interview published Friday. "[Our] brothers in Jordan know very well that we reject the idea of a surrogate homeland, an option still carried by some Israeli leaders," Izzt Al-Rishq told Al Hayat. "We do not accept any substitute for Palestine despite our appreciation and pride for Jordan." "Palestine is Palestine, and Jordan is Jordan," Rishq clarified.

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Hamas's Al-Zahar in hot water
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Asharq Alawsat
by Ali El-saleh - November 29, 2011 - 1:00am

London, Asharq Al-Awsat- Informed Palestinian sources have revealed to Asharq Al-Awsat that the Hamas Movement has been imposing severe disciplinary measures on Mahmud al-Zahar, member of the movement's Political Bureau, over remarks he made criticizing Khalid Mishal, head of Hamas Political Bureau. Al-Zahar has been critical of Mishal over his acceptance of a Palestinian State within the 1967 borders, and giving another time-limit period for the negotiations with Israel in his address to the ceremony of signing the reconciliation agreement in Cairo on 4 May 2011.

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Hamas-Appointed Court Fines Gaza Banks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Fares Akram, Ethan Bronner - (Analysis) November 18, 2011 - 1:00am

In what could be the first of many such decisions, a Hamas-appointed court this week ordered two major banks in Gaza to pay tens of millions of dollars in back fees and fines for refusing to accept the taxing power of the Hamas government, rather than its West-Bank-based rival, the Palestinian Authority. Bank officials, who boycotted the judicial hearings, said the decision, handed down by a lower court earlier this week, might force them to shut down temporarily, at least, further reducing access to money in this isolated coastal enclave.

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Hamas-Fatah meeting to bring no surprises: Fatah official
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
November 10, 2011 - 1:00am

RAMALLAH, Nov. 10 (Xinhua) -- Upcoming meeting between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the leader of rival Hamas movement, Khaled Mashaal, will bring "no surprises," a Palestinian official said Thursday. At the meeting initially set to be held in Egypt's capital of Cairo at the end of this month, the two rivals will discuss the future of the Palestinian National Authority and Palestine Liberation Organization in light of the setback in the peace process, said Azzam al-Ahmad, a senior member of Abbas' Fatah party.

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It's Either Abbas or Hamas
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Americans For Peace Now
by Ori Nir - (Blog) October 27, 2011 - 12:00am

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said this week that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas should leave his post soon and that "anyone who replaces (Abbas) will be better than he is." Lieberman called Abbas "an obstacle to peace." The firebrand foreign minister was talking about the same Abbas who Prime Minister Netanyahu called "my partner in peace," the same Abbas who Israel's President Shimon Peres recently characterized as "the best (Palestinian) leader we will work with," the same Abbas who former Shin Bet director Yuval Diskin this week called a "statesman."

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A chance for Hamas to find friends outside of Damascus
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Salman Shaikh - (Opinion) October 26, 2011 - 12:00am

In mid-March Khaled Meshaal, the Damascus-based leader of Hamas, spoke to Bashar Al Assad to express his concern about the Syrian regime's crackdown on popular protests spreading across the country. Mr Meshaal had been asked to do so by key supporters at a private meeting at his home in the Syrian capital a few days earlier.

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Hamas: Israel will not release top figures or criminals
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
(Analysis) October 24, 2011 - 12:00am

Israel will not release top security prisoners or common criminals in the second phase of the prisoner swap deal with Hamas, senior movement official Mahmoud Zahhar said Sunday. Under the second phase of the deal reached last week, 550 Palestinians -- who remain unnamed -- will be freed from Israeli jails within two months, coming after the release of 477 prisoners in exchange for captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit on Tuesday.

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Short-lived ramifications
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Shlomo Brom - (Opinion) October 24, 2011 - 12:00am

The exchange of 1,027 Palestinian prisoners for one Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, after years of campaigning and negotiating is a dramatic event that deeply affects Israeli public opinion and probably also Palestinian public opinion. Naturally, there is a tendency to look for broad and long-term implications of this recent development.

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