Palestinian reconciliation goes forward slowly: Haneya
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
August 30, 2011 - 12:00am

Implementing the Palestinian reconciliation deal takes a long time, Prime Minister of the deposed Hamas administration in Gaza Ismail Haneya said Tuesday. "The implementation is going on very slowly," Haneya said during a mass prayer in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip to mark the end of Muslims' fasting month of Ramadan. "The reconciliation should be based on clear principles and concentrated choices that do not give up any of those principles," Haneya added, stressing on the option of armed resistance against Israel.

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Gaza NGOs express 'horror' at new Hamas travel restrictions on Palestinians
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Amira Hass - August 30, 2011 - 12:00am

The Hamas government in the Gaza Strip recently imposed new travel restrictions on Palestinians active in non-governmental organizations in what the Palestinian NGO Network regards as another Hamas attempt to control and hamper them. What do you think about this article? Visit Haaretz.com on Facebook and share your views.

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Ashrawi: UN statehood bid no threat to PLO
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
August 26, 2011 - 12:00am

Palestinian lawmaker Hanan Ashrawi said Thursday that the plan to join the United Nations as a state would not threaten the PLO's rights in the world body. Ashrawi, a senior PLO member, disputed arguments by international law expert Guy Goodwin-Gill, who has informed the Palestinian team that the initiative could terminate the legal status held by the PLO in the UN. Ashrawi said that "this step will not eliminate the role of the PLO," and Palestinian refugees have nothing to fear from the bid to join the UN, which is expected to be submitted in September.

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Gaza PM: We will not recognize Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
August 26, 2011 - 12:00am

Prime Minister of the Hamas-run Gaza government Ismail Haniyeh restated Friday his party's position that they will not recognize Israel. In an address to worshipers gathered at An-Nour mosque in Gaza City for the last Friday of Ramadan, Haniyeh said "we will not leave any centimeter of Palestine, and we will not recognize Israel and the occupation." The Hamas chief called the revolutions sweeping the Arab world, "the introduction for Palestinian liberation."

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Fatah official: Hamas requested elections delay
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
August 24, 2011 - 12:00am

Fatah central committee member Mahmoud Al-Aloul on Tuesday said Hamas requested the postponement of local elections. In a statement, Al-Aloul said a delegation representing Hamas requested that the vote be postponed until reconciliation with Fatah was finalized. President Mahmoud Abbas issued a decree on Monday postponing local West Bank elections, scheduled for Oct. 22, "until appropriate circumstances" exist. The October vote was planned to take place in the West Bank and the elections commission said Hamas had blocked efforts to organize elections in the Gaza Strip.

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Woman injured as missile hits Rafah
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Masry Al-Youm
August 24, 2011 - 12:00am

A missile from Gaza that hit Rafah in North Sinai Wednesday has left one woman injured, a source told the state-run news agency MENA. The woman was transferred to a hospital for treatment after the missile landed in Rafah's Nafoura Square. MENA did not give further details about the incident. The missile may have been fired by Hamas in Gaza at southern Israel. Palestinian factions on Monday announced a ceasefire following bloody clashes at the border between Gaza and Israel. But some factions rejected the truce.

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Resentment toward Hamas grows among Gaza's budding middle class
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
August 23, 2011 - 12:00am

A budding middle class in the impoverished Gaza Strip is flaunting its wealth, sipping coffee at gleaming new cafes, shopping for shoes at the new tiny shopping malls, and fueling perhaps the most acrimonious grass roots resentment yet toward the ruling Hamas movement.

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Israel apologizes for Egyptian soldiers' deaths
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Jeffrey Fleishman, Edmund Sanders - August 21, 2011 - 12:00am

Eager to head off a diplomatic crisis with its most important peace partner, Israel apologized to Egypt on Saturday over the deaths of three Egyptian soldiers who were accidentally killed last week during an Israeli military incursion into the Sinai peninsula.

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Foreign funds for Hamas hit by Syria unrest-diplomats
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Nidal al-Mughrabi - August 21, 2011 - 12:00am

Iran has cut back or even stopped its funding of Hamas after the Islamist movement, which rules the Gaza Strip, failed to show public support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, diplomats said Sunday. Hamas has denied that it is in financial crisis but says it faces liquidity problems stemming from inconsistent revenues from tax collection in the Gaza Strip and foreign aid.

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Israel has no strategy
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Nahum Barnea - (Opinion) August 21, 2011 - 12:00am

The same story repeats under all our governments: Following a terror attack, both sides embark on a chain reaction of attacks and counter-attacks. At the end of the day, the battle is over who will be firing the last rocket; who will emerge as a hero and who will be the chicken.

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