PNA-Israeli direct talks illegal: Syria-based Hamas leader
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
August 25, 2010 - 12:00am

Damascus-based Hamas leader Khalid Mashaal said Tuesday that the direct talks between the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) and Israel are illegal and under U.S. coercion. "The direct negotiations lack for the Palestinian and Arab approval, which means they lack for the legitimacy," Mashaal said during an Iftar (the meal after fast over) on Tuesday. "Palestinian negotiators are isolated as they bet on the United States instead of the Palestinian people," he said.

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Israel Refuses Blair Request to Up Electricity to Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Media Line
by David Miller - August 25, 2010 - 12:00am

Israel has balked at a request to boost the amount of electricity it supplies to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip on grounds that it didn’t want to cooperate with “a terror organization.” Quartet Representative Tony Blair made the request Monday to Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Silvan Shalom on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, Blaire’s spokesman confirmed to The Media Line.

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Israeli and Palestinian extremists are attempting to sabotage negotiations before they begin
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ibishblog
by Hussein Ibish - (Blog) August 25, 2010 - 12:00am

I suppose it was to be expected, but the brazenness with which extremists on both sides are trying to sabotage upcoming Israeli-Palestinian negotiations is simply breathtaking. The far more serious effort is on the Israeli side, in which activists, and even members of the government, to the right of PM Netanyahu are trying to destroy the key to the talks, which was a private understanding between Netanyahu and Pres.

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Mash'al: Talks will eliminate Palestinian cause
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
August 25, 2010 - 12:00am

Hamas leader in exile Khaled Mash'al said a return to direct negotiations with Israel was "nationally illegitimate, carried out by force and American summons," on Tuesday. Mash'al, speaking at an iftar dinner held for journalists in Damascus, said the PLO Executive Committee's decision to endorse the talks was "an echo of Washington's orders," adding that consensus was not reached among Palestinian factions, with most of the 11 parties making up the PLO opposing a return to talks with Israel.

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Lure of the homeland fades for Palestinian refugees
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC World News
by Lina Sinjab - August 24, 2010 - 12:00am

The right of return for Palestinian refugees is a major sticking point in the upcoming US-sponsored Middle East peace talks, but some younger Palestinians - having never laid eyes on their ancestral homeland - say they do not actually want to go back. As a third-generation Palestinian growing up in Syria, Bissan al-Sharif says she feels rooted in Damascus. "I don't know if I would leave everything and go and live [in my ancestral village] because I don't know the place," says Ms Sharif.

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Before we talk to Hamas
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Ron Prosor - August 20, 2010 - 12:00am

Groucho Marx famously quipped: "Those are my principles, and if you don't like them … well, I have others." The International Quartet (the US, the UN, Russia and the EU) has long applied three principles Hamas must adopt to take part in negotiations. It must renounce violence, recognise Israel and abide by previous agreements between Israel and the Palestinians. At no point has Hamas satisfied these conditions – or indicated any intention to do so.

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Homeless Gazans seize Hamas government building
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Nidal Al-Mughrabi - August 20, 2010 - 12:00am

Forty families whose houses were destroyed in conflict with Israel took over a building belonging to Gaza's Hamas rulers this week in a sign of dissatisfaction with the Islamist movement's failure to provide shelter. Angered by living in tents for two winters and now baking in the midst of an intense heat wave, the squatters took over the unfinished apartment house and have already resisted one police effort to evict them.

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UN releases Israeli, PA responses to Goldstone; no input from Hamas
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
August 19, 2010 - 12:00am

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday released the results of Israeli and Palestinian investigations into alleged war crimes during the conflict in Gaza in the winter of 2008-2009, which did not appear to include any input from Gaza's Hamas rulers.

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What Hamas is really afraid of
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Amira Hass - August 16, 2010 - 12:00am

"I wish these pictures reached leftists abroad," my friend said to herself Tuesday as she watched Hamas police use rifle butts and clubs to beat her friends - activists from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Although my friend has never been a fan of the Fatah government in the West Bank, she is outraged by the romanticization of Hamas rule by foreign activists.

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Gaza future vague five years after unilateral Israeli disengagement
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
by Osama Radi - August 16, 2010 - 12:00am

Although five years have passed since the Israeli unilateral disengagement plan was implemented and Israel completely pulled out from the Gaza Strip, Palestinian analysts believe that Israel is still keeping its grip on the densely populated costal enclave. SITUATION IN GAZA DETERIORATED Palestinian observers said that the Gaza Strip has witnesses several eras of changes over the past five years following the Israeli withdrawal. These changes, mainly the Hamas movement's takeover of the enclave, have served Israel's interests in blocking the establishment of the independent state.

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