Majority of Palestinians Support Retaining Fayyad as Prime Minister
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from AWRAD
(Analysis) November 29, 2011 - 1:00am

According to the preliminary findings of Arab World for Research and Development‘s [AWRAD] most recent poll in the West Bank and Gaza, conducted November 22-24, a majority of Palestinians (57 percent) believe that Salam Fayyad should be retained as Prime Minister in a unity government. The results were identical in the West Bank and Gaza. The percentage of respondents opposed was higher in Gaza at 40 percent compared to 28 percent in the West Bank. About 11 percent responded "don‘t know"; 4 percent in Gaza and 15 percent in the West Bank.

»

Abbas 'hopes' for May 4 elections
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Agence France Presse (AFP)
(Analysis) November 29, 2011 - 1:00am

President Mahmoud Abbas said Monday he hoped elections would be held on May 4 next year, after what he called "important" talks between his Fatah group and Hamas in Cairo. "I hope, God willing, that the elections will be on May 4," Abbas told reporters during a visit to Vienna after talks with Austrian President Heinz Fischer. The comments followed Abbas' reconciliation talks last week in Cairo with Hamas chief Khalid Mashaal aimed at cementing a stalled unity deal signed six months ago.

»

Majority of Palestinians Support Retaining Fayyad as Prime Minister
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from AWRAD
November 29, 2011 - 1:00am

Fieldwork: 22-24-November 2011 Sample size: 1200 Palestinians (West Bank and Gaza) Margin of Error: +3%

»

Prime Minister Fayyad: “Unity and Non-violence” Requisites for Statehood
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Media Line
by Felice Friedson - (Interview) November 29, 2011 - 1:00am

With skepticism rife over a Fatah-Hamas rapprochement and the Hamas demand to replace him, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, the man credited with energizing the movement toward statehood and the man Western governments want holding the PA’s purse strings, discusses the pending issues with Friedson Friedson, President and CEO of The Media Line news agency, at his Ramallah office. Below is the first of two sessions between Prime Minister Fayyad and Ms. Friedson. Friedson: Mr. Prime Minister, thank you for taking the opportunity to speak with me and The Media Line.

»

Palestinian minister steps aside to fight charges
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
by Mohammed Daraghmeh - November 29, 2011 - 1:00am

RAMALLAH, West Bank — The Palestinian economics minister on Tuesday said he was suspending himself from office in order to battle corruption charges. Hassan Abu Libdeh, who holds a Ph.D. from Cornell University, is set to go on trial on Dec. 12, according to chief public prosecutor Ahmed Mughanni. In a statement, Abu Libdeh professed his innocence and vowed to defend himself "before the judiciary against these false accusations."

»

Palestinian Economy Minister charged with embezzlement, insider trading
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Reuters - November 29, 2011 - 1:00am

Palestinian Economy Minister Hassan Abu Libdeh has been charged with financial wrongdoing, court sources said on Tuesday, piling pressure on Prime Minister Salam Fayyad's beleaguered government. There was no immediate comment from Abu Libdeh, who has always denied accusations of corruption. Under Palestinian law he will no longer be able to work as a minister and his functions will be frozen pending a verdict.

»

PA collapse 'not the end of the world' for Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
(Analysis) November 28, 2011 - 1:00am

An Israeli official said Saturday evening on live television that if the Palestinian Authority collapses it would not be the "end of the world for Israel." Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon, Yedioth Ahronoth columnist Shimon Sheffer, former Palestinian minister Sufian Zayda, and Dove Viziglas, who was former adviser to Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon, were analyzing the possibility of the PA disbanding on the television show "Face the press." "The Palestinians have to know that they can’t scare us by threatening to disband the PA," Ayalon said.

»

Hamas: Palestinians to skip interim government
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
by Mohammed Daraghmeh - (Analysis) November 27, 2011 - 1:00am

The Palestinians' rival leaders have quietly decided to keep their respective governments in the West Bank and Gaza in place until elections, a senior Hamas figure told The Associated Press. This proposal would remove a major obstacle to efforts to reconcile the factions: the need to form an interim unity government. A representative of Hamas' rival, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, denied that such a deal was struck. Abbas envoy Azzam al-Ahmed insisted there was no agreement and "no possibility of holding elections without a unity government."

»

Disbanding the PA
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Danny Rubenstein - (Opinion) November 16, 2011 - 1:00am

Israel?s relationship with the Palestinian Authority (PA ) has reached a new low, the worst it has been since the second intifada and the 2002 siege on then-PA president Yasser Arafat at his headquarters in the Mukata'ah in Ramallah. In those days of bloodshed and violence, Palestinians perpetrated devastating suicide bombings and the IDF conducted retaliatory raids into the Palestinian cities.

»

Fayyad Reported Sidelined as a New Palestinian Political Era Emerges - Will Abbas Follow?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Time
by Tony Karon - (Blog) November 16, 2011 - 1:00am

Once hailed by Western pundits as the technocrat-magician who would conjure a Palestinian state into being through irrepressible institutional competence, Salam Fayyad has been unceremoniously sidelined from his job as Palestinian Prime Minister according to a deal announced Tuesday -- a sign of the collapse of the illusions projected onto him, and of the peace process itself. Fayyad's ouster is expected to be a consequence of the reconciliation agreement between President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement and the Islamist Hamas organization, that is to be sealed in Cairo on Friday.

»


American Task Force on Palestine - 1634 Eye St. NW, Suite 725, Washington DC 20006 - Telephone: 202-262-0017