J-Street urges trial period for Palestinian coalition
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Gil Shefler - May 6, 2011 - 12:00am

The policies of the PA’s prospective Fatah-Hamas government towards Israel should be tested before it is condemned, J Street head Jeremy Ben-Ami said on Thursday in an interview with The Jerusalem Post. Adopting a strategy that would avoid any “precipitous” policies could turn out to be beneficial for the peace process, he said.s “Jumping out to say either this is a terrible thing or good thing is in our opinion not the wisest move, and the real question is, what this new alignment really going to stand for and what is it going to do, and that we don’t know,” he said.

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After deal, Hamas says activists held in West Bank
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Tom Perry - May 5, 2011 - 12:00am

Six Hamas sympathisers have been detained by Palestinian Authority security forces in the West Bank since rival groups concluded a deal aimed at reconciliation, a Hamas source said on Thursday. The detentions in the Hebron and Nablus area underline the challenges facing implementation of the reconciliation deal between Hamas and Fatah, which is headed by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

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The Removal of the Palestinian “Card”
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Dar Al-Hayat
by Hassan Haidar - May 5, 2011 - 12:00am

The official signing of the Palestinian reconciliation agreement in Cairo yesterday put an end to years of costly political – and sometimes even military – conflicts. The event was filled with numerous meanings, the most prominent of which probably being the fact that the Palestinians placed their own interests ahead of the regional factors which played a role in encouraging the widening of the division between the two major organizations, i.e. Fatah and Hamas.

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Analysis: For Hamas, unity is just a tactic to survive
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Yaakov Katz - (Opinion) May 5, 2011 - 12:00am

At the beginning of the year, Hamas and Fatah were close to signing a reconciliation agreement brokered by Egypt. At the last minute, however, Khaled Mashaal, leader of Hamas’s political wing, which is based in Damascus, nixed the deal. But then the ground shook in Syria and he suddenly changed his mind. As the fate of his patron, Syrian President Bashar Assad, hung in the balance, Mashaal made a calculated tactical decision to try and ensure his political survival by approving the reconciliation deal, which just months earlier he had conspicuously rejected.

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Clinton Leaves Door Open After Palestinian Deal
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Alan Cowell - May 5, 2011 - 12:00am

A day after the main Palestinian factions signed a unity agreement in Cairo, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton strikingly refused on Thursday to rule out further negotiations with a Palestinian side that includes Hamas, the militant Islamic group that runs Gaza and is defined by many in the West as a terrorist organization. But she reiterated the Obama administration’s call for Hamas to accept basic conditions that included renouncing violence and recognizing Israel’s right to exist.

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Hamas and Fatah may have reunited, but their work is just beginning
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Amos Harel, Avi Issacharoff - (Opinion) May 5, 2011 - 12:00am

After an almost four-year split between Fatah and Hamas, the leaders of the two rival organizations, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and the head of Hamas’ political bureau, Khaled Meshal, signed an accord in Cairo on Wednesday.

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Palestinian factions pushed together by regional events
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Michael Young - (Opinion) May 5, 2011 - 12:00am

Much uncertainty still surrounds the outcome of yesterday's signing in Cairo of a reconciliation accord between Palestinian factions. However, there is no question that the arrangement was facilitated by the dramatic recent developments in the Arab world. The regional constraints faced by the main Palestinian organisations, Fatah and Hamas, are likely to reframe the debate over Hamas's participation in a Palestinian government, regardless of the movement's position on a settlement with Israel.

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Accord Brings New Sense of Urgency to Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ethan Bronner, Steven Lee Myers - May 5, 2011 - 12:00am

A day after Palestinian leaders signed what many called a landmark reconciliation accord, the antagonists in the protracted Israeli-Palestinian conflict and their international mediators in Europe staked out positions in a rapidly shifting political and diplomatic landscape on Thursday. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, travelling to Rome for a meeting focused on Libya, refused to slam the door on negotiations that could include Hamas as part of a larger Palestinian authority, even as Hamas’s leader, Khaled Meshal, said he was fully committed to working for a two-state solution.

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Palestinian unity pact still faces big hurdles
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Paul Richter, Edmund Sanders - May 5, 2011 - 12:00am

Rival Palestinian factions celebrated the signing of a reconciliation pact they hope will end their four-year split and accelerate efforts to form an independent state. But the agreement faces fierce opposition from Israel, places new hurdles on American-led efforts to forge a peace agreement between the Israelis and Palestinians, and still must overcome lingering distrust between the two factions: the moderate secular Fatah party in the West Bank and the militant Islamist group Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip.

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Abbas, Mash'al meet, agree to swift govt creation
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
May 5, 2011 - 12:00am

Hamas and Fatah leaders agreed to accelerate efforts to form a transitional government, in their first private meeting since the signing of a unity deal in Cairo on Wednesday, which formally ended the split between the factions. Member of Hamas Politburo Izzat Ar-Risheq told Ma'an on Wednesday night details of the meeting between President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas leader in exile Khalid Mash’al. Following the formation of a transitional government, the leaders said an agreement on a leadership framework would be reached, setting out the agenda for the new cabinet.

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