Palestinian premier seeks stronger institutions
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Richard Boudreaux - June 23, 2009 - 12:00am

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said Monday that Palestinians can make a stronger case for ending Israel's occupation by building up self-governing institutions that would strengthen global support for a Palestinian state. He set a goal of establishing an independent state within two years. "I call upon our people to unite around the project of establishing a state and to strengthening its institutions . . . so that the Palestinian state becomes, by the end of next year or within two years at most, a reality," he said in a speech to a university audience.

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Abbas offers olive branch to Hamas
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
by Mohammed Mar’i - June 23, 2009 - 12:00am

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas yesterday ordered his security forces to release most members or supporters of Hamas in a goodwill gesture to his rival movement before the renewal of inter-factional talks. Azzam Al-Ahmed, a member of Fatah team to Cairo reconciliation talks, said that the release process is expected to complete during the coming 24 hours and will include all Hamas activists "except the people who pose a public security threat and still have trials underway."

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Palestinian police arrest 36 Hamas supporters as Fatah widens crackdown
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Canadian Press
by Mohammed Daraghmeh - June 11, 2009 - 12:00am

Palestinian security forces arrested 36 Hamas supporters, many of them professors and students, the Islamic militant group said Thursday, signalling a widening crackdown by Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Palestinian police spokesman Adnan Damiri confirmed that arrests were made, but would not say how many persons are held. The arrests come less than two weeks after a pair of deadly shootouts between security forces and Hamas militants in the West Bank town of Qalqiliya left nine people dead, including four police officers.

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Four die in Palestinian clash in West Bank
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC World News
June 4, 2009 - 12:00am

hree Hamas militants and a member of the Palestinian Authority security forces died in the clashes, a Palestinian official has said. The clashes took place in the the northern West Bank town of Qalqilya. It comes days after six people died in a gun battle in the town between Hamas fighters and police. A Hamas spokesman in Gaza Strip said the operations against Hamas members had "killed all chances" for the success of the talks in Egypt aimed at reconciling Hamas and the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority.

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West Bank fight a grim reminder
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
(Editorial) June 1, 2009 - 12:00am

The six people who have been killed in a firefight between Hamas fighters and Palestinian policemen is not only the worst clash in the West Bank since Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip two years ago. The deaths also served as a grim reminder that it is not just Benjamin Netanyahu who stands in the way of peace. The Palestinians themselves are doing a fairly decent job of hampering their own aspirations.

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No More Room for Excuses in Peace Process
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
(Editorial) June 1, 2009 - 12:00am

It would be easy to dismiss Fatah’s crackdown on Hamas members in the West Bank as yet more factional infighting. Since the collapse of the Palestinian government and the ousting of Fatah from the Gaza Strip, the two sides have been in constant conflict. It seems that every time Hamas needs to score political points it cracks down on Fatah, and every time Fatah needs to show it is tough on terror it arrests Hamas members.

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Rift deepens between Palestinian factions
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Omar Karmi - May 21, 2009 - 12:00am

The swearing-in of a new, extended cabinet by Mahmoud Abbas is a “deliberate attempt” to undermine ongoing unity talks in Cairo, Hamas said yesterday. Mr Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president, swore in the cabinet on Tuesday evening. The new government, which in effect will rule only over the parts of the occupied West Bank not under direct Israeli control, is headed by Salam Fayyad, who also led the previous Palestinian administration.

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The distance between Gaza and the West Bank is growing
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Avi Issacharoff - May 20, 2009 - 12:00am

RAMALLAH - It's hard not to be impressed by the optimism about the Middle East that the White House is radiating. A brief visit to Ramallah, however, makes one wonder about the basis for it.

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Mr Abbas and a dangerous gambit
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
(Editorial) May 20, 2009 - 12:00am

The reappointment of Salam Fayyad, a respected independent, as the Palestinian prime minister should have been a welcome development. The PLO desperately needs a leader aloof from the cronyism and factional strife that define Palestinian politics. Unfortunately that is not the case. If anything, Mr Fayyad risks becoming a victim of naked partisanship.

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Palestinians Try to Prune Branches of Core Party
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ethan Bronner - (Analysis) May 20, 2009 - 12:00am

There is the Central Committee and the Revolutionary Council, the Old Guard and the Young Guard. There are the insiders, the outsiders, the cell leaders, branch chiefs and district heads. And there is the Office of Mobilization and Discipline, also known as the Office of Indoctrination. Fatah, the core of the Palestinian national movement for five decades, has the organizational transparency of a Soviet republic and was long run like one by its founder, Yasir Arafat. Talk of reform arose after his death five years ago and again when Hamas defeated it in legislative elections in 2006.

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