Is Palestinian reconciliation on track?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
by Ghassan Rubeiz - (Opinion) December 2, 2011 - 1:00am

Palestinian leaders Mahmoud Abbas and Khaled Meshaal met recently in Cairo to try to resolve their differences. The outcome is not entirely clear yet. Mr. Abbas is president of the Palestinian Authority and chief of Fatah, the mainstream political party. He administers a designated area in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Meshaal is chief of the Islamic resistance party, Hamas. After winning the first Palestinian elections in 2006, Hamas forced its way in 2007 to run Gaza. For security reasons, Meshaal is based in Syria, and not in Gaza.

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Fayyad to Haaretz: I will not lead a Palestinian unity government
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Avi Issacharoff - December 2, 2011 - 1:00am

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said on Thursday that he would not serve as the prime minister of a Fatah-Hamas unity government, nor would he run for president. "I don't intend to run for the presidency or anything else for that matter," Fayyad said in an interview to Haaretz. "I cannot accept being an obstacle, never was and never will be ... I made a very explicit call on the factions ... to go ahead and agree on a new prime minister. That's my position and nothing has happened since then to change my mind ... So the short answer is no."

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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.

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Standing united
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
(Opinion) November 28, 2011 - 1:00am

Israel is once again using the tax axe against the Palestinians; it is threatening the Palestinian Authority to withhold tax revenues due to them if Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas goes ahead with his reconciliation efforts with Hamas leader Khaled Mishaal. The two Palestinian leaders succeeded in striking a reconciliation accord during their recent meeting in Cairo. This progress on the Palestinian front displeases Israel, prompting Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman to warn the Palestinian Authority not to go ahead with the plan to form a unity government with Hamas.

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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."

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Fatah-Hamas meeting to focus on unified Palestinian vision
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Asharq Alawsat
by Salah Jumaa - (Analysis) November 18, 2011 - 1:00am

Nimr Hammad, the Palestinian president's political adviser, has asserted that President Mahmud Abbas will focus at next week’s meeting with Hamas chief Khalid Mishal on the need to have a unified political program for the next government for the sake of communicating effectively with the world and so as to have a unified Palestinian vision for dealing with the world and with political issues. Hammad believes that the division and different political stands between Hamas and Fatah and the absence of a unified vision toward the strategic issues serve Israel.

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Palestinians' talks over unity government likely to succeed
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
by Adam Gonn - (Analysis) November 18, 2011 - 1:00am

An agreement between Fatah and Hamas, Palestinians' rival parties, looks likely on the formation of a unity government with Fatah's flexibility on the future role of Prime Minister Salam Fayyad in the ruling body. Hamas, which established its own government in Gaza after routing out forces loyal to Fatah in 2007, has been opposed to Fayyad's playing any part in the unity government.

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Official: Fatah, Hamas reach agreement on key issues
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
(Analysis) November 15, 2011 - 1:00am

Fatah and Hamas have agreed on several controversial issues as part of a reconciliation deal signed on May 4, a Fatah official said Monday. Senior Fatah official Azzam al-Ahmad told a local radio station that details of the agreements would be released after a meeting set to take place in late November between President Abbas and Hamas leader in exile Khaled Mashaal. On Friday, the official PA news agency reported that Abbas and Mashaal would meet in Cairo in the last 10 days of November.

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Palestinian leaders to meet in Cairo to revive reconciliation deal, official says
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
October 27, 2011 - 12:00am

JERUSALEM — A Palestinian official says the Palestinian president will meet with the leader of the militant Hamas movement next month to discuss uniting dueling governments in the West Bank and Gaza. The meeting will be the first between President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas’ Khaled Mashaal since they signed a surprise reconciliation agreement in May. Amin Makboul, a senior official with Abbas’ Fatah movement, said on Thursday the two will meet in Cairo. He gave no specific date.

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Hamas disperses anti-Assad protest in Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Avi Issacharoff - August 17, 2011 - 12:00am

Protest was meant to show solidarity with Palestinian refugees who have fled their homes due to Syrian government's violent crackdown on demonstrators. Hamas police forces in the Gaza Strip dispersed a protest on Tuesday night against the Syrian government's deadly crackdown on protesters. The protest was meant to demonstrate solidarity with Palestinian refugees who have fled the city of Latakia, which has been under attack by Syrian military forces in recent days.

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