PLO Factions to Run on One Ticket against Hamas
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Asharq Alawsat
by Kifah Zaboun - November 2, 2009 - 1:00am

Ramallah, Asharq Al-Awsat-Well-informed sources have told Asharq Al-Awsat that PLO factions are studying a proposal by Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas to run in the forthcoming presidential and legislative elections as one list to confront Hamas, which achieved a sweeping victory in the previous elections four years ago, when it won majority seats in the Palestinian Legislative Council [PLC].

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Plan B for Abbas - Palestinian unity or bust
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Mohammed Assadi, Douglas Hamilton - (Analysis) October 29, 2009 - 12:00am

President Mahmoud Abbas has no intention of going down in history as the man who legitimised the permanent and possibly fatal division of the Palestinian independence movement. But he has called an election for January that could be a nail in the coffin of Palestinian unity, assuming his Islamist political rivals in control of the Gaza Strip are serious about their threat to ban the vote on their territory. The outcome of an election held in the West Bank but not in the Gaza Strip would be "worse than the two Koreas", said Zakaria al-Qaq, an expert on national security issues.

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Fatah leader: Abbas will not run in elections unless asked
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
October 28, 2009 - 12:00am

The Palestinian President will not run for office in the 24 January elections, a Fatah leader announced on Tuesday. Fatah leader Abdullah Abu Samhadaneh issued a statement saying Abbas “is eager to rest from this long and arduous trip, which began with the revolution and continues to this day,” as part of a paper urging Hamas to sign the Egyptian unity proposal so unified elections can go forward. He also noted, however, that if Abbas is "instructed by the command [Palestinian leaders] he will accept the commission."

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Hamas vows to prevent Palestinian elections in Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
October 28, 2009 - 12:00am

The Islamic Hamas movement which rules the Gaza Strip said Wednesday it would not allow presidential or parliamentary elections to take place in the salient on January 24, as called for by Ramallah-based President Mahmoud Abbas. A statement by the Hamas ministry of the interior said the ban was because the election had been called "by figures who do not have the right to declare it" and because the polling would take place without a reconciliation deal between Hamas and Abbas' Fatah movement. Abbas announced Friday that elections would be held on January 24,

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On One Field, Two Goals: Equality and Statehood
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Ram Journal
by Isabel Kershner - October 28, 2009 - 12:00am

AL RAM, West Bank — Given the sheer exhilaration of the cheering, flag-waving, anthem-singing crowd packed into the soccer stadium in this otherwise drab West Bank town one afternoon this week, one could have been forgiven for thinking that an independent Palestinian state had just been born. The Palestinians were playing the Jordanians. But more significant was that the women’s teams were playing, and for the Palestinian side it was the first international match played outdoors at home.

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Abbas says elections decree irrevocable
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
October 26, 2009 - 12:00am

Facing criticism from the Hamas movement and others, President Mahmoud Abbas vowed on Saturday that elections would be held as scheduled. "The decision is irrevocable," he said, speaking in Ramallah at the opening session of the PLO's central committee. Abbas issued a presidential decree late Thursday night, setting the date for the next round of Palestinian legislative and presidential elections for 24 January 2010. Hamas wants the date moved back six months.

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Palestinian elections may pose risk to unity
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Omar Karmi - October 26, 2009 - 12:00am

It was widely expected, but the presidential decree issued on Friday calling for presidential and parliamentary elections will nevertheless put into sharp focus Palestinian divisions and represents something of a gamble. Mahmoud Abbas, the head of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, president of the Palestinian Authority and leader of Fatah, probably did not have much of a choice. Unity negotiations with Hamas are long-stalled and Egyptian efforts to reconcile Hamas and Fatah with a compromise agreement also seem to have failed.

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Biting Fingers
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Dar Al-Hayat
by Abdullah Iskandar - (Opinion) October 26, 2009 - 12:00am

It is as if President Mahmoud Abbas was telling the Hamas movement: “Alright, you took over the Gaza Strip by force of arms and ruled it. You expelled the Fatah movement and all the figures of the Palestinian Authority from it by force of arms. You never committed to any of the previous agreements of appeasement. You declare your fierce opposition to the Oslo Accords and what they have resulted in. Yet you hold truces with Israel when it wages military operations against Gaza. You hold against the PA its relations with the United States.

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Palestinian reconciliation through ballots
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
by Khaled Diab - (Opinion) October 26, 2009 - 12:00am

Cursed as they are with bad leadership, the sad saga of the Palestinian people fluctuates between tragedy and farce. As if contending with a crushing occupation, embargoes, closures and the complete physical separation of the West Bank and Gaza were not enough, over the past couple of years, they have also seen the two parties supposedly representing them descend into petty and bloody factionalism.

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Editorial: Palestinian feud
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
(Editorial) October 26, 2009 - 12:00am

The announcement by Palestine President Mahmoud Abbas to hold elections on Jan. 24 could make Hamas sign a deal with Fatah for Palestinian unity, although Hamas describes this as pressure. It could widen the factional divide further. Seeing he has no real opposition rival, it could give Abbas more years in power. And it might lead Hamas to hold its own ballot in the Gaza Strip, a move that could create two rival presidents, two parliaments and two prime ministers in two separate Palestinian territories.

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