"Palestinians to attend French-led talks" by Mohammed Daraghmeh Associated Press / June 5, 2011
RAMALLAH, West Bank — The Palestinians yesterday accepted a French invitation to attend a conference in Paris aimed at reviving peace talks with Israel, as their strategy to bypass negotiations and seek UN recognition of a Palestinian state appeared to be unraveling....
That is such a lie upon a hope, a wish, a dream.
The Palestinians have refused to return to the bargaining table for months because Israel has rejected their demand to halt settlement construction on lands they claim for a future state. They are preparing to ask the UN General Assembly in September to recognize a Palestinian state, with or without a peace deal.
And the GA will.
Palestinian officials said they had no high hopes for a French-led conference but would attend in an effort to restart the talks that broke down in late 2008 and revived only briefly this past September before collapsing over Israeli settlement construction.
Historically, the United States has taken the lead in trying to wrest an agreement from Israel and the Palestinians, and the Obama administration has been cool to the French proposal.
That's AmeriKan mediaspeak for acting as Israel's agent.
US officials have privately discouraged it, but the administration has not taken a public position....
Which means you can't believe anything they say publicly!
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Do Palestinians play poker because they sure are playing their hand well?
"Hamas considers hands-off approach in future governments; New tack aims to avoid isolation, keep economic aid" June 10, 2011|By Mohammed Daraghmeh, Associated Press
RAMALLAH, West Bank — After four years of turbulent rule in the Gaza Strip, the Islamic militant group Hamas is weighing a new strategy of not directly participating in future governments even if it wins elections — an approach aimed at avoiding isolation by the world community and allowing for continued economic aid.
Hamas officials said the idea has gained favor in recent closed meetings of the secretive movement’s leadership in the West Bank, Gaza, Egypt, and Syria, and that it helped enable last month’s reconciliation agreement with the rival Fatah group of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Let me put it this way: when was the last time you saw the word Bilderberg in there pages?
Talks on implementing that accord have dragged on, particularly over the makeup of a “unity government.’’ The agreement envisions a government of nonpolitical technocrats — in line with Hamas’s emerging thinking — but Abbas wants to retain current Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, a respected economist viewed by Hamas as a political figure.
The new approach reflects both the group’s rigidity and its pragmatism: On the one hand, Hamas refuses to meet widespread global demands that it accept Israel’s right to exist; on the other, its leaders grasp the price Palestinians would pay if the Islamic militants emerged fully in charge of a future government.
Related:
"Hamas would abide by any PLO negotiations"
I only put that up to SHOW YOU WHAT DAMN DISTORTERS are the AmeriKan media!!
You reach the point where you can't believe a word anymore.
It also stems from a growing sense that its experiment with direct government in Gaza has cost Hamas popular support among Palestinians.
“Hamas found that being in government caused huge damage to the movement, and therefore it has changed its policy,’’ said a top participant in the Hamas talks, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the extreme sensitivity of the issue.
Some Palestinians criticize Hamas for softening its “resistance’’ by not carrying out a suicide bombing in years in a bid to gain some international legitimacy. Others charge that its rocket attacks on Israel have worsened Gaza’s isolation and impoverishment.
Yeah, I put the chart up and will comment now that the attacks were and still are rare; otherwise, the AmeriKan media would be screaming about them and Israel would be bombing by now.
Some bristle at the stricter Islamic lifestyle imposed on the coastal strip, where alcohol is now hard to find, while others think this hasn’t gone far enough.
Yes, yes, I know, all Muslims are social extremists, blah, blah, blah.
Maybe less booze means less violence?
A survey in March by pollster Khalil Shikaki shows Hamas — which handily won elections in 2006 — now has the support of only 26 percent of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, compared with 40 percent for Fatah....
You know, I am surprised to see them admit the electoral truth rather than the usual violently seized s***.
Other surveys show an even steeper decline in popular backing.
As a result, “Hamas is reevaluating its choices and resetting its priorities,’’ said Yehya Mussa, a prominent Hamas lawmaker. “Being in government was a burden on Hamas, a burden on the image of Hamas, a burden on its resistance enterprise.’’
Proponents of the new strategy appear to include Khaled Mashaal, Hamas’s Syria-based political leader. Most opposition initially came from Hamas’s military and political circles in the West Bank and Gaza, but that now appears to be waning.
The issue could come into the open during elections in August for the Hamas political leadership. The vote takes place quietly in mosques and Hamas institutions inside and outside of the Palestinian territories, with the number of council members — believed to be no more than two dozen — being one of the movement’s secrets.
Hamas officials say the new direction may never be formally announced, but will be reflected in the militant group’s decisions — for example, if it chooses not to field a candidate in presidential elections....
Hamas says it would not dismantle its Gaza militia, a force of tens of thousands of fighters armed with rockets, antitank missiles, and other powerful weapons.
And what arms has AmeriKa given Israel?
The one-zided diztortionz and zlants really get to you after a while.
The big concern is that a Hamas-run Palestinian government would not be able to raise the money from donor nations to pay for the more than 180,000 people on the public payroll in the West Bank and Gaza, officials say.
According to Palestinian Authority figures, running the Palestinian government costs $3.2 billion, about a third of which comes from foreign donor nations and another third from tax money transferred by Israel based on previous agreements — a source that could also dry up under a Hamas administration....
What would you think of someone who kept your money from you, dear reader?
Under Hamas, Gaza has endured global isolation, economic blockade, and occasional skirmishes with Israel.
Flotillas filled with aid is hardly isolation while enduring a war-criminal siege; however, the "occasional skirmishes" should cover the Israeli war crimes.
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