Word: fatah
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...Palestinian government. That Palestinians would seek a new era is not surprising: It's been a long, hard, often bloody year in the Palestinian territories, with recent spasms of internal violence threatening to devolve into all-out anarchy. But Hamas's Haniyeh and Abbas, who heads the rival Fatah organization, emerged from a final flurry of meetings in Gaza City with a deal on a new cabinet in which Hamas will have 12 seats, Fatah will have 6 and the remaining 7 will go to independents and members of smaller parties. They also managed to agree on a political platform...
...Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh are sincerely trying to hammer out a new Palestinian unity government. Even Yuval Diskin, head of Israel's Shin Bet intelligence service, told reporters at a briefing last week that he believes the two men want to make this work. Moreover, Abbas, who represents the Fatah faction of the Palestinian movement, and Haniyeh, who represents the radical Hamas party, seem genuine in their desire to stop the violence that has plagued Palestinian streets, particularly in Gaza. But that goal has been complicated by array of opponents who have balked at Hamas's role in all this...
...internal strife is often cast as a battle between Hamas and Fatah, but the reality is more complex, involving also clan battles, crime syndicates and old feuds. In the wake of the Mecca agreement that led to the unity talks, those old fissures are widening and new ones forming. Abbas' Sunday meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert rubbed a number of senior Fatah people the wrong way. Afterwards, at a meeting of Fatah's Central Committee, according to a Committee member who was in attendance, Abbas was fiercely criticized for "engaging in a public relations stunt" and accused...
...Evidence of how mean those streets can be was seen again in Gaza City yesterday, when gunmen kidnapped veteran BBC reporter Alan Johnston, who has lived and reported in Gaza for the past three years. Leaders from both Fatah and Hamas immediately decried the kidnapping, with Hamas government spokesman Ghazi Hamad calling it a "brutal and criminal action, and a shameful action, done by irresponsible people who are trying to create more tension in our society." There are clearly a number of groups seeking to do that, and others seeking to create more tension within Hamas itself. Among them...
...Qaeda's chief ideologue, who said they were surrendering the dream of the Palestinian people to preserve their place in an ineffectual government. Several Hamas leaders fired back, but there now exists the curious coincidence of Zawahiri wanting the same thing Olmert and President Bush (and many members of Fatah) want, which is for Hamas to fall apart. Abbas and Haniyeh may be able to solve the immediate issues before them, and succeed in announcing the new cabinet slate in the coming days. But there's even more evidence now that unity is still a long...