"Abbas to hold Damascus talks with militants," from AFP, with thanks to Skeetstreet:
AMMAN - Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas is to visit the Syrian capital next week for talks with exiled militant leaders on bringing them into a national unity government, Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei said on Saturday."The president will travel to Damascus Tuesday or Wednesday for talks with the general secretaries of Palestinian groups," Qorei told AFP in Amman, where he has been taking part in meetings with Abbas of their mainstream Fatah faction.
The Fatah central committee, which was to wrap up its meetings later
Saturday, was due to issue an appeal to all factions to join a national unity government "at this critical juncture which requires our people to unite in the face of the Israeli pullout from the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank."...
Unite in the face of the Israeli pullout? In what sense is the pullout a threat before which they must unite?
"The idea of creating a national, all-encompassing entity to manage the withdrawal and supervise the legislative elections is, in principle, a good idea," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told AFP."We are in favour of the creation of an entity regrouping all the
representatives of all the Palestinian forces but that does not have to be done through a government," he said."The idea of communal action is good but there are differences over the way to do it."
Hamas's smaller rival Islamic Jihad ruled out joining a new
cabinet...
Not that their point of view will not be represented anyway.
"Abbas to try to get jihadists into his government"
Are we supposed to be surprised?
We finance the Palestinian govt. If Hamas is part of that government, we are funding Hamas. Sweet.
We finance the Palestinian govt. If Hamas is part of that government, we are funding Hamas. Sweet.
Posted by: reset
Should make us wonder - no?
Palestine stands condemed - by Moses
The pullout is a threat in the sense that it has long been expected to be the occasion in which Hamas, Fatah, and all the other charmers, would fall on each other and start murdering each other till the last man standing claims absolute power. Fatah, which is weak, is trying to appeal to national unity. Hamas, which is strong, makes a the sinister claim that "there are other ways" to reach national unity, than through a government. Welcome to Palestinian politics.
"The idea of creating a national, all-encompassing entity to manage the withdrawal and supervise the legislative elections is, in principle, a good idea," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told AFP.
I thought Israel was managing the withdrawal.
And just who are these exiled militant leaders...who exiled them, and from where? Why is Syria giving them refuge?...there's something fishy going on here...
duh_swami:
They are talking about a more orderly divvying up of the spoils after the withdrawal. Months ago memri.org posted comments from the Arab media re: concerns expressed by Hamas that Fatah members would be well rewarded for their loyalty to the PA and they, flexing their popularity, wanted to let it be known that they wanted their share.