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<font size=4 color="#FF0000"><b><i>Two articles follow<br><br>
</i></font><font size=4>Unity elusive as ever after Abbas disparages
Hamas in speech and Meshal accuses President of lying <br>
</b></font><font size=3>12.10.09 - 10:57 <br>
<a href="http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=7351" eudora="autourl">
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=7351<br>
<br>
</a>Ramallah / PNN – Head of the Hamas political bureau Khaled Meshal has
accused President Abbas of lying.<br><br>
Exiled by the occupying Israeli administration, Meshal spoke from Syria
when he derided the President’s speech of Sunday evening. Abbas was
attempting to explain his position regarding the postponement of the vote
on the Goldstone report. He said that international objections were
destroying its substance.<br><br>
However, Meshal described Abbas’s words as rhetoric and that he was lying
in order to substantiate his position, while other parties have called to
charge Abbas and the PA with treason. The President’s speech was peppered
throughout with anti-Hamas statements.<br>
<br>
Fateh is accusing Hamas of using the Goldstone report to justify
postponing national reconciliation.<br><br>
Given the statements of both Abbas and Meshal, it has become clearer that
achieving unity is elusive, as it has been since the Hamas party won the
Legislative Council elections in 2005-2006. <br><br>
In the meantime, the PLO plans to stick with the amended date of new
elections for President, and those legally in place for the PLC, of the
twenty-fifth of January, 2010. Hamas rejects the plan.<br>
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<a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/10/2009101281249528777.html" eudora="autourl">
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/10/2009101281249528777.html<br>
</a>Monday, October 12, 2009 <br>
17:51 Mecca time, 14:51 GMT <br><br>
</font><font size=4><b>Hopes fade over Palestinian unity <br><br>
</b></font><font size=3>A reconciliation agreement between Fatah and
Hamas, the rival Palestinian parties, has been delayed, following a
bitter dispute over the Palestinian decision not to back a UN report on
alleged Israeli war crimes.<br><br>
The deal was to be signed on October 25, clearing the way for Hamas and
Fatah to co-operate in rebuilding war-damaged Gaza by preparing for
Palestinian elections in the first half of 2010.<br><br>
Speaking of his disappointment to Al Jazeera on Monday, Mustafa
Barghouthi - an independent member of the Palestinian parliament - said
he believed Fatah and Hamas had turned a UN war-crimes report into a
party-political issue, rather than into an honest attempt to seek
justice.<br><br>
The report, drawn up by a team of experts led by Richard Goldstone, a
former South African judge, accuses Israel of using disproportionate
force and failing to protect civilians during its bombardment of Gaza at
the end of 2008.<br><br>
<b>Palestinian party politics<br><br>
</b>Barghouthi said: "What is most unfortunate is that the Goldstone
report should have been a unifying issue for all Palestinians ... to hold
Israel accountable for its war crimes.<br><br>
"What we see is that both Fatah and Hamas are making this into a
party-political issue. This should stop."<br><br>
The two sides have been divided since Hamas, which commanded a majority
in parliament, seized control of the Gaza Strip in June 2007. <br><br>
Following the takeover, there have been rival Palestinian governments in
Gaza and the West Bank.<br><br>
With mediation from Egypt, the parties have been trying to broker a deal
to reconcile and establish a power-sharing agreement.<br><br>
But Hamas said on its website on Sunday that it was postponing the
agreement because of a much-criticised decision by the Palestinian
Authority (PA), led by President Mahmoud Abbas, to delay action on the
Goldstone report.<br><br>
<b>'Crime and scandal'<br><br>
</b>Seven Palestinian groups joined Hamas leaders based in Damascus,
Syria, on Sunday in issuing a statement of support for the postponement
of the reconciliation deal.<br><br>
They called Abbas's decision to freeze action on the UN report a
"crime and scandal".<br><br>
The groups emphasized the importance of reconciliation, but said Abbas's
actions should not go unpunished.<br><br>
In a televised speech from the conference in Damascus, Khaled Meshaal,
the Hamas leader, spelled out his party's position. <br><br>
"When Goldstone investigated the criminal aggression by Israel
against Gaza, this was an opportunity to indict Israel," he
said.<br><br>
"But this group of Palestinian leaders [Fatah leadership] withdrew
the report. This is the Goldstone scandal. A courageous leadership is a
leadership that is frank with its people.<br><br>
"Those who are accumulating political mistakes are today continuing
their lies. This is not a leadership that deserves to be entrusted with
the leadership of the Palestinians.<br><br>
The Goldstone report recommended that the UN Security Council require
both sides to carry out credible investigations into alleged abuses
during the conflict - in which 13 Israelis and almost 1,400 Palestinians,
including hundreds of civilian women and children, were killed.<br><br>
Israel has rejected the report's allegations while the US has called it
deeply flawed.<br><br>
But many Palestinians, and not just Hamas members, were outraged after
Abbas withdrew Palestinian support for having the UN Human Rights Council
forward the report to the 192-nation General Assembly for possible
action.<br><br>
<b>Related</b> <br><br>
<a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/10/20091011182856246590.html">
Abbas defends Gaza vote delay</a><br>
In reaction, Abbas gave his own speech on Sunday in Ramallah - saying
Hamas had its own reasons for not wanting to sign a reconciliation
agreement. <br><br>
"This campaign by Hamas is aimed at serving their interests, which
is to postpone the signing of the reconciliation agreement," he
said.<br><br>
"They want to concentrate their rule and their regime in Gaza. They
want to ensure the continuity of division in Gaza, that aims at weakening
the Palestinian Authority."<br><br>
<b>Unity 'efforts continuing'<br><br>
</b>Some Palestinian parliamentarians are still hopeful that a
reconciliation agreement might be reached by October 25.<br><br>
Barghouthi, the Palestinian politician, said despite the public media
attacks, unity efforts are continuing.<br><br>
"The Egyptians have provided a final copy of the agreement for
reconciliation. And hopefully, by the 20th of this month, all parties
will sign this agreement in preparation for a ceremony that would declare
unity," he told Al Jazeera.<br><br>
<img src="http://english.aljazeera.net/mritems/Images//2009/10/7/2009107191251519811_3.jpg" alt="[]">
<br>
<b>Abbas's decision not to back the Gaza report at the UNHRC was deeply
unpopular [AFP]</b> <br><br>
"Delaying the Goldstone report vote would never have happened if we
had had a united Palestinian leadership.<br><br>
"Given that Israel has arrested large numbers of parliamentary
members, the parliament is paralysed and unable to function - so this
agreement needs to happen."<br><br>
But other Palestinians say the chances of national unity are
slim.<br><br>
Speaking to Al Jazeera on Monday, Azzam Tamimi, author of <i>Hamas:
Unwritten Chapters</i>, said saving the reconciliation process while
Abbas remains president is almost impossible.<br><br>
"The overwhelming opinion in the Palestinian street now is that
Abbas is a complete traitor. There is no coming back from that," he
said.<br><br>
"And what makes this worse is the reality that, despite much hope
for change with a new US government under President Barack Obama, it
seems clear now that it was American pressure that forced Abbas not to
back the UN war report."<br><br>
Tamimi said Washington's policy towards the whole Palestine issue
"has not changed, despite a new set of faces in the White
House".<br>
Source: Al Jazeera <br><br>
<br><br>
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