From Occupied Palestine

Gaza is not Algeria
AHMED YOUSEF
Ha'aretz, 9 July 2007

The Abbas leadership has poorly calculated its political strategy, choosing to align itself with the Israeli regime and its Washington patrons in a bid to retain its hold on power. Yet it has compromised its legitimacy in the eyes of a large swath of the Palestinian public, and it has fallen into Israel's Machiavellian trap of sowing discord among Palestinians to avoid dealing with the real issue: ending the occupation, fairly and justly.

Our second biggest mistake in the Middle East
ALASTAIR CROOKE
London Review of Books, vol 29 no 13 (5 July 2007)

Hamas: Unwritten Chapters by Azzam Tamimi · Hurst, 344 pp, £14.95

Where Now for Palestine: The Demise of the Two-State Solution ed. Jamil Hilal · Zed, 260 pp, £17.99

Failing Peace: Gaza and the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict by Sara Roy · Pluto, 379 pp, £16.99

Abbas advisor says Hamas fighting collaborators
ALI WAKED
Yediot Aharonot, 28 June 2007

Hani al-Hassan, senior presidential advisor says Gaza war was between Hamas and Fatah collaborators who aided Israel, US. Gunshots fired at al-Hassan's home following statements, Abbas dismisses him from his role

Hamas war chief reveals his plans for Gaza peace
MITCHELL PROTHERO
Observer, 24 June 2007

Gaza City -- At the height of the fighting 10 days ago in Gaza City, the commander of the Hamas militants laying siege to the Palestinian Authority compound received a call from his Fatah counterpart inside. 'He asked if we were going to invade and take the building,' said Abu Obieda, the top Hamas military commander for the Gaza Strip. 'He said if we entered his compound, he would kill himself.'

Engage With Hamas
AHMED YOUSEF
Washington Post, 20 June 2007, p. A19

[ed. A second Ahmed Yousef piece from the New York Times follows]

Welcome to 'Palestine'
ROBERT FISK
Independent, 16 June 2007

How troublesome the Muslims of the Middle East are. First, we demand that the Palestinians embrace democracy and then they elect the wrong party - Hamas - and then Hamas wins a mini-civil war and presides over the Gaza Strip. And we Westerners still want to negotiate with the discredited President, Mahmoud Abbas. Today "Palestine" - and let's keep those quotation marks in place - has two prime ministers. Welcome to the Middle East.

How Hamas turned on Palestine's 'traitors'
PETER BEAUMONT and MITCHELL PROTHERO in Jerusalem
AZMI al-KESHAWI in Gaza and SANDRA JORDAN
Observer, 17 June 2007

The first intimation something was different about the explosion of violence in Gaza between the forces of the government Islamist party Hamas and the Fatah fighters of President Mahmoud Abbas came with a no-show.

Powerful symbol falls to Hamas
KEVIN PERAINO
Newsweek, 14 June 2007

Sacrificing the Palestinian struggle
AMIRA HASS
Ha'aretz, 15 June 2007

Fifth column, traitors, collaborators - this is what Hamas spokesmen call those whom they hold responsible for the civil war in the Gaza Strip. They point to a "treacherous stream in the Fatah movement," warning that Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas is "incapable of taking control of it." They are referring to Mohammed Dahlan and his associates.

The road from Mecca
HUSSEIN AGHA and ROBERT MALLEY
New York Review of Books, 10 May 2007

1.