Free Republic

There are signs that Fatah is preparing to launch a major operation against Hamas in the West Bank in the coming weeks ahead of expected turmoil when Mahmoud Abbas's term as PA president ends in January, a top IDF officer has told The Jerusalem Post. Abbas's presidential term is scheduled to end on January 9, and the IDF Central Command is preparing for the possibility that Hamas will try to take advantage of political instability in Ramallah to take over West Bank towns and cities. In the absence of elections or a compromise with Hamas, according to the Palestinian Authority...

Israelis and Palestinians have never been closer to making strategic decisions than they are today, and at the end of the day, each side wants to win a little more than the other, Sheikh Abdallah Nimr Darwish, founder of the Islamic Movement, told President Shimon Peres on Tuesday. "But the Palestinians have nothing left to offer Israel," he added. Darwish spoke at the traditional Iftar meal for leaders of Israel's Arab communities hosted by President Shimon Peres during Ramadan. "The Palestinians can't give up any more," said Darwish, without elaborating on what they have already ceded. There was agreement on...

Israel allowed Palestinian security forces in the West Bank to receive a shipment of about 1,000 Kalashnikov rifles and tens of thousands of bullets in a step aimed at bolstering the moderate Palestinian government there, an Israeli defense official said Friday. Shipments of this type remain sensitive for Israel because weapons provided to Palestinian security forces during peace talks in the 1990s were used against Israelis when those talks broke down in violence in 2000. But balancing those concerns are fears that if moderate forces are too weak they might lose control of the West Bank to Hamas, the hardline...

The Israeli government has informed the Palestinian Authority that it has no objections to the release of jailed Fatah operative Marwan Barghouti, a senior PA official in Ramallah said over the weekend. The official told The Jerusalem Post that Barghouti and several other prominent security prisoners could be released in the coming days or weeks. Barghouti is serving five life sentences for the murders of four Israelis and a Greek monk. But an official in Jerusalem said Saturday night that "the release of Marwan Barghouti is simply not on the table today." The official also said that last week's release...

Arab Muslim Palestinians' Persecution of Christians DHIMMITUDE, ISLAMIC APARTHEIDArab "Palestinian" Christians have been suffering and STILL suffer from Arab "Palestinian" Muslim majority.Just like the Arab Christian Lebanese in "Damour" (Yasir Arafat´s Planned Christian Genocide http://www.chretiens-et-juifs.org/article.php?voir%5B%5D=594&voir%5B%5D=3532 , Hobeika - Damour http://www.free-lebanon.com/LFPNews/hobeika_damour/hobeika_damour.html), where "Palestinian" Muslims massacred Christians senselessly, which brought the reprisal by Arab Christians upon Arab "Palestinian" Muslims in Sabra & shatila. The Islamization of Bethlehem that has started by Yasser Arafat has forced Christians out.The "Palestinian" Christians are forced to join the senseless criminal violence against Israeli victims, otherwise they are threatened. Some Arab "Palestinians" that might be Christian won't...

Canadian MP: Mahmoud Abbas Purveys Anti-Jewish Incitement ArutzSheva Israel ...He also met with PA officials and told them that "hate breeds hate." Saying that Hamas, with "their charter with its genocidal objective, anti-Semitic ... http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/127280

Major Terrorist Attacks in Israel July 22, 2008: Sixteen people were wounded when a man drove a bulldozer into a bus and four other vehicles in central Jerusalem. The attack was an attempted copycat of an earlier attack on Jerusalem’s Jaffa Road on July 2, 2008. The terrorist was shot dead by police. July 2, 2008: An Arab resident of Jerusalem deliberately drove a bulldozer into pedestrians and vehicles in central Jerusalem, overturning and flattening a number of buses and cars. Three people were killed and 66 injured in the attack. April 9, 2008: Two Israeli civilians were killed...

U.S. gives flak jackets to terrorist-saturated forces Part of multimillion dollar taxpayer-funded training program -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: August 18, 2008 10:52 pm Eastern By Aaron Klein © 2008 WorldNetDaily JERUSALEM – U.S.-provided bullet-proof vests have reached Palestinian security forces in the West Bank, including units in which known terrorists serve, WND has learned. The U.S. last week received a green light from the Israeli government to provide standard-issue police flak jackets to security forces from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah organization, which has had many members undergo advance U.S. training in recent months.

Roadside bomb kills at least 18 in Lebanon It was the worst attack on the army since last summer, when it fought a 16-week battle with al- Qaeda-inspired militant group Fatah al-Islam, losing 170 soldiers. The gunmen, of Lebanese, Palestinian and other Arab nationalities, were holed up in the Nahr El-Bared Palestinian refugee camp, just north of Tripoli. Fatah al-Islam leader Shaker al-Abssi and other fighters slipped away during the battle and remain on the loose.

Pro-Fatah Palestinians flee to ISRAEL to escape Hamas Pro-Fatah Palestinians flee to Israel to escape Hamas 4 Aug 2008 The "wicked" (???lol) Zionist entity suddenly doesn't seem so bad when jihadists have to go to the hospital, or, as in this case, to flee from one another. But Israel, sensibly, is not playing along on this one.... http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/022067.php

Pentagon Makes Fighting Extremism Top Priority Seven years after the Sept. 11 attacks, the Pentagon on Thursday officially named "the long war" against global extremism as its top priority and pledged to avert any conventional military threat from China or Russia through dialogue. The Defense Department, in a new national defense strategy, also emphasized the need to subordinate military operations to "soft power" initiatives to undermine Islamist militancy by promoting economic, political and social development in vulnerable corners of the world. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he hoped the change would help establish permanent institutional support for counterinsurgency skills...

Israeli civil rights group petitions High Court to prevent State from sending Hilles-more clan members back to Hamas-controlled Strip, saying act ' breach of Israeli law and human morality' Aviad Glickman Published: 08.03.08, 20:05 / Israel News The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) filed a petition with the High Court of Justice Sunday demanding that it prevent the State from sending dozens of Palestinians who fled Gaza following fierce clashes with Hamas back to the Strip. On Saturday 188 Palestinians were allowed entry into Israel after Hamas took over a stronghold of the Fatah-affiliated Hilles clan in Gaza...

Israel has allowed 180 members of a beleaguered clan loyal to Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to enter its territory from the Gaza Strip. The Fatah faction supporters ran to a border crossing after a day of bloody fighting with their bitter rivals Hamas, who control the territory. An Israeli army spokesman said some had laid down their weapons as they approached the crossing. The injured among them were sent to Israeli hospitals, he added. Fatah and Hamas blamed each other for starting the fighting on Saturday, in which nine people were killed. Reports say that the clashes broke out during...

Nine Palestinians were killed - including members of Hamas's security forces - and more than 90 were wounded in fighting that erupted Saturday between Hamas and Fatah members in Gaza City. The clashes began when hundreds of Hamas policemen raided homes belonging to the Hilles clan in the city's Shajayieh neighborhood in a bid to arrest suspects in the bombing that killed five Hamas men nine days ago. Hamas has accused members of the clan, which has long been affiliated with Fatah, of being behind the explosion, which also killed a seven-year-old girl. Toward Saturday night, more than 180 clan...

Four Palestinians died and dozens were wounded in street battles on Saturday between forces of Hamas and Fatah movements in Gaza City, prompting Israel to go on the alert. The clashes was sparked in the morning when Hamas security forces tried to arrest suspects thought to be behind a July 25 bombing that killed five Hamas members and a little girl on a Gaza beach. Hamas said two of its men were killed and Palestinian medical officials reported two more dead and scores of wounded in Saturday's firefights. According to AFP, Israeli authorities and health services in areas skirting the...

Hamas has resumed its policy of shaving mustaches of political opponents to humiliate them, Fatah officials said Wednesday. Hamas resorted to this form of punishment in the past after arresting senior Fatah representatives in the Gaza Strip, the officials said. Hamas, for its part, accused the Palestinian Authority security forces of shaving the beards of detained Hamas officials in the West Bank. The latest victim of the mustache-shaving policy is Nafez al-Namnam, a top Fatah operative in the Strip. Namnam, 51, is one of the commanders of Fatah's armed wing, the Aksa Martyrs Brigades, in Gaza City. He and his...

Palestinian Authority security forces were put on high alert Wednesday following threats by Hamas against its senior officials, PA security sources told The Jerusalem Post. The PA leadership was taking Hamas's threats seriously and had ordered its security forces to be prepared to foil any attempt to harm PA figures, the sources said. Additional bodyguards have been assigned to a number of top PA officials in the West Bank, and security had been beefed up around the homes of PA President Mahmoud Abbas and other senior officials in Ramallah, the sources said. Leaflets distributed over the past few days by...

<p>Palestinian security forces in the West Bank have arrested dozens of Hamas members, including local leaders and university lecturers. The security forces, loyal to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, also picked up dozens of Hamas members on Sunday. The wave of West Bank arrests appears to be in response to the arrest of at least 200 Fatah members in the Gaza Strip on Saturday.</p>

Hamas security forces in the Gaza Strip arrested 120 men aligned with Fatah faction on Saturday after an explosion there killed five Hamas members and a girl, the Hamas' officials and Fatah said. Friday's blast next to a car used by the armed wing of Hamas killed three members and the girl, and two others later died of their wounds in hospital, Reuters said. "The Fatah movement has no link whatsovever with these internal disputes within Hamas," a statement by Fatah said. "The claim that Fatah carried out these explosions aims to cover up the fact that there are disputes...

Following a week of near-daily Palestinian violations of the Israeli-Hamas cease-fire, senior defense officials said Thursday that the truce could be in its final stages and that as a result the IDF was preparing for possible future incursions into the Gaza Strip. "It is not clear how much longer the cease-fire will last and we need to be prepared for an operation in Gaza," a senior defense official told The Jerusalem Post shortly after two Kassam rockets struck the western Negev Thursday afternoon. Both rockets both hit in open areas, causing no casualties or damage. A faction of Fatah's Al-Aksa...

The Hamas government in the Gaza Strip lashed out at rival militants after two Qassam rockets were fired at southern Israel yesterday, causing no injuries but further straining the shaky truce between Israel and Hamas that went into effect last Thursday morning. In view of the continued rocket fire, Israel will keep the crossings into the Gaza Strip closed today, for the third straight day. The Fatah-affiliated group Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade claimed responsibility for yesterday's rocket fire and demanded that the cease-fire be extended into the West Bank. In a statement carried by the official Palestinian news agency Maan, Hamas...

A Hamas spokesman said Tuesday that his was committed to an Egyptian-mediated truce deal with Israel set to go into effect Thursday. Sami Abu Zuhri said Hamas would commit to the "zero hour" declared by Egypt. An official Egyptian statement released earlier Tuesday said the cease-fire would go into effect on Thursday at 6 a.m. The MENA agency report cited an unnamed high-level Egyptian official as saying that both sides "have agreed on the first phase" of an Egyptian package to end the violence in the Strip. It said the first phase was a "mutual and simultaneous calm" in the...

Lopez: How bad would a President Obama be for Israel? Why should that question matter to Americans? Glick: Senator Barack Obama would be bad for Israel most of all because he refuses to acknowledge that there is a jihad being waged against the free world. Indeed, he refuses to acknowledge that there is such a thing as an “enemy” in international affairs. And as a consequence, he is unable to understand what an ally is. As the U.S.’s most stalwart ally in the Middle East, and as the frontline state in the global jihad, Israel will likely suffer greatly if...

A year into Hamas' rule in the Gaza Strip, courts are meting out justice, police are arresting thieves, motorists are paying for licenses and authorities are blocking Internet porn sites. At the same time, Gazans are stocking up on vegetable oil - not for cooking, but to run their cars during a severe fuel shortage. An Israeli-led blockade has forced 80 percent of the people to rely on United Nations food handouts. With sanitation services collapsing, millions of gallons of raw sewage are flowing into the sea. Enemies of the regime have been silenced. "We've only become stronger. We will...

Six Hundred More US-Trained Armed Fatah Men Deployed (IsraelNN.com) Six hundred additional US-trained armed Fatah men will be deployed in northern Samaria following additional weapons training, with approval from the Olmert government. The 600-man force, which answers to PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, completed training in Jordan in recent days and is undergoing additional American-supervised exercises at a Jericho base built with American funds. The trained men will go on to train others for what US General Keith Dayton envisions as a 50,000 man security force. The Bush administration has been careful to refer to the force as "security guards" and...

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) - A Palestinian detonated a powerful truck bomb at the main pedestrian crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip on Thursday, causing extensive damage that dealt a serious blow to Gazans' hopes of opening up their sealed-off territory. Although the bomber killed only himself, the magnitude of the explosion—which shook buildings for miles—raised fears that Palestinians are adopting tactics used by al-Qaida, Hezbollah and other extremist groups. The attack at the Erez crossing also reinforced skepticism about Egyptian-led efforts to bring a truce to the violence-wracked area and hurt international efforts to ease the Israeli-led...

AFTER THE war, the US was given an opportunity to actually support democratic, anti-Iranian-Syrian forces in Lebanon by supporting the Saniora government when Hizbullah abruptly bolted the ruling coalition and backed by Iran and Syria attempted to take control of the government by assassination and terror. The US could have taken action against Syria or Iran. But instead it sought to appease Iran and Syria in the hopes that they would temper their support for insurgents in Iraq. The pinnacle of this US abandonment of the March 14 movement was Rice's decision to invite Syria to participate in her peace...

The international community's efforts at trying to weaken Hamas have failed and should be reevaluated, the EU's two leading diplomats to Israel and the PA said Monday, although they stopped well short of saying that Hamas should be engaged. "The policy implemented in the last year [toward the Gaza Strip] aimed at strengthening people [through providing direct economic assistance and humanitarian aid], and weakening Hamas... is having the opposite effect," said Ramiro Cibrián-Uzal, the EU's ambassador to Israel. "We need to think about alternative policies, because this has not been successful. This is important to recognize." Cibrian-Uzal's counterpart in the...

Two Palestinian employees detained mere days before they planned to lace food at Ramat Gan grill bar with tasteless, odorless toxin Efrat Weiss Published: 04.10.08, 16:38 / Israel News The thwarting of an alarming terror plot was cleared for publication on Thursday, almost three weeks after a joint Shin Bet and police operation led to the arrest of two Palestinian employees of the 'Grill Express' restaurant in Ramat Gan. The men, Eihab Abu Rial and Anas Salum, both 21-year-old residents of the West Bank city of Nablus, had planned to lace dishes served at the establishment with a powerful toxin...

Four terrorists infiltrated from Gaza killing two Israeli civilians in a brazen daylight attack on Wednesday. Speaking at a Kadima pre-Passover toast on Thursday night, Olmert said: "It doesn't concern me to which organization a particular terrorist belongs. The group controlling everything in Gaza is Hamas, and the group, with all its members, bears responsibility for the incessant terror and will be forced to bear the unavoidable consequences of its actions. I promise you that the response to Hamas will be such that it will no longer be able to act against Israeli citizens." The mindset of the enemy and...

Jailed Fatah leader writes letter to Peace Now activists reading, 'We are ready for reconciliation that will grant ours and your own children a life devoid of the threats of war and bloodshed' Attila Somfalvi Published: 04.08.08, 01:08 / Israel News "The vast majority of the Palestinian people, myself included, are ready for a historic reconciliation based on international resolutions that will result in the establishment of two states, a Palestinian and an Israeli one, that will exist side by side in peace and security," jailed Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti said in a letter addressed to Peace Now activists on...

NABLUS, West Bank (AP) — A dozen Islamic militants who had agreed to serve jail time as a way to get taken off Israel's wanted list escaped from a Palestinian prison in the West Bank late Friday, charging that guards beat them. The 12 members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades fled after masked guards at the Palestinian government's Jneid jail began to pummel them with clubs following a fight among the detainees, the escapees' leader, Mahdi Abu Ghazaleh, said by telephone. Israel did not immediately comment on the breakout but was certain to be unhappy. A commitment by moderate...

At Al Omari mosque, the imam cursed the Jews and the "Crusaders," or Christians, and the Danes, for reprinting cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. He referred to Jews as "the brothers of apes and pigs," while the Hamas television station, Al Aksa, praises suicide bombing and holy war until Palestine is free of Jewish control. Its videos praise fighters and rocket-launching teams; its broadcasts insult the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, for talking to Israel and the United States; its children's programs praise "martyrdom," teach what it calls the perfidy of the Jews and the need to end Israeli occupation over...

Defense Minister Ehud Barak is considering approving a US plan to allow the transfer of weapons, protective gear and night-vision goggles for Palestinian security forces in the West Bank, The Jerusalem Post has learned. The American request, which is expected to be officially submitted to the Defense Ministry by Lt.-Gen. Keith Dayton - the US security coordinator to Israel and the PA - in the coming days, will be one of the issues topping the agenda of Barak's meeting with Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salaam Fayad on Wednesday. Defense officials in Jerusalem said it was likely that Israel would approve...

March 24, 2008, 5:00 a.m. Chilling ConfirmationYes, Saddam Hussein was an Islamofascist threat. By Deroy Murdock As Operation Iraqi Freedom is now five years old, a new study confirms that ousting Saddam Hussein was justified and vital to U.S. national security. Though war critics hate to admit it, the Baathist dictator was up to his mustache in aid for Islamofascist terrorism. As a report from the Institute for Defense Analyses explains, “captured Iraqi documents uncovered strong evidence that links the regime of Saddam Hussein to regional and global terrorism.� IDA’s review of some 600,000 documents discovered in Iraq since...

SAN'A, Yemen (AP) — Fatah and Hamas agreed Sunday on the goal of uniting in a single Palestinian government but failed to resolve the crucial question of how the rival factions should share power. After five days of talks using Yemeni officials as intermediaries, the West Bank-based Fatah government met face-to-face with representatives of the Hamas militants who seized control of the Gaza Strip in June. The two sides signed a declaration that both accept a Yemeni initiative calling for the creation of a national unity government and the rebuilding of security forces loyal to that government instead of factions.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Vice President Dick Cheney, starting a visit on Saturday to try to push forward Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, said Washington would never pressure Israel to take steps that threaten its security. Palestinians accuse Israel of undermining the U.S.-sponsored peace talks by expanding Jewish settlements, refusing to remove West Bank roadblocks and mounting offensives against militants in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip who fire cross-border rockets into the Jewish state. "America's commitment to Israel's security is enduring and unshakable, as is Israel's right to protect itself always against terrorism, rocket attacks and other attacks from forces dedicated to Israel's destruction,"...

Palestinian Authority condemns killing of four terrorists, says 'crime exposes Israel's mask' Roee Nahmias Published: 03.12.08, 23:30 / Israel News Abbas lashes out at Israel: A spokesman on behalf of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' office condemned the IDF operation Wednesday that left four senior terrorists dead in the West Bank town of Bethlehem. "This barbaric crime exposes the fake mask on Israel's face," the statement said, while slamming the Jewish State for "talking about peace but committing daily crimes, murders, and executions against our people." The harsh Palestinian Authority statement claimed that complaints made by the Israeli government were "bogus"...

Sources: Fatah "activist" planned Jerusalem massacre Israel on high alert as thousands gather for funerals of slain students JERUSALEM – The Jerusalem shooting massacre that left eight Jewish seminary students dead yesterday was planned on behalf of the Hezbollah terrorist group by an activist from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah organization, according to senior Israeli and Palestinian security officials speaking to WND. Israel, coordinating with Palestinian intelligence services, has specific information the bloody massacre was financed by Hezbollah and was planned in the West Bank city of Bethlehem by Muhammad Shehadi, a Fatah activist who ran as a Fatah...

(IsraelNN.com) A leader of Mahmoud Abbas's US-backed Fatah party has come out in support of the terrorist war being fought against US and British forces in Iraq. PA text books for school children also push attacks on American and British forces Mahmoud Ismail, a member of the PLO Executive Committee, expressed his support for the war on the US during an interview on official Palestinian Authority (PA) TV, which is under the control of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. The clip was recorded and translated by Palestinian Media Watch, which monitors incitement on PA television. Ismail further defined the US -Britain...

Palestinian sources in the Gaza Strip report that an al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades operative was killed in an IDF strike in the area of Beit Hanoun. According to the reports, Israeli aircraft fired an additional missile towards a group of Palestinians who rushed to the scene of the first attack, wounding several people.

February 18, 2008: Israel has declared war on the Hamas leadership, and given the security services permission to do whatever they can to wipe out the Hamas officials involved in attacks on Israel. In (unofficial) cooperation with Fatah, which has the support of half, or more, of the Gaza population, Israel hopes to destroy Hamas in a few months. Fatah publicly condemns Israeli attacks on Hamas, but privately takes advantage of it by taking control of

JAFFA, Israel – A representative of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas praised Hezbollah deputy commander Imad Mughniyah as a hero after the report today of the most-wanted terrorist leader's death in a car bomb blast in Syria. Abbas Zakki, the ambassador to Lebanon for the PA president's Fatah organization, called Mughniyah a "hero and a loss for the Palestinian people and the Muslim nation." "We mourn with our brothers in Hezbollah this great leader who died today," Zakki said on Hezbollah's Al Manar TV as screened and translated by WND. Zakki said he is "proud that Mughniyah was part of...

What if Gaza were to conquer Egypt? The possibility is not as remote as it may seem just by glancing at the map. Egypt has more than 50 times the population of its former colony and 2,800 times the landmass. But Gaza is sovereign Hamas territory, Hamas is the Palestinian branch of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, and Egypt -- not Israel -- is the country that has most to fear from a statelet that is at once the toehold, sanctuary and springboard of an Islamist revolution. No wonder liberal Egyptians are reacting with near-hysterical alarm to last Wednesday's demolition of the...

The Palestinian Authority has warned the Egyptians against striking a deal with Hamas over controlling the Rafah border crossing separating the Gaza Strip from Egypt, a senior PA official in Ramallah said Monday. The official told The Jerusalem Post that the warning, which came on the eve of the visit of a high-level Hamas delegation to Cairo for talks on the issue of the border, was delivered to the Egyptians by the PA leadership in the past 48 hours. PA President Mahmoud Abbas, who is scheduled to visit Cairo Wednesday, will reiterate his opposition to giving Hamas any role at...

The United States expressed concern Wednesday about tens of thousands of Palestinians pouring into Egypt from Gaza across a broken barrier erected at the border. "We are concerned about that situation and frankly I know the Egyptians are as well," State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey said. David Welch, the assistant secretary of state for the Middle East, has talked to Egyptian authorities about the situation, Casey said, but he didn't offer details. He said the Egyptians take border security seriously and that he has no indication the situation has affected Israeli-Palestinian relations for now. Tens of thousands of Palestinians...

ISRAEL VS ARAB - THE WAR OF THE HUMANITARIAN VS THE UN-HUMANITARIAN     January 22, 2008   No one has been talking in the mainstream media about the daily "Palestinian" barrage of missiles aimed specifically at Israeli kids, the southern Israel under siege of "Palestinian" occupation, the trembling fear of Israeli women for their children's safety in Sderot ( Fear and trauma as rockets impact Israeli town), but everyone is up in arms if Israel acts.   No one has been talking in mainstream media as Israel has been successfully eliminating terrorists [with unimaginable efforts in carrying it out]...

5 Questions On Israel For The Next Debate (Mother Jones Blog barf) As I've said before, there's been a vacuum surrounding Israel and Palestine this campaign season. Moderators have broached the issue only twice in the last 13 debates. And the most recent question, posed by Wendell Goler last week at the Fox News debate in South Carolina, was pretty weak. As Goler wound up—"Mayor Giuliani, President Bush is in the Middle East ... laying the groundwork for a Palestinian state"—there was, briefly, a glimmer of hope. Then he tossed this doozy of a softball: "I wonder, sir, how you...

Estranged Fatah leader Farouk Kaddoumi is demanding an inquiry into the fate of $2b. that allegedly went missing after the death of former Palestinian Authority chairman Yasser Arafat, sources close to Kaddoumi said over the weekend. Kaddoumi, who is based in Tunis, has long been at loggerheads with PA President Mahmoud Abbas and most of the Fatah leaders in Ramallah. The sources quoted Kaddoumi as saying that at least five top Fatah leaders were responsible for the disappearance of the $2b., but did not name them. Kaddoumi's charges came amid growing turmoil in Fatah, which is witnessing renewed bickering between...

Nine top Fatah gunmen from Nablus on Tuesday surrendered their weapons to the Palestinian Authority security forces out of fear of being targeted by Israel. The move was also made in the wake of growing discontent in the city over the gunmen's continued activities in the city - the main reason behind repeated IDF operations there. The decision followed a report in Sunday's The Jerusalem Post, which appears to have embarrassed the PA. According to the report, many Fatah gunmen were continuing to operate freely in the city despite the PA's claim that Fatah's armed wing, the Aksa Martyrs Brigades,...