Free Republic

The US has been secretly holding talks with Hamas for months Buzzfeed reported Thursday, despite its official stance that it would (not?) negotiate with the terrorist organization. “Our administration needed to hear from them that this unity government would move toward democratic elections, and toward a more peaceful resolution with the entire region,” a US official stated to the “social news” site, on condition of anonymity. “It was important to have that line of communication.” US officials have publicly denied the charges, however, leading to confusion over the report’s veracity. …

When Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas chose to scuttle peace talks with Israel this spring by deciding to conclude a pact with Hamas rather than the Jewish state, he was taking a calculated risk. In embracing his Islamist rivals, Abbas sought to unify the two leading Palestinian factions not to make peace more possible but to make it impossible. Since Palestinian public opinion—indeed the entire political culture of his people—regards any pact that would recognize the legitimacy of a Jewish state as a betrayal of their national identity, bringing Hamas back into the PA fold illustrated that he would not...

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomed on Tuesday the formation of the new Palestinian “unity government” which includes the Hamas terrorist group. In a statement, Ban expressed hope that new opportunities for progress towards a two-State solution with Israel will emerge soon, saying the UN had received assurances that the Hamas-Fatah deal would be implemented on the basis of previous commitments such as the recognition of Israel and non-violence. …

Washington said Monday it will work with the Palestinian Arab unity government and maintain aid, while "watching closely" to ensure it respects the principle of non-violence, AFP reports. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Washington believes Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has "formed an interim technocratic government... that does not include members affiliated with Hamas." "With what we know now, we will work with this government," Psaki said. Abbas has insisted that a 'unity' government would be based on what he called"the four Palestinian principles": recognizing Israel, recognizing the terms of international agreements, and the explicit rejection of violence...

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and his “cabinet” in Gaza have resigned, Hamas spokeswoman Israa al-Mudallal said, “paving the way for the new ministers of the consensus government.” Haniyeh welcomed the new cabinet as “a government of one people and one political system.” […] Hamas and Fatah swore in a “unity” government earlier Monday, despite last-minute tensions which almost prevented the Palestinian Arab reconciliation. The joint government elected Palestinian Authority (PA) official Rami Hamdallah as Prime Minister. …

AP reported Sunday that “Pope Francis delivered a powerful boost of support to the Palestinians during a Holy Land pilgrimage Sunday, repeatedly backing their statehood aspirations, praying solemnly at Israel’s controversial separation barrier and calling the stalemate in peace efforts ‘unacceptable.’”Not only that, but “Palestinian officials hailed Francis’ decision to refer to the ‘state of Palestine.’ In its official program, the Vatican referred to President Mahmoud Abbas as the president of the ‘state of Palestine,’ and his Bethlehem office as the ‘presidential palace.’ He pointedly called Abbas a ‘man of peace.’”This is not really all that surprising. After all,...

America has no business dictating terms on issues of vital national security to Israel, US Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), a possible candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, said in the Knesset Monday. He placed the blame on the Palestinians for the recent failure of peace talks, saying “the principal impediment to peace is that, to date, the Palestinians have refused to recognize Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state and have refused to renounce terror. “Unless and until the Palestinians can agree on those very basic starting blocks, no lasting peace solution is likely,” he stated. Cruz...

The Arab Spring, which started with the self-immolation of a Tunisian vegetable vendor at 11.30 am on 16th December, 2010, has resulted in two failed states in the region so far.  Libya has become “Scumbag Woodstock” because of the number of terrorist organisations headquartered there.  The French and English attempt at regime change created a terrorist haven with consequences as far afield as Mali and the 300 Christian girls kidnapped in Nigeria.  Fortunately, Syria has become a meatgrinder for Islamic terrorists and for the moment has ceased being a net exporter of terrorism.  In that conflict, the Obama Administration has...

TEL AVIV – The U.S. last week held a clandestine meeting in Egypt with Ghazi Hamad, the deputy foreign minister of Hamas, according to informed Middle Eastern security officials. The officials would not say whether the meeting was with a current member of the U.S. government or a former diplomat acting as a proxy for the Obama administration. Messages were exchanged about Hamas’s intentions as part of a newly formed Palestinian unity government with the rival Fatah party, led by Mahmoud Abbas, the officials said. Last week, Israel’s Haaretz newspaper quoted an unnamed White House official stating the Obama administration...

European Union (EU) Ambassador to Israel Lars Faaborg-Andersen spoke to reporters in Jerusalem on Tuesday, saying that he didn’t feel peace talks should have been stopped last month over the unity deal between Fatah and the terrorist group Hamas. “I don’t see a reason for the peace talks stopping in order to send a message that there’s a difference between Fatah and Hamas,” opined Faaborg-Andersen. While indeed Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah faction has made clear that there is little distinction between them and Hamas in terms of their goal of destroying Israel, which would of course call...

GAZA — For 14-year-old Aseel Radi, the promised reconciliation between warring Palestinian political factions is viewed through a forlorn fountain in a crowded market on the eastern side of Gaza City. Aseel used to visit the fountain in what is known as Palestine Square with her father, Maher, a member of the Fatah faction’s armed wing who was killed by militants from its rival, Hamas, during the bloody six-day battle for control of the Gaza Strip in 2007. Now, only a few bricks remain of the broader basin, which is filled with trash. The lights have been turned off and...

"It would be impossible to implement any peace agreement between Israel and just one portion of the Palestinians,” the former president wrote in the "Washington Post." The Palestinian unity agreement between Hamas and Fatah offers Israel an opportunity to move the peace process forward since any future agreement would incorporate all of the West Bank and Gaza, former president Jimmy Carter argues in an op-ed he wrote for The Washington Post on Tuesday. “This reconciliation of Palestinian factions and formation of a national unity government is necessary because it would be impossible to implement any peace agreement between Israel and...

- FrontPage Magazine - http://www.frontpagemag.com - Palestinian Official: Soak the Land with Blood to ‘Liberate JerusalemPosted By Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik On May 5, 2014 @ 12:10 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | No Comments Visit Palestinian Media Watch.Even at the height of the peace negotiations with Israel, in December 2013, Fatah official Tawfiq Tirawi said that Palestinians were not committed to non-violence. Rather, he said that negotiations are just one option, and do not preclude use of the “rifle,” which the Palestinians have never abandoned. Last week, Palestinian Media Watch reported that Tirawi had essentially proclaimed the end of the peace...

And if I had to do it all over again, I’d do it in the exact same way. If a reporter agrees that a conversation or event is off-the-record, then of course he cannot print what was said during that interchange. But the unwritten rule—the one that directly applies here—is that if a reporter enters an off-the-record event uninvited and has not agreed to the off-the-record terms, he is free to report what happens inside that event. It’s the responsibility of the event organizers to keep reporters from entering events without invitations. As long as the reporter does not misrepresent...

Since the start of the ill-named “Arab Spring,” the Muslim Brotherhood has been very much in the news. Coming to power through democratic elections in Egypt and Tunisia, they were toppled within a short time by the people, who discovered their true intentions. There were some in the West – but not all – who saw the light as well. British Prime Minister David Cameron has ordered a comprehensive review of the movement,... its activities in Britain and its impact on the country’s interests. The decision was made because the Brotherhood is allegedly behind terrorist operations in Egypt, and because...

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry admitted on Thursday that the unity deal between Fatah and Hamas had been unexpected. Speaking in Ethiopia, where he said it was time for the United States to take a “pause” in Israeli-Palestinian Authority (PA) peace talks, Kerry said that the deal announced last week took the U.S. by surprise, according to The Associated Press (AP). That deal, he noted, “came as a complete and total unannounced event, without any heads-up, so to speak, at the moment of important negotiations.” …

Israel-bashing figures prominently in 'teach-ins' where San Franciscans seek a flavor of the Vietnam era Let's admit it - San Francisco is gorgeous, and deserves its name as the capital of resistance to what the US is trying to do in the Middle East. After all, while other places from coast to coast had rallies and marches before and during Operation Iraqi Freedom, only there were thousands "hauled off by the pigs" for blocking the financial district, and only there was there a rally and march almost every Saturday for weeks and weeks until Saturday, April 19. But were all...

According to Robert Serry, the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, the so-called reconciliation deal reached by rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas to form a “unity” government in the coming weeks may be a good development that is consistent with continued peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. He reached this conclusion based on the word of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Mr. Serry said President Abbas assured him, during a meeting he held with President Abbas in Ramallah, that the reconciliation agreement will be implemented under President Abbas’s leadership and on the basis of...

The Egyptian military recently used American-made Apache helicopter gunships to fire rockets into houses in the Sinai Peninsula, the latest in a series of lethal raids targeting a little-known Al Qaeda-inspired group that has bombed civilians. The April 23 raid came on the same day that the State Department lifted a hold on military aid to Egypt. The Obama administration has struggled for months to limit the political crackdown launched by former Field Marshal Abdel Fattah Sisi, who now heads the Egyptian government.