Free Republic

Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat is prepared to include the militant Hamas group in a new Palestinian leadership organization that would function alongside the Palestinian Authority, a Palestinian newspaper reported Monday. The Al Ayyam daily, which is close to Arafat's Fatah faction, said Arafat was willing to include Hamas and Islamic Jihad, another militant organization, in a unified leadership group, though it did not specify what the group's function would be. In the past Palestinian Authority officials have said they would be willing to cooperate with Hamas if it recognized the authority's leadership. Hamas has so far not responded to...

Israel Radio's Farsi (Iranian language) radio broadcasters report receiving numerous calls from within Iran predicting a popular uprising against the government there. The state-funded radio station today broadcast recordings of Iranians speaking angrily about the regime. "It is incumbent upon us to rise up," one caller said. One Israel-based Farsi broadcaster predicted that an Iranian national uprising is a matter of time. He cited Iranians' anger at poverty, drug addiction and support for international terror. Protests involving thousands have been regular occurrences in Iran recently. The Jerusalem-based station broadcasts Iranian-language talk shows on short-wave frequencies that can be heard in...