Palestine – Breaking News

INTERVIEW WITH KHALED MESHAAL

by Gianni Perrelli

Exclusive: The leader of Hamas in exile speaks. He announces an imminent conflict. That is because he says Tel Aviv is not interested in listening to Palestinians. And from America, the opening with Damascus was nothing but words. Conversation with Khaled Meshaal From the Italian news magazine L’Espresso. Translated by Mary Rizzo.

"In the name of God, the clement, the merciful, I would like to ask the first question. Is it possible that after the war against Gaza and our heroic resistance, Israel still does not understand that the peace process cannot be done without Hamas…?"

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Fatah’s Leadership Crisis Deepens

by Helena Cobban

Fifty years ago, a small group of Palestinian teachers and engineers living in Kuwait founded a secretive movement aimed at liberating those portions of previously British-ruled Palestine that became the State of Israel in 1948.

The group they founded, Fatah, went on to dominate the entire Palestinian political scene. In 1969 it took over the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), which had been founded by the Arab states — as a counter to Fatah — a few years earlier.

In 1993, it was Fatah/PLO head Yasser Arafat who signed the "Oslo Accord" with Israel; and the following year Arafat became president of the Palestinian Authority (PA) established in occupied Ramallah.

But for several years, Fatah has been in crisis, and now that crisis is coming to a sharp head. Arafat’s successor, Mahmoud Abbas, is planning to convene a meeting of Fatah’s policymaking General Conference Aug. 4. By insisting on holding it in occupied Bethlehem — which will enable Israel’s security forces to completely control who attends and who does not — he has helped split the group’s historic leadership down the middle.

In mid-July, Farouq al-Qaddumi, a longtime Fatah leader who is senior to Abbas within the movement, lashed out at Abbas, accusing him of having conspired with Israel and the U.S. to poison Arafat, who died of unknown causes in late 2004.

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The convoy of the national campaign to break the siege on Gaza returned to Cairo after it was stopped by the security agencies on the entrance of Suez Canal governorate of  Ismailiyya.

The organizers of the convoy held a press conference in which the Chancellor Mahmoud Khudairy, former head of Alexandria Judges Club, and the leader of the Campaign, said the convoy achieved one of its most important goals which is the breaking of the hesitation blockade and reacting to break the siege .

He pointed out that the campaign is one of the most important steps taken by Egyptian opposition and national forces, and that for the first time there is some kind of action to serve the Palestinian cause, adding that we need a lot of practical actions similar to this convoy, to make the government feel that it will not end at this point.

The convoy was launched  at 03:00 pm, on Wednesday Ramadan (September) 10, on its way to Rafah crossing border, but the security agencies intercepted it and prevented its entry to Al-Ismailiyya city, which is the only gateway to Rafah crossing.

(IkhwanWeb – Egypt)

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By Eric Margolis: They Can’t Cage a Song

(source: www.ericmagolis.com)

At a time when the US is mired in two lost wars, running a $1.4 trillion deficit, and trapped in economic stagnation, a bitter but trivial public controversy over a Muslim social center in downtown New York seems absurd.

But that’s what we now have, and it’s an ugly harbinger of the oncoming wave of religious bigotry and xenophobia that will mark this fall’s elections.

We applaud two courageous men, President Barack Obama and New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, for defending the Muslim center even at considerable political risk. As the president noted, choosing the downtown site may not have been wise, but it was the absolute right of its proponents, a right which we as Americans must defend at all costs.

Republicans, neocons and assorted racists are having a field day promoting hatred of Islam. They see it as a golden opportunity to revive charges that the president is a closet Muslim. Newt Gingrich recently kicked off his campaign for the presidency by issuing a disgusting jeremiad about the supposed dangers of Islam to the nation.

Now, the massed myrmidons of the hard right are wailing that the prayer center – which is actually interfaith – somehow violates the profound sanctity of the 9/11 "holy ground."

Read More »New york mosque bigotry rears its head