What a surprise! senior lawyers who wrote the interim Palestinian constitution say President Mahmoud Abbas exceeded his powers in appointing an emergency government to replace a Hamas-led cabinet without parliamentary approval.
Washington, which imposed the boycott when Haniyeh took office in March 2006, embraced as "legitimate" the cabinet Abbas appointed after Hamas routed his Fatah forces in the Gaza Strip on June 14. The European Union also "emphatically" backed Abbas's actions as "in keeping with the Palestinian Basic Law".
Israel has 40 members of Palestine parliament in jail...
Anis al-Qasem, who oversaw the writing of the Basic Law, and fellow independent Palestinian constitutional lawyer Eugene Cotran gave Abbas the power to dismiss Haniyeh. BUT:
...it did not grant him the power to appoint a new government without legislative approval nor the right to suspend articles of the Basic Law, as he did last month to spare new premier Salam Fayyad the need to win a vote in parliament.
Appointed by Yasser Arafat, al-Qasem said the president's powers were "intentionally and explicitly very restricted".
PRESIDENT'S DEFENCE
However, Azmi Shuaibi, who sat on a parliamentary committee on the Basic Law, defended Abbas's power to suspend articles. He said Article 113, which stipulates that the legislature "shall not be dissolved or suspended during the emergency situation, nor shall the provisions of this chapter be suspended," meant he "can suspend articles in other chapters".
Al-Qasem disagreed, cautioning against making "such wild implication ... particularly where the implication could easily lead to dictatorship -- the system that the Basic Law was intended, in all its provisions, to guard against".
"They are obviously looking for the slimmest argument to build a mountain on and dry the ocean. They are destroying the foundation on which the Basic Law is laid," he told Reuters.
http://www.alertnet.org/...
Fatah:
His (abbas) is main contribution was in Fatah's military collapse, which gave Hamas the victory and stoked its ambition to show it can institute a new order - an order that shook a few Gaza families, the Dormush family (which adorns itself with the title Jaish al-Islam - Army of Islam), and to some extent, several members of the Abu Samhadana clan.
The Johnston affair, and the tangled web of organizations and splinter groups involved in it, raises the question: How can Israel and Abbas continue to ignore the only force capable of managing the Gaza Strip? And no less important: Is there still any point in boycotting Hamas or the Israel Defense Forces' operations that result in the liquidation of several wanted men from Hamas and Islamic Jihad and, as usual, several innocent civilians?
As most people that follow the happenings in the middle east know, Israel has released 100 of millions of owed money to the Abbas government in West Bank this week.
Yet, when Abbas was in the Gaza he was unable to facilitate the release of the British Journalist Alan Johnston.
And now after the IDF lead an excursion into Gaza that left 20 people injured and 12 dead, Hamas has taken credit for yesterdays qassum rockets. Great...not.
But:
Hamas continues to disarm the various clans and gangs, that Fatah refused to do:
Hamas security forces arrested at least 30 members of a large Fatah clan in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, in what the Islamist group said was a raid targeting criminals but the family said was politically motivated.
Witnesses said Hamas forces made the arrests after entering a group of houses in Gaza City belonging to the Fatah-affiliated Abu Amra clan. It was not immediately clear if anyone was injured.
Hamas security officers said the raid was aimed at confiscating weapons and drugs, and had no political motivation.
http://www.alertnet.org/...
And although:
Fatah, or the Fayad government, may receive 250 prisoners and money to pay salaries, but in the other region, Hamas is the one that will receive important prisoners in exchange for Gilad Shalit. In the West Bank, Abbas will continue to try to persuade the Israelis that only he can promote peace, but only Hamas can return Shalit, like Johnston, on the condition that it continues to intimidate Gaza's crime families.
Another attempt to unify the Palestinian ranks is expected to take place this week when the head of Egyptian intelligence, Omar Suleiman, visits the territories and Israel. This is an important attempt that displays the differences between the Israeli delusion and the Egyptian/Saudi perception of reality, which is based on an understanding that the status quo is the threat and a Palestinian unity government is essential. But this important effort is liable to continue for a long time or collapse if it is not accompanied by a readiness to stop the international boycott of Gaza. The boycott's logic has so far created a dangerous organizational schism that serves the pointless Israeli assumption of "another wanted man and another senior member." It has not prevented even a single Qassam.
http://www.haaretz.com/...
Yet, Hamas continues to call for a Unity Government.
Hamas wants unity government based on prior agreements – senior member
http://www.ynetnews.com/...
Abbas might yet come to realize that the disarming of all these independent clans might be a good thing.
Some still talking resolution between Fatah and Hamas:
Abbas, Arab Parliament to set up panel to solve Fatah-Hamas dispute
A group of Arab lawmakers discussed with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas Saturday the prospects of starting a dialogue between his Fatah group and the radical Hamas movement and decided to set up a joint panel to follow up the issue. "The meeting decided to set up a committee and assigned it the duty of looking into means for reaching a solution to the Palestinian impasse," said Mohammad al-Saqr, the Speaker of the Arab Parliament set up by the Arab League in 2005.
http://www.earthtimes.org/...
And now some good news:
First visit of 22-member Arab League organization to Israel
The visit would mark an important diplomatic accomplishment for Israel, since the Arab League historically has been hostile toward it. But the league has grown increasingly conciliatory amid the rise of Islamic extremism throughout the region - a concern underscored by Hamas' recent takeover of the Gaza Strip.
snip
Israel's Maariv daily said the Arab ministers would arrive on Thursday for talks with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defense Minister Ehud Barak. Aboul Gheit said last week he would visit Israel after he meets U.S. officials in Washington this week.
The Arab peace plan proposes full Arab recognition of Israel in return for Israeli withdrawal from lands it captured in the 1967 Six Day War. It was originally launched in Saudi Arabia in 2002 and revived at an Arab League summit in Riyadh in March this year.
http://www.haaretz.com/...
Talks are taking place:
An Israeli envoy negotiating the release of an Israeli soldier held by Hamas has met twice in recent weeks with senior Hamas members in an Israeli jail, reporting progress on a prisoner swap deal, according to a lawyer close to the talks.
http://www.ynetnews.com/...
Excusive Observer interview:
Hamas war chief Haniyeh reveals his plans for Gaza peace
When asked about the three demands, Haniyeh answered wearily that the PLO—the Palestinians’ longstanding political umbrella organization, which gave birth to the Palestinian Authority in 1993—"already gave answers to those questions. So why do they ask us this over and over again? Anyway, why does the international community always face us with questions and conditions? It’s Israel that they need to ask. We ask that the international community demand that Israel recognize the rights of Palestinians and recognize a Palestinian state in all the Palestinian territory occupied in 1967. Then, for sure, we will have a response to this question."
Dr. Mahmoud Ramahi, Hamas’s chief whip in the PLC, made a similar statement when I interviewed him a few days earlier in the PLC’s main seat in Ramallah:
We have said clearly that Israel is a state that exists and is recognized by many countries in the world. But the side that needs recognition is Palestine! And the Israelis should recognize our right to have our state in all the land occupied in 1967. After that it should be easy to reach agreement. They ask us to recognize Israel without telling us what borders they’re talking about! First let us discuss borders, and then we will discuss recognition.
Haniyeh made clear in our short interview that his government would be putting domestic rather than international affairs at the top of its agenda. "We are confident we can succeed in this new challenge of organizing the Palestinian house," he said. "Our people want internal security now."
http://bostonreview.net/...
Another interview:
The man now controlling Gaza City talks exclusively to Mitchell Prothero about his plans
The problem, he explained, was a corrupt security regime led by the Fatah security chief, Mohammed Dahlan, who had led repeated attacks, arrests and executions of Hamas members over the past decade. Despite February's formation of a unity government of the two factions, Abu Obieda knew war between the two would come. He started planning even as the leaders tried to negotiate peace.
He said Israel 'forced us to this point, but we are not ready to do it again. People need help; they need jobs, money and police. They don't need fighting between brothers.'
snip
He confirmed that some top Fatah officials with links to Dahlan were arrested and investigated. He insisted all had been released but admitted some summary executions happened during the fighting without authorisation.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/...
Haniya calls for deal over Shalit
Gilad Shalit
Cpl Shalit has been held for a year
Hamas leader Ismail Haniya has said he would like to bring to an end the continuing captivity of the Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit.
"As the case of [BBC correspondent] Alan Johnston has ended, we hope that the case of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit may end too in an honourable deal that would secure the release of our hero prisoners from Israeli jails," Mr Haniya told a news conference.
He added there was a chance for an agreement if the Israelis used "logic and reason" to end what he called the "humanitarian suffering" of Palestinian prisoners.
"The ball is in the Israeli court," he said.
About 10,000 Palestinian prisoners are being held in Israeli jails, some without charge.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/...
Opinion:
Israel's hollow declarations
Olmert says Israel doesn't wish to rule Palestinians, but reality proves otherwise
Once again, for the countless time in the past decade and a half, a senior Israeli statesman is declaring openly that Israel is not interested in maintaining its control over the Palestinians. This time it was Prime Minister Olmert, who upon the Sharm summit's conclusion on Monday declared that Israel has no intention of dictating the way of life in the Palestinian Authority.
And it is indeed unpleasant to put a damper on such a rare joyous occasion such as a four-way summit where such noble declarations are made, yet the simple facts (which, unfortunately, very few people in Israel take the time to confirm) do not quite match such declarations.
Olmert's problem, and in fact the problem faced by all of us, is that in reality one cannot fool all the people all the time. Certainly not the Palestinians, who continue to see on a daily basis how more land is being taken away and paved under the wheels of the settlement and annexation machine, which does not rest even for a day.
http://www.ynetnews.com/...
And the ongoing Acedemic PEACEFUL boycott enlarges:
British Transport and General Workers Union votes in favor of launching consumer boycott on all products made in Israel in protest of 'Israel's treatment of the Palestinian people.' Histadrut labor federation: We'll cut all ties with them
The British Transport and General Workers Union (T&G) has decided to launch a consumer boycott on products made in Israel, in protest of Israel's policy in the West Bank.
T&G is one of the United Kingdom's largest trade unions, representing some 800,000 workers.
http://www.ynetnews.com/...
I wanted to include an article about Barak's policies on illegal settlements in the West Bank, but could not local it.
Personally, I think all the settlements are illegal, as is the Wall being build on Palestine land...but it goes on.