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Palestinian Factions Trade Blame as Hamas-Fatah Unity Talks Postponed
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas appoints Mohammad Mustafa as prime minister of the Palestinian Authority (PA), in Ramallah, in the West Bank March 14, 2024 in this handout image. Photo: Palestinian president office/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo
Reconciliation talks between Hamas and Fatah due to be held in China this month have been delayed and no new date has been set, Palestinian officials said on Monday, underlining dim chances of Palestinian unity even as Israel presses its Gaza offensive.
After hosting a meeting of Palestinian factions in April, China said Fatah — which is led by President Mahmoud Abbas — and Hamas had expressed the will to seek reconciliation through unity talks in Beijing. Officials from Fatah and Hamas had previously said the follow-up meeting would be in mid-June.
But with the factions deeply split, analysts had held out little hope of the talks achieving a breakthrough towards a deal that could create a unified Palestinian administration for the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, controlled by the terrorist Islamist organization Hamas since 2007.
Fatah and Hamas traded blame over the delay.
Senior Hamas official Basem Naim, who attended the previous meeting, told Reuters Fatah had requested an indefinite delay.
Fatah spokesperson Abdel Fattah Dawla said his movement had not rejected the invitation to meet but had held discussions with the Chinese ambassador about the proposed date in light of he what he described as escalating Israeli aggression and “the complexities of events.”
An alternative date had been proposed, but Hamas had responded by refusing to take part, Dawla said.
A Hamas official denied this account, saying the movement had not rejected another meeting.
The Chinese foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment.
PRESERVING INFLUENCE
Israel has been waging war in Gaza since the Iran-backed Hamas launched its Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel, seeking to destroy the group and free the hostages kidnapped by the Palestinian terrorist group.
Hamas has sought a deal with Fatah on a new technocratic administration for the West Bank and Gaza as part of a wider political deal, Reuters reported this month, underlining the group’s aim of preserving influence once the war ends.
The United States and EU, which shunned Hamas as a terrorist group long before the Oct. 7 attack, oppose any role for the group in governing Gaza after the war.
Western states support the idea of post-war Gaza being run by a revamped Palestinian Authority (PA), the administration led by Abbas that has limited self-rule over patches of the West Bank.
The PA also ran Gaza until 2007, when Hamas drove Fatah from the enclave, a year after defeating Fatah in parliamentary elections — the last time Palestinians voted.
Hamas has long rejected Abbas’ approach of seeking to negotiate the creation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip with East Jerusalem as its capital, deeming it a failure and advocating armed struggle.
Hamas’ 1988 founding charter called for Israel‘s destruction. In 2017, Hamas said it agreed to a transitional Palestinian state within frontiers pre-dating the 1967 war, though it still opposed recognizing Israel‘s right to exist.
The post Palestinian Factions Trade Blame as Hamas-Fatah Unity Talks Postponed first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Treasure Trove: How a Polish-Jewish artist told Canadians about the horrors of Nazi Germany and produced beautiful illustrations
Arthur Szyk (1894-1951) was a Polish-Jewish artist whose work reflected the historic times he lived: the two world wars, the rise of totalitarianism in Europe and the birth of the State of Israel. In 1940, with the support of the British government and the Polish government-in-exile, he visited Canada to popularize the struggle against Nazism. […]
The post Treasure Trove: How a Polish-Jewish artist told Canadians about the horrors of Nazi Germany and produced beautiful illustrations appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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Biden hits Fundraising Trail in Show of Strength after Dismal Debate Performance
FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Joe Biden speaks during a campaign rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, U.S., June 28, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz/File Photo
President Joe Biden embarks on a series of fundraising events across two states on Saturday as he works to stamp out a crisis of confidence in his re-election campaign following a feeble debate performance that dismayed his fellow Democrats.
Biden and First Lady Jill Biden will visit the upscale New York beach enclave known as the Hamptons for a campaign fundraiser hosted by hedge-fund billionaire Barry Rosentein. Later in the day, he will travel to New Jersey for a fundraiser hosted by wealthy New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, a Democrat.
Fellow hedge-fund founder Eric Mindich and his Tony Award-winning producer wife Stacey, celebrity couple Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick, and actor Michael J. Fox are all listed as members of the host committee at the New York event, according to an invitation seen by Reuters.
Biden told a rally in North Carolina on Friday he intended to defeat Republican rival Donald Trump in the November presidential election, giving no sign he would heed calls from Democrats who want him to drop out of the race.
Biden‘s verbal stumbles and occasionally meandering responses during Thursday night’s debate heightened voter concerns that the 81-year-old might not be fit to serve another four-year term.
The Biden campaign on Saturday boasted it had raised more than $27 million between debate day through Friday evening, but questions remain about whether the debate performance will hurt fundraising, at least in the short term.
The post Biden hits Fundraising Trail in Show of Strength after Dismal Debate Performance first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Arab League Rescinds the Classification of Hezbollah as a Terrorist Group
Mourners carry a coffin during the funeral of Wissam Tawil, a commander of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan forces who according to Lebanese security sources was killed during an Israeli strike on south Lebanon, in Khirbet Selm, Lebanon, Jan. 9, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Aziz Taher
i24 News – The Arab League no longer defines Hezbollah as a proscribed terrorist group, an official said on Saturday.
Hezbollah, a Lebanon-based Shiite militia and a proxy of the Islamic regime in Iran, boasts the world’s largest rocket arsenal of any non-state actor. It is animated by the antisemitic ideology of jihad and is committed to the destruction of Israel.
“In earlier Arab League decisions, Hezbollah was designated as a terrorist organization, and this designation was reflected in the resolutions,” Hossam Zaki, the assistant secretary-general of the Arab League, was quoted in Arab media as saying.
“The League’s member states concurred that the labeling of Hezbollah as a terrorist organization should no longer be employed,” Zaki said, adding that the regional body “does not maintain terrorist lists and does not actively seek to designate entities in such a manner.”
Hezbollah has unleashed numerous rockets, mortars and drones on northern Israel in the past eight months starting on October 8, a day after the Jewish state suffered the worst antisemitic massacre since the Holocaust at the hands of the Palestinian jihadists of Hamas.
The post Arab League Rescinds the Classification of Hezbollah as a Terrorist Group first appeared on Algemeiner.com.