Fatah: Mediation failed, Hamas won't let delegates leave Gaza

[oberliner]

Ramallah – Ma’an – Arab mediators have failed to convince Hamas to allow Fatah delegates to the sixth conference leave the Gaza Strip to Bethlehem, where the meet will be held Tuesday, Fatah announced on Sunday.

Earlier this week Hamas had announced that every Fatah delegate who snuck out to the West Bank to attend the conference would be arrested upon their return to Gaza as the Palestinian Authority refused to release Hamas affiliates.

Following a session of Fatah's Central Committee in Ramallah Sunday, Fatah parliament bloc speaker Azzam Al-Ahmad said, "The Central Committee has come to the conclusion that Hamas doesn’t want to allow Fatah's delegates to leave the Gaza Strip, and instead wants to blackmail Fatah and the Palestinian Authority, which we refuse."

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=216522

[Vegasaurus]

1. And their childish bickering will assure that the Palestinian people continue to live in misery

They can't solve simple problems, much less complex ones like how to get a state.

And no one can solve these internal problems for them.

Only the Palestinian leadership can do it, and they have to want a state badly enough to compromise, and they certainly can't compromise with Israel if they can't even compromise with each other.

It doesn't look like they want it badly enough,

[backwoodsbob]

2. idiots

people never cease to amaze me

[shira]

3. Fatah prepares two different stories - retains goal of elimination of Israel

The big story about the Fatah congress is not whether or not it will give up the "right" of armed struggle. Rather, the problem seems to be, as related below, that Fatah is preparing two documents. A document for external use that calls for a two state solution, and an internal document that reportedly calls for elimination of Israel and implementation of a so-called "One State Solution" as its real and only goal. Here is what Fatah plans:

Article 22 calls for: "objection by force to all political solutions that are offered as an alternative to the extermination of the occupying Zionist entity in Palestine and all the projects that aim for the elimination of the Palestinian problem, or seek to internationalize it or put an outside custodian on its people from any possible party."4 This article is in contradiction to the call in the Political Program for greater international involvement in the problem and its welcome for the involvement of international forces in Palestine.
Article 9 states clearly that "the liberation of the Holy Land and the defense of its holy sites (that are forbidden to infidels) is an Arab, Muslim, and humanitarian duty."5

...

Article 13 calls for "establishing a sovereign democratic Palestinian state on the entire Palestinian territory that will preserve the legitimate rights of the citizens on the basis of justice and equality without discrimination on the basis of race, religion and belief, and Jerusalem will be its capital."7 While the Political Program lists the "one-state solution" as an option in case the "two-state solution" fails, the Internal Order document mentions the "one-state solution" as the only solution.
Article 17 says: "The armed popular revolution is the only inevitable way to the liberation of Palestine."8

Finally, Article 19 notes: "The armed struggle is a strategy and not just a tactic and the armed revolution of the Arab Palestinian people is a decisive factor in the war of liberation and the elimination of the Zionist existence, and the struggle will not end until the elimination of the Zionist entity and the liberation of Palestine."9

<snip>

http://zionism-israel.com/israel_news/2009/08/fatah-prepares-two-different-stories.html

[LeftishBrit]

4. Like so many other governments, Hamas are all about power, not serving the people

And Fatah are only a bit better.

Not good at any time, and especially when trying to establish a new state.

I hope the Palestinians can get better leadership.