Turkey Promotes Fatah Hamas Reconciliation

Turkish foreign minister Ahmet Davutoğlu is really trying to do his best to get the 'international community' to at least tolerate a Hamas-Fatah reconciliation (Hat Tip: Joshua I).

Turkey has called on the United States and the international community to back a deal between rival Palestinian parties, urging them not to hinder the process unless they plan to bear responsibility for the consequences.

“Israel was always complaining about not finding a counterpart on the Palestinian side. Everyone should be happy now if the Palestinians can reach unity. This should not be hindered,” Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu told reporters Friday.

Davutoğlu said he conveyed this message to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the phone late Thursday.

But Hamas 'Prime Minister' Ismail Haniyeh could not keep his Jew-hatred under control for a single day. On Friday, Haniyeh went public with a demand that the 'Palestinian Authority' annul its recognition of the State of Israel (Hat Tip: Memeorandum).

Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh on Friday called on the Palestinian Liberation Organization to withdraw its recognition of Israel.

...

Speaking after the Friday prayer in Gaza City, Haniyeh said that the PLO should not only demand that Israel chose between settlements and peace, but should also withdraw its recognition of the state.

That won't fly with the US, it might not even fly with Europe, and it certainly won't fly with Israel. So before Davutoğlu can even start to garner support for the reconciliation, Haniyeh has to open his mouth and gum it up. As the rabbis say, the righteous have their work done for them by the hands of Heaven. Heh.

Labels: Ahmet Davutoglu, Hamas-Fatah reconciliation, Hillary Clinton, Ismail Haniyeh

posted by Carl in Jerusalem

A Small Incident in Gaza: Reconciliation

From PCHR:

At approximately 20:00 on Wednesday, 27 April 2011, dozens of Palestinian civilians, including women, spontaneously gathered in the Unknown Soldier Yard, in support for reconciliation efforts between Fatah and Hamas movements declared in the Egypti... At approximately 20:30, 4 police vehicles arrived at the area, and immediately many police officers, some of whom were wearing civilian clothes, stepped down. They violently beat, insulted and chased the participants. They also arrested 5 of the participants, including Mr. Jamal Farawana, a defender of prisoners’ rights, who was violently beaten, and Mr. Talal Abi Zarifa, a leader of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine.


And what was the spontaneous demonstration for?

To support the reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah!

Fatah and Hamas sign reconciliation deal

Fatah, the Palestinian political organisation, has reached an agreement with its rival Hamas on forming an interim government and fixing a date for a general election, Egyptian intelligence has said.

In February, Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority and a member of Fatah, called for presidential and legislative elections before September, in a move which was rejected by Hamas at the time.

"The consultations resulted in full understandings over all points of discussions, including setting up an interim agreement with specific tasks and to set a date for election," Egyptian intelligence said in a statement on Wednesday.

More on this from Saree Makdisi, a Palestinian scholar and author of the book "Palestine Inside Out - An Everyday Occupation". He also teaches at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Rand Paul Would Seek Reconciliation on GZMosque

On President Obama

“I think he’s probably an intelligent person, a reasonable person, but the thing is, our views and vision of what we think government should do, like what we believe the responsibility or the role federal government should be, is just so opposite,” said Paul, who has never personally met the president.

“I mean, I truly am a believer in the private marketplace and that jobs — useful jobs — are created by private individuals. And I think his side, his philosophical beliefs, are that government is the answer to most of our ills.”

A recent topic Paul disagrees with Obama on is the mosque planned near ground zero in New York City. “I’m not sure I think the federal government should weigh in on it,” he said. “I think it’s probably a mistake for the president to be weighing in on favor of it as well.”

If the goal of the building’s organizers is to reconcile, Paul thinks there’s a better way to do that. “I think reconciliation is best promoted by — instead of having a multi-million dollar mosque — maybe having a multi-million dollar donation to the memorial site, would be better for all.”

He said he doubts he could change Obama’s mind on anything because they come at issues from such different philosophies — but if he could, he’d change the president’s mind on the government’s runaway spending.

But that’s an issue he thinks he can work on with other Democrats.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2010/08/18/exclusive-rand-paul-talks-to-thedc-about-the-ground-zero-mosque-the-media-and-president-obama/2/#ixzz0wxUZadOT
Daily Caller

Reconciliation is the Only Option

"If the starting point for this meeting is the job-killing bills the American people have already soundly rejected, Republicans would rightly be reluctant to participate," Boehner and Cantor wrote.
Assuming the President is sincere about moving forward in a bipartisan way, does that mean he has taken off the table the idea of relying solely on Democratic votes and jamming through health care reform by way of reconciliation? As the President has noted recently, Democrats continue to hold large majorities in the House and Senate, which means they can attempt to pass a health care bill at any time through the reconciliation process. Eliminating the possibility of reconciliation would represent an important show of good faith to Republicans and the American people.
House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH)
House Republican Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA)

Robert Gibbs responded for the President
"The President looks forward to reviewing Republican proposals that meet the goals he laid out at the beginning of this process, and as recently as the State of the Union Address. He's open to including any good ideas that stand up to objective scrutiny. What he will not do, however, is walk away from reform and the millions of American families and small business counting on it. The recent news that a major insurer plans to raise premiums for some customers by as much as 39 percent is a stark reminder of the consequences of doing nothing."
By Michael D. Shear, Washington Post

May I suggest an alternative?
If we must pass a universal health plan by reconciliation, we might join the other industrial nations in single payer. H.R. 676 seems to be a reasonable start. It may be administered through the existing Medicare framework.
To bring costs into line with the European experience, I suggest an across-the-board reduction of forty percent for the health industry. This would include all premiums, fees, salaries, charges, prices and rentals.
Coverage of the new plan should include all US citizens resident in the country. No citizen should be denied health care.
Legislators who voted against health care reform should be tried for involuntary manslaughter of victims who died lacking proper health coverage.

Selling Out the Citizens on Health Care

If we have learned anything from the lengthy health care debacle, it is that only the reconciliation of controversial measures has a chance for bringing them into law. The limited debate has no room for Republicans, who can be counted upon to oppose any measure.
The President seems unable to pursue this strategy.
From the STEPHANOPOULOS Interview with OBAMA
"I would advise that we try to move quickly to coalesce around those elements of the package that people agree on. We know that we need insurance reform, that the health insurance companies are taking advantage of people. We know that we have to have some form of cost containment because if we don’t, then our budgets are going to blow up and we know that small businesses are going to need help so that they can provide health insurance to their families. Those are the core, some of the core elements of, to this bill. Now I think there’s some things in there that people don’t like and legitimately don’t like."
The President remains stuck in the quagmire of health insurance. He allowed the special interests to write the Senate version. When they saw Ms Coakley was going to lose, they pumped $millions into her campaign at the last minute. If the House Democrats can muster 218 votes to pass the Senate bill, they can retrieve something from the fiasco.

Citizens Can Salvage Single Payer from Health Care Mess

The health insurance industry, Big Pharma and other special interests have overplayed a pat hand. They have bribed every official in sight to the point the so-called health reform has the public by the short hairs. The bill promotes extortion with fines and punishments for those who don't comply with government dictates. This illustrates the disease of corporate communism, which has infested the entire nation. If the citizen has a brain, he realizes he has no say in health care delivery.

The situation has come to a head in Massachusetts. If Coakley loses, the health care bills now before the Congress collapse without the 60th vote in the Senate. Horrified by this eventuality, the special interests have moved their funds and support to the Coakley campaign. They have ordered their lick-spittle President to rush to Massachusetts to pull their fat from the fire.

Win or lose in Massachusetts, the citizens have an excellent window of opportunity. With both parties totally discredited and shamed beyond belief, any bill worth passing deserves a reconciliation effort to overcome a filibuster. Fifty-one votes should be enough to make H.R. 676 single payer the law of the land. Let every incumbent learn the 2010 election could unseat him and send him to prison.

Such a realization is good for the character.

Leaving Iraq

Joshua Holland, Alternet.com [Excerpt]

The governing coalition now rests on two Shia, two Kurdish and one Sunni party, all of which support the United States' agenda for Iraq).

At the same time, a bloc of nationalists -- also representing all of Iraq's major ethnic and sectarian groups -- has formed to oppose that agenda in the parliament. That nationalist bloc now has a majority of lawmakers in that body (this dynamic, which the New York Times and Washington Post will get around to reporting any day now, is what American politicians don't discuss when complaining about Iraq's "dysfunctional government").

And that divided identity also hasn't caught on with the Iraqi people as a whole. Sociologist Mansoor Moaddel, with the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research (ISR), was part of a team that conducted a series of surveys of Iraqi attitudes between 2004 and 2007, and a> concluded: "Iraqis have a strong sense of national identity that transcends religious and political lines." The survey found that Iraqi nationalism is on the rise, with twice as many Iraqis identifying themselves as such than the number who see themselves as Muslims first and foremost. "This is a much higher proportion than we found in other Middle Eastern capitals," said Moaddel. He concluded that it's a mistake to believe that the sectarian street-fighting of recent years "represents widespread sentiment among Iraqis as a whole... the Iraqi public is increasingly drawn toward a vision of a democratic, non-sectarian government for the country."

Now we have to set a timetable for an orderly withdrawal and leave the Iraqis free to create that "democratic, non-sectarian state" on their own terms.