1. Hamas & PA

London's AL SHARQ AL AWSAT 1/8/99:

"Ibrahim Ghawshah, spokesman for the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, has stated that it has stipulated that the right atmosphere should be provided before starting any dialogue with the Palestinian Authority [PA], to ensure that the objectives of this dialogue are achieved.

Ghawshah summed up Hamas's conditions which include the release of hundreds of political detainees held in the PA's jails, foremost among them Dr. 'Abd-al-'Aziz al-Rantisi, Dr. Ibrahim al-Maqadimah, Jamal al-Natshah, Jamal Mansur, and others; an end to the negotiations with the Zionist enemy; the reopening of the movement's institutions which were closed by the PA, and the relaxation of the security organs' grip over the people in the Palestinian areas.

Ghawshah said that if the PA implements these demands, Hamas will agree to start a dialogue with it immediately.

He said however that the dialogue that the PA aims to have with the Palestinian opposition forces is an attempt to cover its failure after the Wye Plantation agreement was frozen. Ghawshah told Al-Sharq al-Awsat that the PA usually resorts to dialogue after it finds itself in a dark tunnel with Israel.

He mentioned the invitations sent to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine which, so far, have not accepted them, adding that with this action the PA is trying to preempt the Palestinian opposition's move which took shape in the Syrian capital on 12-13 December 1998, without mentioning the opposition's meetings which took place during the same period in both Gaza and Ramallah.

Asked about rumors that Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu wants to bargain with Hamas with a view to neutralizing it during the Israeli elections scheduled for 17 May 1999, Ghawshah said:

"Hamas's view of the nature of the Zionist entity can be summed up thus:

…that it is a racist entity of occupation and usurpation, and therefore the movement does not distinguish between the government of the right-wing Likud Party, the Labor Party which claims to be a left-wing party, or other Zionist parties; instead, it sees the Zionist occupation from the perspective of the struggle and the challenge to the Arab and Islamic nations, since this struggle is a struggle between civilizations -- between the Western civilization represented by the Zionists and backed by the Western states, and specifically Britain and the United States, and the Arab and Islamic civilization in Palestine."

He said that "this is the movement's comprehensive view of the nature of the struggle. That is why some analysts are wrong to say that fighting the Zionist occupation and toppling Shim'on Peres's former government in 1996 were intended only to help the right defeat the left" pointing out that this theory was proved wrong, particularly after the resistance to the occupation continued against Netanyahu's Likud government.

Ghawshah said that the ceiling of the resistance will be decided in the future by the popular impetus and the driving force of the Palestinian people, adding that Peres's fall was not due only to the Palestinian resistance operations but also to the fact that he entered Lebanon and carried out the "Grapes of Wrath" operation and the slaughter in Qana, in addition to the subsequent decision by some 30,000 Arab voters in the 1948 areas to refrain from voting for him, which led to his defeat in the elections and paved the way for Netanyahu.

He added that he does not know whether history will repeat itself and whether Netanyahu will enter southern Lebanon to carry out his threats in a new adventure. In short, Hamas's basic focus as outlined by Ghawshah has always been against the occupation, under any name..."

2. Hezbollah & PA opponents

Paris' AL WATAN AL ARABI 12/25/98: "Palestinian sources are talking about intense, periodic meetings going on between the leadership of Hizballah and Palestinian movements opposed to Yasir 'Arafat. The sources point out that these meetings are being conducted between Lebanon and Syria.

They revealed that Hizballah General Secretary Hasan Nasrallah has visited Damascus at least twice since the Wye Plantation agreement where he met with the Palestinian opposition leadership of Hamas and Jihad. These two visits preceded successive meetings in one of Hizballah's headquarters in Harat Harik-in the outskirts of southern Beirut-with a representative of the Islamic Jihad movement in Lebanon, Abu 'Imad al-Rifa'i.

The Palestinian sources are fearful of the repercussions of these meetings and the possibilities of "dangerous designs" behind this coordination, especially the aspect of supporting and inciting Hamas and Jihad groups on the inside..."

3. Bibi's mad at Bill

YEDIOT AHARONOT 1/8/99: "The prime minister's bureau is very angry at President Clinton. The reason this time are the three US election experts who joined Ehud Baraq's team of advisers.

"James Carville and his two colleagues would not have dared rent out their services to Baraq without the prior approval of their chief client, Bill Clinton," one of Netanyahu's advisers says. "Clinton wants Netanyahu to lose the elections. Carville was sent to do the job."

Another four and a half months remain before the elections. During such a long period of time every prime minister -- and Netanyahu even more so -- considers it his duty to visit the United States at least once.

There is always some Jewish convention around which a visit can be built. At this point, the Clinton Administration is not prepared to play ball. The message received in Jerusalem this week is that the administration is not interested in high-level meetings with Netanyahu and his cabinet ministers before the elections.

In contrast, the Palestinians are welcome guests in Washington. Abu-Mazin [Mahmud 'Abbas] will be there in February, and he will be granted an audience at the White House. 'Arafat will visit in April.

Netanyahu is making up for the absence of meetings with US officials with sessions with his confidant Arthur Finkelstein. The latter was in Israel this week. He spent his evenings with Netanyahu at his residence. He spent the day at the King David Hotel, as cabinet ministers and government officials pilgrimaged to his suite.

That's no way to treat an adviser; that's how you treat a rabbi. The general message decreed by Rabbi Finkelstein was: Netanyahu had better drop his attacks on Shahaq. Shahaq will not make it to the runoff. He had better go for Baraq, focusing on his weak points. Don't attack him gratuitously. Dwell on the political issues, not on personal matters."

4. PA feud

London's AL QUDS AL ARABI 1/6/99: "The Tunisian capital is currently the scene of intense efforts aimed at achieving an inter-Palestinian reconciliation, with a group from the Fatah leadership based there trying to contain the disagreement which has erupted between Mahmud 'Abbas and Palestinian Preventive Security official in Gaza Colonel Muhammad Dahlan.

Al-Quds al-'Arabi has learned that Col. Dahlan arrived yesterday in Tunis accompanied by Hasan 'Asfur, head of the negotiations department and minister of state at the Palestinian Authority, while Mahmud 'Abbas (Abu-Mazin) had arrived there earlier.

A disagreement had erupted between Abu-Mazin and Col. Dahlan when the former accused the latter of being behind the protesters who threw stones at his home three weeks ago and who blamed him for the recent Wye River agreement, particularly the part concerning the release of the Palestinian detainees.

Israel's attempts to shirk the implementation of the release of the detainees, most of whom are Fatah hawks, caused huge dissatisfaction among Palestinian circles. Netanyahu's government justified this action by saying that the agreement does not call for the release of the political detainees, while the Palestinians insist that an unwritten understanding was reached between senior negotiator Abu-Mazin and Netanyahu in this context.

Israel limited itself to releasing some criminals and only 100 political detainees, most of whom were nearing the end of their prison terms. This gave rise to a wave of anger and demonstrations in the Palestinian streets led by the families of the detainees.

One of these demonstrations made its way to Abu-Mazin's home and pelted it with stones. This made Abu-Mazin angry with the preventive security official as, first, he did not prevent the demonstration, and because some elements of his entourage led the demonstration. Abu-Mazin dismissed Hasan 'Asfur, the minister of state and head of the negotiations department, and ended all dealings with him after seeing one of his associates leading the demonstration..."

5. Fatah-Uprising statement

Amman's AL MAJD 1/4/99: "Statement by the Central Committee of FATAH-THE UPRISING on the 34th anniversary of Fatah Movement.

On 1 January 1999, our modern Palestinian revolution, which was launched by the Palestine National Liberation Movement-Fatah and embodied by the blood and precious sacrifices of al-'Asifah heroes, enters a new year in its life of struggle. The movement launched its glorious struggle on 1 January 1965 by voicing the slogan of "revolution until victory," adopting the revolutionary strategy of armed struggle and protracted popular liberation war, and pursuing all that with a high level of credibility.

Since firing its first shot, the movement has truly and vigorously expressed our people's will to liberate their homeland and reject all attempts at liquidating their cause or portraying it as a refugee problem. It has presented the Palestine question to the world as a national liberation cause of a people who are struggling for the liberation of their homeland and the restoration of their rights.

Today, as we celebrate this national occasion--the anniversary of the outbreak of our modern Palestinian revolution--and understand what it stands for, we emphasize the national importance of this struggle.

We emphasize the need to review the course of this revolution, including the faults and deviations it has encountered, to learn the lessons and bravely deal with the problems facing Palestinian national action, and the tasks awaiting Palestinian patriots, and thus end the crisis over Palestinian national action.

Our Palestinian revolution has, over the past 34 years in its life, offered many martyrs on the path of liberation, and our people everywhere have embodied, through their bloody struggle against the Zionist enemy, their strong adherence to their homeland, unity, territorial integrity, national identity, and strong attachment to their nation.

The anniversary of our modern Palestinian revolution this year takes place while our national cause is being exposed to a serious conspiracy of liquidation. This conspiracy seeks to undermine our people's just struggle, eliminate their national identity and achievements in their struggle, legalize Zionist occupation of our homeland, and enable the Zionist enemy to Judaize and swallow up Palestine.

The Wye Plantation accord has come to reveal the false peace publicized by the United States and the Zionist entity and the capitulation of 'Arafat and his group to US and Zionist will. In view of the serious dangers entailed by these agreements, Fatah Central Committee would like to underscore several facts that are linked to these liquidatory agreements and their aims and purposes:

The Wye Plantation accord, which is a chapter of the liquidatory Oslo Agreement--and the subsequent Cairo, Tabah, and Hebron accords--concedes the entire Palestinian homeland and submits to the conditions and dictates of the Zionist enemy. In substance, it is a step on the path of Judaizing Palestine.

In fact, this accord outlines the features of the so-called final status talks and proves that these accords could not, in any way, lead to the restoration of rights, the repatriation of refugees, the return of Jerusalem, the achievement of freedom and independence, or the establishment of the alleged state.

As in the case of the Oslo agreement, this accord shows that the security of the Zionist entity is the paramount aim, and the job of the autonomy authority will be to protect this security, detain and liquidate Palestinian strugglers, disarm the masses of the people, and coordinate with the Zionist Mosad and the US.

CIA in restructuring Palestinian society inside the occupied homeland in the fields of education, information, and law in a manner that will serve the security of the Zionist entity. This is in addition to the threat to Arab national security from this cooperation with the Zionist Mosad and the CIA.

In order to dictate the conditions of capitulation on this group, undermine the Palestinian people's struggle, destroy their unity, and wipe out their national identity, the accord has sought to do away with the Palestinian National Charter in the presence of the President of the United States, as the US magazine, Foreign Affairs, says.

Thus a ceremony was held in Gaza on 14 December to sell Palestine, and a handful of people applauded and assured Clinton and the enemy leaders that the Palestinian National Charter was canceled.

Although these accords are turning our people into a minority population in their own homeland, compelling them to live in cantons that are separated and surrounded by settlers and the Zionist occupation army, keeping Jerusalem in the hand of the Zionist enemy, and insuring the continued occupation of the lands, the demolition of homes, and the building and fleshing out of settlements--a situation which is clearly expressed by these accords--the nature of the Zionist existence on our Palestinian territory, the racist tendency that governs it, and the false Talmudic beliefs that dominate its mentality show that Zionist Jewish plans would not allow the existence of the Palestinian people on their land and in their homeland.

So, this rules out the possibility that national independence would be achieved in any part of Palestine.

The timing of the accord has come to serve the direct interests of the United States and to create the false impression that Americans are offering solutions to the Palestinians and creating peace in the region.

But, all this is only a cover for a hostile plan, which is aimed at destroying the capabilities of brotherly Iraq and using the report by the chairman of the UN Special Commission on weapons of mass destruction as an excuse to launch aggression against Iraq within an imperialist-British-Zionist strategy to create changes in Iraq and make it join the Turkish-Zionist alliance to besiege, contain, and weaken the strongholds of Arab and regional resistance, including Syria and Iran...

This [Palestinian] authority must give up any delusion about achieving a political settlement with the usurper entity. It must concentrate on rebuilding PLO institutions on nationalist, democratic bases, as demanded by the next phase of national liberation, in which the forces shall assume their place according to their national role and capability for struggling."

6. Must see TV

Ramallah's AL AYYAM 1/5/99: "The National Authority announced that actual transmission via the Palestinian satellite channel will begin on 18 January 1999, which coincides with the first day of the 'Id al-Fitr.

Hisham Makki, the head of the Palestinian satellite channel, has affirmed that all the preparations for this purpose have now been finalized. Makki, the coordinator general of the Radio and Television Station, noted that the objective of the Palestinian satellite channel is to bolster the Palestinian identity before what he called the cultural invasion the Palestinian and Arab citizen are being subjected to through the other media institutions.

He added that the satellite channel will have a positive effect on the structure of the prevalent social values in Palestinian society. It will also protect the Palestinian identity, in addition to moving along with the advanced media and technological developments.

It will also bring the political, social, and economic issues of the country closer to the citizens. It will help form public opinion in a way that guarantees freedom and democracy. He stressed the importance of the satellite channels in unifying the concerns of the Palestinian people, both those in the diaspora and inside the territories.

The media official clarified that the satellite channel will start transmission after the agreement that was reached with the Egyptian media officials in the Arab Republic of Egypt. The channel will use the Egyptian Nilesat for transmission, after it was not possible for it to transmit via Arabsat...

Answering a question to al-Ayyam on the nature of the restrictions that have been agreed upon with the Egyptian side, Makki said the Palestinian satellite channel is bound, in accordance with the agreement, not to present any programs that go against the general trend of the policies agreed upon among the users of the Nilesat facility, in addition to not airing any programs without prior permission from the original producer of the program..."

7. Arens in for Likud leadership

ARUTZ7 1/11/99: "Moshe Arens declared his candidacy for the leadership of the Likud party today, against Binyamin Netanyahu and Uzi Landau. He said that he respects both of the two, but he feels that he is the only one who can lead the Likud to victory in the national election.

Arens said that he was against the Oslo, Hevron, and Wye agreements, and that even though the government must fulfill its contracts, "there is much room for negotiation on the implementation of these agreements." He called upon Yitzchak Mordechai and Limor Livnat to remain in the party - which will apparently occur - and upon Benny Begin and Dan Meridor to return to the party..."

8. Millionaire muscle