Things have been quiet on the Palestinian end lately, thanks to Ramadan. The Muslim holy month of fasting usually means shorter days, lower energy levels, lots of cheap plastic lanterns and a host of nightly social obligations. As a result, most serious business simply gets pushed until after the Eid al Fitr celebration. The Eid started Tuesday, and many are predicting that events will begin to ramp up on the Palestinian end soon after. But just what direction those events will go depends on whom you ask. Egypt plans to resume its on-and-off efforts to bring the feuding Palestinian factions together. A delegation from the Islamic group Hamas, which defeated its rival Fatah faction in January 2006 parliamentary elections, will travel to Cairo on Oct. 8 for talks expected to continue through the month. Hamas and Fatah coexisted for several months in a unity government that collapsed last summer, leaving Hamas running a pariah ministate in the Gaza Strip and Fatah controlling the West Bank and Palestinian Authority with U.S. and Israeli backing. Since then, the prospect of reconciliation has been stalled around a central point: Fatah has refused to sit down with Hamas until it cedes control of Gaza and issues an apology for the July 2007 military rout, which Fatah considers an illegal coup. But senior Fatah officials have recently indicated a softening of that stance. "We are not asking anybody to go back to where we were," senior ...
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Things have been quiet on the Palestinian end lately, thanks to Ramadan. The Muslim holy month of fasting usually means shorter days, lower energy levels, lots of cheap plastic lanterns and a host of nightly social obligations. As a result, most serious business simply gets pushed until after the Eid al Fitr celebration. The Eid started Tuesday, and many are predicting that events will begin to ramp up on the Palestinian end soon after. But just what direction those events will go depends on whom you ask. Egypt plans to resume its on-and-off efforts to bring the feuding Palestinian factions together. A delegation from the Islamic group Hamas, which defeated its rival Fatah faction in January 2006 parliamentary elections, will travel to Cairo on Oct. 8 for talks expected to continue through the month. Hamas and Fatah coexisted for several months in a unity government that collapsed last summer, leaving Hamas running a pariah ministate in the Gaza Strip and Fatah controlling the West Bank and Palestinian Authority with U.S. and Israeli backing. Since then, the prospect of reconciliation has been stalled around a central point: Fatah has refused to sit down with Hamas until it cedes control of Gaza and issues an apology for the July 2007 military rout, which Fatah considers an illegal coup. But senior Fatah officials have recently indicated a softening of that stance. "We are not asking anybody to go back to where we were," senior ...