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Source: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=5&article_id=104847
Fatah-Hamas Tug-of-War
[Daily Star-Lebanon] Rami G. Khouri - The two leading Palestinian political groups, Fatah and Hamas, are now locked in a tug-of-war around whether Hamas will allow Fatah members in Gaza to travel to Bethlehem to attend their party's sixth congress this week. The dominant Palestinian political movements seem to be engaged instead in a disgraceful game of intra-Palestinian hostage-taking. This pitiful state of affairs accurately illustrates the depths of incompetence, mediocrity and irresponsibility to which the Palestinian national movement has plunged in recent years. The sixth Fatah congress is an apt reminder of what ails the Palestinian national movement. For starters, this is the first congress since 1989, meaning that Fatah's political doctrine and leadership have remained unchanged, structurally immune from popular accountability - very much as is the case with political leadership throughout the rest of the Arab world. Any political movement that meets once every 20 years cannot be taken very seriously.