NEW PALI P.M: "WE'RE SCREWED"

New Palestinian PM Wants to Work with Israel
The new Palestinian government is seeking "intensive and active cooperation" with Israel, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said on Thursday. "We have to have some sense of what has happened over the past...seven, eight years. Simple, basic question: Are we better off now than we were then? Then, the situation was not great, but guess what it is like today? It's catastrophic." He said the recent division among Palestinians has "destroyed" the vision of a Palestinian state. "This is complete chaos," he said. "Anyone resisting, however which way they want, whenever they want, from wherever they want, is that resistance? That has destroyed our national project completely." (CNN)

See also Fayyad Warns Islamic Preachers - Mohammed Daraghmeh
New Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad delivered a stern warning Thursday to some 800 Muslim clergy, including Hamas supporters: He won't tolerate calls for violence delivered from mosque pulpits and plans to collect militants' weapons. "We will collect weapons and replace them with pens and books," he told the crowd. "We won't allow them (mosques) to be turned into places of incitement and intimidation," he added. "It's the responsibility of men of religion to...present religion as a way of tolerance, not as a cover for bloodshed." (AP/Washington Post)

Palestinians Fear Split Has Derailed Statehood Quest - Joel Greenberg (Chicago Tribune)
The brief, brutal civil war that led to the Hamas takeover of Gaza has left Palestinians contemplating a political divide that threatens their goal of a state in the West Bank and Gaza.

The two territories now resemble hostile states, with the green Hamas flags flying over captured security bases in Gaza and truckloads of gun-wielding Fatah security men tearing through the streets of Ramallah.

Officials of a cabinet appointed by Abbas in the West Bank say they will work to ensure humanitarian aid to Gaza and make salary payments to government workers there. The government in the West Bank claims jurisdiction over Palestinians in Gaza as well, asserting that Gaza has come under the control of rebels who staged a coup.