RAMALLAH, April 30, 2011 (WAFA) – The reconciliation agreement reached on Wednesday in Cairo between Fatah and Hamas continued to occupy the main focus of interest of the three Arabic dailies – Al-Quds, Al-Ayyam and Al-Hayat Al-Jadida - published on Saturday.

However, Friday’s events in Syria occupied the main headlines in Al-Quds and Al-Ayyam, but Al-Quds also reported on the troubles in the Jerusalem area neighborhood of Silwan, printing a picture on page 3 of a Jewish settler getting out of his car with a machine gun in his hand and the caption says: Settler opens fire in the air in Silwan.

“62 dead, dozens wounded in Friday of Rage in Syrian cities,” said the main headline in Al-Quds, with a picture of hundreds of people in one of the demonstrations in the Syrian city of Baniyas.

Al-Ayyam had a similar picture from the same city and a headline that read: “Dozens dead in angry protests in support of Dira’a, demanding freedoms and an end to the regime.”

Al-Hayat Al-Jadida’s second main headline was on Syria, but its top headline that went across the entire front page had to do with the local and international reaction to the Fatah-Hamas reconciliation.

“An Israeli diplomatic campaign against reconciliation and recognition of the State of Palestine,” said Al-Hayat Al-Jadida headline.

All three papers reported extensively on the reconciliation agreement and react ions to it, quoting statements President Mahmoud Abbas had made on Friday regarding the role of the new government and negotiations with Israel, as well as statements by a European Union official repeating the quartet conditions as a requirement for the new Palestinian government.

Al-Ayyam, however, was the only paper which published the minutes of the Fatah-Hamas meeting, while Al-Quds published it on an inside page. The minutes, according to the papers, focused on four main issues: elections, the PLO, security and the government.

The two sides agreed that elections will be held a year after the official signing of the reconciliation agreement, expected on Wednesday in Cairo. They also agreed that the government will be named in agreement between them and the factions and whose duties will be to end the division and create the atmosphere for holding elections.

The editorial writing in Al-Ayyam expressed more reservations and caution regarding the reconciliation than the other Arabic dailies.

Hasan Al-Batal, writing in Al-Ayyam in his daily column in the opinion page, reflected this reservation when he said that while some dailies expressed optimism when Fatah and Hamas initialed the reconciliation agreement on Wednesday, Al-Ayyam was more cautious.

“Al-Ayyam was cautious, and I am more cautious than its headline,” he said. “However, the believer in national unity, that is Abbas and Fayyad, will accept to be bit from the same hole three times and more.”

Abdul Nasser al-Najjar, one of the editors of Al-Ayyam and the head of the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, also wrote: “So not to shock our people, we have to differentiate between achieving reconciliation and signing reconciliation.” He said the signing is on general outline but when it comes to implementation, the smallest of details appear, “and this is where the devil is.”

Al-Quds editorial lambasted Israel for what it described as its “hysterical assault” on the reconciliation agreement. It said that Israel attacked the fact that Hamas, which does not recognize it, is going to be in a Palestinian government and it wondered, “We want to ask Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, doesn’t your government include right wing fanatics and parties that refuse to negotiate with the Palestinians and refuse to recognize a Palestinian state and Palestinian legitimate rights?”

Yet, said the paper, “no Palestinian leader forced you to choose between peace with the Palestinians and peace with the fanatics in your government because no Palestinian wanted to interfere in your internal affairs. However, you and your ministers took the liberty to interfere in a blatant way in internal Palestinian affairs without any real reason for it.”

Al-Quds also had an op-ed piece by Hamas official, Ahmad Yousef, writing from Gaza under the headline: “Finally we began to see relief: Reconciliation is just around the corner.” He said that news of reconciliation brought hope and optimism back to the people in the street.

Yousef admitted that Abbas’ March 15 initiative to visit Gaza “had surprised us all.” He said, “The President deserved to be thanked for taking that bold and honest step, which is capable, if the intentions are real, to get us out of the division.”

M.A.