MattRees.net

The Jerusalem Post highlights the investigation by my new alternative news venture DeltaFourth into Yasser Arafat’s murder. JPost writer Rachel Marder interviews me about The Murder of Yasser Arafat and writes that Matthew Kalman and I have a “compelling explanation [for] the 75-year-old leader’s death near Paris in November 2004 based on years of reporting [...]

Hamas is steadily rebuilding its power in the West Bank, stockpiling weapons and material underground, biding its time for a renewal of the conflict with its Fatah rivals. Palestinian security officials have been telling me this for some time, and they are frankly filled with fear and foreboding. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas mentioned it again [...]

BETHLEHEM, West Bank — The good news is that the West Bank is normal — kind of — and that people are content — sort of. The bad news, the Palestine Liberation Organization thinks it’s responsible for the good news. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who’s also the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) chief, has decided to [...]

Marwan Barghouti, serving five life sentences in an Israeli jail, is a key sticking point in negotiations between Israel and Hamas over kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit. (I posted this on Global Post.) The most important man in Palestinian politics is neither president nor prime minister. He doesn’t shuttle between meetings at the U.S. ambassador’s residence [...]

My latest dispatch on Global Post – a week or so after it posted, because I’ve been in Italy and, well, the Middle East wasn’t on my mind…I didn’t miss the taste of humus too much either, not with all that saltimboca and gelato… Palestinians are divided; Israelis too. Not a good basis for negotiation. [...]

Worn out has-been or drama queen? Interpretations of the Palestinian president’s threat to quit vary greatly. By Matt Beynon Rees – GlobalPost JERUSALEM — Sometimes a quitter really does quit for good. The Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, announced last week that he wouldn’t run for re-election in the proposed January elections. Back when he [...]

A parody of a nationalistic Palestinian song ridicules the intractable dispute between Hamas and Fatah leaders. By Matt Beynon Rees – GlobalPost RAMALLAH, West Bank — Last week, Hamas and Fatah were on the verge of an agreement to end more than two years of civil strife. Then Hamas tore it up, and both sides [...]

The planned agreement goes some way toward validating Hamas control of the Gaza Strip. By Matt Beynon Rees – GlobalPost RAMALLAH, West Bank — Warring Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah have drafted an agreement to end their two-year civil war. But U.S. diplomats oppose the deal. Here’s why. The planned agreement, a copy of which [...]

A brouhaha over who can pray at the Temple Mount recalls a similar disagreement … that became known as the second intifada. by Matt Beynon Rees on GlobalPost JERUSALEM — I just returned to Jerusalem after a month away. Or at least I thought I did. I suspect I entered a cosmic wormhole that popped [...]

Tax breaks, smaller government, a rationalized legal system? No, this is a long way from New Jersey. By Matt Beynon Rees, Global Post RAMALLAH — More than two decades after declaring an independent state, the Palestinians now say they may be able to run one. Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat declared an independent Palestinian [...]