And, these are the moderates???

The press will always refer to Abbas as a moderate...

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party is ready to join the Hamas government even if Hamas does not recognize Israel's right to exist, Fatah officials said on Thursday.

Meanwhile, a Hamas minister accused Abbas of "confiscating" more than $35 million to pay his loyalists and supporters.

Minister of Culture Attallah Abu Sabah said the money had been collected by the government to pay the salaries of civil servants.

"Abbas took the money to pay members of the PLO executive committee and employees of Palestine TV," he said. "As a result, we were not able to pay the civil servants their full salaries."

The announcement by the Fatah officials came on the second day of the meeting of the party's central committee in Jordan. The discussions are focusing on Abbas's efforts to persuade Hamas to join a national-unity government and ways of reforming Fatah following its defeat in the parliamentary elections.

Abbas met in Amman with King Abdullah II and briefed him on the ongoing discussions and on the situation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Abbas also talked on the phone with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and urged her to intervene with Israel to ease its restriction on the Palestinians and to halt its military operations in PA areas.

"We're not asking Hamas to recognize Israel as a prerequisite for forming a national-unity government," said Abbas Zaki, member of the central committee. "We're prepared to form a government with Hamas as soon as possible to avoid a catastrophe in the West Bank and Gaza Strip."