Hamas election victories

Hamas has done extremely well in the PA local municipal elections. In most
places it has taken a majority of the mayoral seats, and in some cases has
scored massive victories. For example in Nablus, formerly a Fatah stronghold,
Hamas won 13 out of 15 seats. The reasons for this are perhaps threefold:
First, the split within Fatah between the old guard and the young guard, that
burst into the open last week with gunfire and the taking over of election
offices by the young guard, and then the establishment of a new list by them
called "the Future" (al Mustaqbal, not to be confused with "Forward"
(Kadima), the new Israeli party of Ariel Sharon), of which Marwan Barghouti
is the leader. Second, the PA and Fatah are viewed as totally corrupt
political organizations, as opposed to Hamas which is regarded as basically
honest in their dealings with and help for the Palestinian man in the street.
Third, the PA is regarded as complicit with the Americans and Israel in trying
to arrange a peace treaty, which the majority of Palestinians reject, and
which leads them to support Hamas that has not changed its basic position
of intending to destroy Israel and to do this by using terrorist means (of
course Fatah blamed Israel for the Hamas victory).
This success points to a definite possibility that Hamas will win the upcoming
January Palestine Legislative Assembly elections. If this happened it would be
the "final nail in the coffin of the peace process" according to a Fatah
official, since Hamas rejects peace with Israel and its oft-declared policy is
to continue the "armed struggle" against Israel. This is another term for the
continuation of terrorism by all means until victory and the destruction of
Israel. The question is how can the US and Israel stand by and allow Hamas
to participate in these elections, but on the other hand how can they
intervene to prevent it. Pres. Abbas has been so weak that he has accepted
the involvement of Hamas in the election campaign while they still carry guns
and while they still openly declare their intention of destroying Israel.
Under the circumstances he has dug his own grave and prevented the US
and Israel from interfering to stop the slide into chaos.
The EU today announced that if Hamas wins seats in the PLC elections, since
they are listed as a terrorist organization by the EU (and the US), this will
jeopardize funding from the EU, that is currently running at m$330 per year.
The US Congress passed a resolution declaring that all funding will stop if
Hamas is allowed to run in the PLC elections. So the PA, which is in a very
bad financial situation, and is only kept afloat by this constant input of EU
and US funds, could find itself in dire straits indeed. How such threats will
affect the average Palestinian's decision of who to vote for is very difficult
to predict, but if Saeb Erakat, the official PA spokesman is anything to go
by, he said that the US and EU should not interfere in the Palestinian
"democratic process."
If Hamas wins in the elections then Erakat will be looking for a new job and
we will all have to reevaluate our positions. The election of Hamas would
presage the start of a new and far more dangerous war situation.
Yesterday a car carrying settlers was ambushed near Hebron and a father of
five, Yossi Shok, was killed. This is merely the continuation of low level
terrorist attacks that is being kept going by Islamic Jihad and al Aksa
Martyrs Brigades, while Hamas concentrates on getting elected. If they are
elected expect much more murderous attacks.
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PS. Please note that in a previous message I said that Elizabeth Dole resigned
from the Presidency of the ARC because the ICRC would not include the MDA.
Although, like all Presidents of the ARC she did support entry of the MDA, she
did not resign for this reason.