Hamas winning the Palestinian elections

[Piddzilla]

This morning I was surprised to hear that Hamas are looking like winners in the Palestinian elections. Last night Fatah, the governing party, looked like slight favourites which was expected.

It will be very interesting times in the region in the close future. Hamas are not reckognizing Israel as a nation - on the contrary, they have in the past been working hard to wipe Israel off the ground. But this is a totally different scenario than anyone would have expected; Hamas being democratically elected and seizing power without using violence. This puts a lot of pressure on all parts, and not least on Hamas.

A majority of the Palestinian people are in favour of a peaceful co-existence with Israel and surveys show that the Palestinians have never been so negotiation-friendly as now. A very convincing majority of Hamas' voters are also in foavour of a continious secular Palestinian state instead of a islamist state following the Quran to the letter. In other words, Hamas have not received the mandate to be violent or pursue a hate campaign against Israel and the Israelis. Neither have they received the mandate to institute an islamist state. The Hamas victory is more a sign of the dissatisfaction with the Fatah government, viewed as corrupt and incompetent, than it is a sign of sympathy for terror.

Hamas have been known in the past for their sensitivity for the public opinion and to, in a way, blow in the same direction as the West Bank and Gaza winds. And when they now have been handed the ability to govern in a democratic political way, I think it would be surprising if they didn't take this chance to actually make a difference in a positive way.

The Israelis have said that they refuse to have anything to do with a terror organization in the shape like the one Hamas have been known for in the past. USA and Bush, who forced Sharon to allow Hamas to run in the elections, have also said that they refuse to talk to Hamas if they don't reckognize Israel right to exist. There will soon be elections in Israel too and if Hamas don't play their cards right there will probably blow new winds for the hardliners and the right wing. Which will probably mean a couple of more steps backwards in this marathon tradegy.

Let's see what happens next......

[susan]

we will have to wait to see what happens...i'm also wondering how the us will react to the outcome...

[Piddzilla]

Yeah. I think Bush et al were anxious to let Hamas run because they wanted to be able to say that not even the popular vote wants Hamas to run the state. They probably wanted to be able to refer to the will of the Palestinian people and use it as a way to pressure Hamas into conformity - and I don't blame the Bush administration for adopting that strategy based on the prediction that Fatha would win anyway. But now it seems the table has turned. I wonder in what way Kadima, the new Israeli party, will react to this result.

I think that it might be wrong to read into this that the Hamas victory is a sign of the Palestinians wanting to go back to the fighting. I think it is very possible that it's a sign of them wanting change and progress in the peace process, and where Fatah failed, they instead want to give Hamas a shot at it since Hamas is the only real alternative to Fatah. And I imagine that they have a much stronger base among the Palestinian people, the man on the street and all that.

As always, it is very problematic when there's basically only two major alternatives to power. Especially as in this case when the dominating alternative, Fatah, fails so fundamentally since it reflects on the other alternative, Hamas, in the sense that it risks driving Hamas further into extremism. But, as I said, apparently Hamas is known to be opportunitists rather than fundamentalists, so let's hope for the best.

[Golgot]

Yeah, looks like Hamas have almost definitely got it. Like you say tho, they haven't been given a mandate for 'israel destruction' by any means. And it looks like moderate types like Abbas are still liable to be involved in government to some extent etc, despite the general distrust of his party etc.

It is so typical of the israel-palestine prob tho that the minute it looks like one side might be softening a bit the other one looks liable to go even more hardcore. Let's hope Hamas really have got their 'opportunistic' hat on :yup:

[Piddzilla]

Abbas isn't stepping down from the Presidency but the government under Prime Minister Ahmed Queria has resigned, naturally.

First impressions of what Hamas want aren't very positive. A leading Hamas person, don't remember which one now, said in an interview on the radio earlier tonight that he believed that all people had the right to live in peace, jews included. He just didn't think the jews had the right to live here (= Israel/Palestine). Of course that's the kind of messages that the media wants to cable out over the world - one must not forget that. Part of the truth is, as I've pointed out before, that Hamas based their campaign on social reform and to end corruption within the Palestinian government and other authorities. If I've understood this correctly, they rode primarily on the wave of disbelief towards the Fatah government, not on the wave of disbelief towards the Israelis. Then it's probably not totally wrong to say that they also have the islamist fanatics and the militant Israel haters in their hand as well.

[MrPink]

3 years after they choose a terrorist organization they surprised that we were bombing them. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaza_War)

and than accuse us at war crimes and opposition to peace.