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Politics : WAR on Terror. Will it engulf the Entire Middle East? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: lorne who wrote (11936)	1/27/2006 10:26:48 PM
From: lorne	Respond to of 32591

Iran hails Hamas election victory January 27, 2006 Source: Xinhua english.people.com.cn Iran congratulated militant group Hamas Thursday on its stunning victory in the Palestinian parliamentary elections. "Iran congratulates the great Palestinian people, the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), all Palestinians combatants on this occasion," Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi was quoted by the official IRNA news agency as saying. "The Palestinian people faithfully chose the option of resistance and are to fully support it," the spokesman said. Asefi expressed hope that the results of the parliamentary elections would "lead to further consolidation of unity among the Palestinian people and help them vindicate their rights". "Palestinian people's massive turnout in parliamentary elections indicates the firm determination of Palestinians to continue struggles and resistance against Zionist occupiers. An atmosphere of joy and hope has prevailed in whole occupied territories," Asefi said. Hamas, which is committed to Israel's destruction, won 76 of 132 seats in parliament, while the long-dominant Fatah movement led by Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas gained 43 seats, according to preliminary official results on Thursday. Over 77 percent of 1.35 million eligible voters cast ballots in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and East Jerusalem in Wednesday's elections, the first in a decade. Hamas boycotted the first legislative elections in 1996 under the 1993 Oslo peace agreement between the Fatah-led Palestine Liberation Organization and Israel.

To: lorne who wrote (11936)	1/28/2006 12:09:58 AM
From: Nadine Carroll	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 32591

Certainly, more than half of the Palestinians, if you can believe the polls, either support Islamic terrorism or fail to support it on purely pragmatic grounds - support goes up when they think it's winning, and down when they think it's not bringing good results. That's particularly true in Gaza, where 65% in a recent poll supported Al Qaeda attacks in the US and Europe. The support in Gaza for terrorism dropped below 50% only for attacks in Jordan. Translation: Hey, those are OUR relatives! Not there! However, many Palestinians just wanted to vote the buggers out, and Hamas was the only alternative to Fatah. I can understand that. Furthermore, this is a case where I think "worse is better." Hamas ran as reformers and they won outright. Great, now they have to produce results, they can't just carp. Furthermore, being Islamist nutcases, they are sure to institute Shari'a, which will lower their popularity among the Palestinians, who are not that pious. However, in the present circumstances, they want law and order on the streets and will put up with anybody who says he can deliver it. Also, I think this finally buries the stinking corpse of Oslo, even in precincts where it's been a walking zombie for years, such as the New York Times and the BBC. Even the BBC cannot hide the fact that the Palestinians just voted in a terrorist group whose avowed aim is the destruction of Israel. We can't hear anymore that the PA is a moderate institution, and all would be well if Israel only gave more concessions to strengthen it. Hamas now is the PA, and the PA now is Hamas. Hamas until now has been a pretty honest bunch of terrorists. If they stay honest, great. Everybody knows where they stand and not even the Euros will be able to pressure Israel very hard to give concessions. The hardest course will be if Hamas learns to lie like Arafat and pretend they are secular democrats now. They just hired a professor at Bir Zeit U (aka Terrorist U) to tell this message to the world, but not even the BBC is buying at this moment. The important question is: was this the last Palestinian election, or will there be another one? If the outside pressure can be kept up enough so that this election is not a case of "one man, one vote, one time," then by all means, let the Palestinians vote in Hamas and see how they like the consequences. Let the Egyptians vote in the Muslim Brotherhood while they are at it. The only way to tank Islamist popularity is to give them their shot at governance. The trick is to make sure that the population gets a chance to vote them out, once they are good and sick of mullahs trying to run their lives.