Basically the Palestinians just took a car bomb to the "Road Map to Peace" by electing terrorists who've made it their goal of destroying the Jewish state.
NYTimes -- Hamas leaders claimed their own count showed that the group was winning an outright majority in the 132-seat Palestinian Legislative Council. Sixty-seven seats are needed for a majority, and Ismail Haniya, a senior Hamas leader, said the group expected to at least 70.
[...] Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority and the Fatah leader, was elected a year ago and his position is not affected by Wednesday's vote. However, Mr. Abbas, commonly known as Abu Mazen, wants to restart peace negotiations with Israel, and there is no realistic possibility of that happening if Hamas leads the next Palestinian government.
Israel calls Hamas a terrorist group and has always refused to deal with the organization. Contacts between Israel and the Palestinian Authority are already limited and fraught with difficulty, and would only become more so with Hamas in the Palestinian government. |
Gee... ya think? It's tough to bring peace between two individual states when the majority of Palestinians support a poltical party/terrorist group that aims to eliminate half of the two states involved. This is also know as the "Peace is easy when the people from the prospective country with whom you'd like to agree to peace with are all dead" or PIEWPPCWWYLAPAAD or something to that effect. Wow. That's a mouthful.
Bloomberg -- Hamas, running for the first time in national elections, vowed to fight corruption and lawlessness in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. While it moderated its stance toward Israel, not mentioning its goal of destroying the Jewish state in its official platform, the movement says it won't give up its arms.
Along with its fight against Israel, Hamas has built its popularity over the past two decades by providing health services and social welfare programs that weren't available from the Palestinian Authority and international refugee organizations.
Russia called on Hamas to embrace the peace process and said its own cooperation with the Palestinian Authority won't be affected by the make-up of the government, Agence France-Presse said from Moscow.
Hamas should "speak in favor of a peaceful settlement and, as a result, of the creation of an independent Palestinian state that would live in peace with Israel,'' AFP quoted Russia's special envoy to the Middle East, Alexander Kalugin, as saying, citing Russian news agencies. |
Bleh. Hamas gained popularity by forming their own militia of imbalanced kids with suicidal/homicidal tendencies, blowing up Israelis in an aim to destroy the Jewish state, and supporting the families of their miltia/suicide bombers. I suppose that must be what qualifies you for "health services and social welfare programs" under Hamas.
I wonder if the UN electoral advisory committee or whatever the UN group is called that "validates" elections, can disqualify Hamas as a political party. I don't think most political parties should have their own military wing. Something smacks of "improper" about that sort of thing... Would you refuse a "Vote 4 Hamas!" button from a guy with an AK-47?
UPDATE: Cox & Forkum are right on the money as usual...
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