Palestine Discussion Thread: Hamas wins elections #1

[Rush Limbaugh]

This is truly bad news.

Hamas wins in West Bank elections

Hamas supporters celebrating council election victories
Palestinian militant group Hamas has won a sweeping victory in municipal elections in the West Bank.
The Palestinian electoral commission said that in the biggest city, Nablus, Hamas took 73% of the vote, while the mainstream Fatah organisation took 13%.

Nablus has traditionally been seen as a Fatah stronghold, but the party appears to have been damaged by current splits.

On Wednesday, Marwan Barghouti split from Fatah to form a rival faction for elections in late January.

Barghouti is serving five life terms in an Israeli prison for ordering militant attacks.

Indicator of support

This week's poll is viewed as an important indicator for elections to the Palestinian parliament scheduled for 25 January 2006.


Barghouti is heading a rebel Fatah list from his Israeli prison cell
Partial results suggest Hamas has taken control of the councils in Nablus, the most populous West Bank city, and al-Bireh, a large suburb of Ramallah.

In Jenin, Hamas won seven seats on the council to Fatah's six seats.

In Ramallah, the West Bank's commercial centre, Fatah won six seats on the council, while the radical Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine also won six and Hamas three.

Full and final results were expected by the end of the week.

Israeli warnings

Hamas' charter commits it to the destruction of Israel, and the group has been responsible for most of the suicide attacks inside Israel.

Israeli officials have warned that the peace process will end if the group becomes the dominant Palestinian political party.

Late on Thursday Israel launched another round of missile strikes on targets in Gaza and Palestinian militants fired Qassam rockets into Israel.

The Israeli army said its missile strike was aimed at roads leading to areas from which militants fire rockets. Palestinian medical sources say that two people were injured.

Again the Palestinians are their own worst enemy.

LINK

[Trey]

All i can say is: if this turns out bad, it will show that the palistinans are inept. i mean, come on, at terrorist group winning an election?

[Mr.Flint]

All i can say is: if this turns out bad, it will show that the palistinans are inept. i mean, come on, at terrorist group winning an election?

What do you expect from the same people that already elected a terrorist once to be their President? :laughing:

[Rush Limbaugh]

What do you expect from the same people that already elected a terrorist once to be their President?

They elected him far more than once did they not?

[Mr.Flint]

They elected him far more than once did they not?

Nope only once, in 96... the elections on the 26, are their second

[Caelius]

Looks like they won't be getting any more aid money from the US and EU it seems.

[vikingsiddhu]

Fear makes people do crazy things.

[John I Tzimisces]

Hrm, at least people OUTSIDE that region want peace. Maybe then it will be facilitated if these two groups can't play nice.

[TheKwas]

Terrible, terrible news.

I hope this, at the very least, goes to show Sharon and other Israelis, that the West Bank is fed up with Israel's attempts to end the apartheid by "privatizing" it and making it look nice to outside idealists. Hamas have been wining more and more positions within munciple communities ever since Israel has been strengthing themselves inside the west bank (granted, at the expense of the Gaza Strip, which was predicted to be an economic burden in the future anyway). I just hope Israel and Palastine haven't missed their chance to co-operate peacefully and effectively.

[Mr.Flint]

Terrible, terrible news.

I hope this, at the very least, goes to show Sharon and other Israelis, that the West Bank is fed up with Israel's attempts to end the apartheid by "privatizing" it and making it look nice to outside idealists. Hamas have been wining more and more positions within munciple communities ever since Israel has been strengthing themselves inside the west bank (granted, at the expense of the Gaza Strip, which was predicted to be an economic burden in the future anyway). I just hope Israel and Palastine haven't missed their chance to co-operate peacefully and effectively.

Show Sharon? erm, perhaps you missed it but technically he is not a PM anymore
And frankly it will show Israelis only one thing: there is little point negotiating anything with palestinians.

[TheKwas]

Correction, show Sharon assuming he ever gets off the machine.

And I don't see how it shows you can't negotiate with Palestinians? There wasn't much meaningful negotiation concerning the West Bank as it is. Israel has been re-enforcing its will there, while using the Gaza strip negotiations as a smokescreen. It's not exactly a huge secret, Sharon has been known to consistently say that the Gaza Strip has to go in order to re-enforce Israeli influence in the west bank. Even in areas where Israel plans to grant more self-determination, there's been massive government land rights sold off to rich (aka Jewish) residents, a plan of action which reminds me of the South African apartheid struggle and how the government did not end apartheid until the whites were gurrenteed economic dominance (through privatization) even after the loss of political dominance.

[Guderian]

This just goes to show how the populations of Islamic countries view "terrorist groups". Meanwhile back in Iraq we are all supposed to belive the Iraqis are different.

Anyhow I think there might be one positive outcome from this, Hamas may be forced to become a political group, in order to secure support from the west.

[RZZZA]

I support Israel 100%, no surprise there. I wish to see all muslims cede claims to Israeli lands and to cease hostilities against jews via force of arms and terrorist tactics. I think the U.S. president has to take action and take a more proactive approach in playing referee for the both sides because the U.N. sure as S$%& is inept and isnt gonna do a thing. Past precedent has put that burden on the U.S. president. I think Carter and Clinton did a good job in this field, more process was seen under their guidance between the jews and palestinians than has been seen in a while. Frankly, jews and muslims in the middle east should not be left to their own devices, the world needs to pay close attention, because both sides are capable of terrible things in their tense and precarious positions.

[vizi]

It is amazing how dreadfully stupid people can be. You vote in a terrorist political party and you live next to a country with more guns than you. And your neighbor is not on good terms with the terrorists that you elected. With Syrias asinine remarks about Sharon and the rest of the area surrounding Israel I'm sure this will just raise the level of tension in the Israelis. This situation is getting worse and worse. And the Palestinians are digging themselves into a political hole. And they way they have been acting I'm sure when they hit rock bottom they will begin to start blasting (quite literally.)

[Lord Rahl]

This isn't good at all. I think it is only a matter of time until a major war between Israel and it's enemies erupts.

[John I Tzimisces]

This isn't good at all. I think it is only a matter of time until a major war between Israel and it's enemies erupts.

And well, we all know how those end up, and who will get dragged in. It will be interesting to see who sides with the Arab/Muslim's this time around since we lack a dastardly USSR to connive behind everyones backs.

EDIT: Thought about that for a second, so, yeah, China. Lovely.

[RZZZA]

Ah dont worry EXC, the enemies of Israel will find weapons Soviets or no soviets...plenty of countries willing to sell arms for the right price, western countries even, countries that are supposed to be some of our nearest allies.

[Ahiga]

And well, we all know how those end up, and who will get dragged in. It will be interesting to see who sides with the Arab/Muslim's this time around since we lack a dastardly USSR to connive behind everyones backs.

EDIT: Thought about that for a second, so, yeah, China. Lovely.

I heard that China apparently supports the opposition to Iran's nuclear program..don't quote me on that though. I really don't know the info. Apparently it's not exactly 'against' it, but they are not backing them stalwartly?

[John I Tzimisces]

I heard that China apparently supports the opposition to Iran's nuclear program..don't quote me on that though. I really don't know the info. Apparently it's not exactly 'against' it, but they are not backing them stalwartly?

Whatever gets them money. NK doubtless would join in somehow. If the US backs Israel and deploys troops to the area of conflict, who is to say NK would not initiate some kind of action in its sphere of influence...

[RZZZA]

I dunno if the U.s. would even back Israel anymore really...I mean seriously, I dunno WTF Bush and his people are thinking...I wouldnt put it past them to seriously mess things up. I dont know what the current administrations standing towards Israel is, I dunno if popular opinion in the U.S. is biased towards Israel or not...I mean, I know the American people are more sympathetic to jews than muslims, that has got to be a fact...but I dunno if at this point we'd be willing to actually give them aid. I dont even know if our president keeps in close contact with Israel, I mean he's the president so that makes me wanna say yes he does but then he's also George Bush so that kinda makes me doubtful....