Hamas Suffers Setback in West Bank Vote

ap on Yahoo ^ | 9/30/05 | Karin Laub - ap

[NormsRevenge]

JERUSALEM - The Islamic militant group Hamas, the main threat to Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' rule, suffered a setback in local elections in dozens of West Bank towns and villages, final results indicated Friday.

The outcome — 54 percent of Thursday's vote for Abbas' Fatah movement and 26 percent for Hamas — was in line with a modest rise in support for Fatah following Israel's pullout from Gaza earlier this month.

However, it is not necessarily a bellwether for Abbas' most crucial electoral test, parliament elections in January. The voting in 104 communities was mostly about local issues, such as roads and water, and to many voters the clan membership of candidates mattered more than party affiliation.

Also Friday, the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a violent group with ties to Fatah, threatened to renew attacks on Israelis after two of its gunmen were killed in a shootout with Israeli troops in a refugee camp near the West Bank city of Nablus. Also near Nablus, Israeli soldiers shot and killed a 13-year-old stone thrower after the army said they came under fire.

Israel has been waging a military offensive against militants for the past week, in response to the firing of 38 homemade rockets from Gaza that wounded several residents in Israeli border communities.

The last rocket was fired Tuesday, but Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said in an interview published Friday that the campaign of airstrikes, targeted killings of militants and mass arrests would continue.

"We don't intend to ease up until they (the militants) understand we have a deterrent policy," Mofaz told the weekly Jerusalem. "We have made it clear that we won't allow this (rocket fire) to go on. The Gaza Strip will shake."

Mofaz added, though, that he was "not eager" to send troops back into Gaza.

The military campaign has strained an informal truce that largely held since February, despite several spikes in violence. In the Balata refugee camp, Ala Sanakra, an Al Aqsa leader, said the group would no longer abide by the truce.

"We will pay back the Israelis wherever we can. We will renew the uprising," he said several hours after two gunmen from his group were killed in a shootout with soldiers in the camp.

Similar threats came Thursday from an Al Aqsa leader in another West Bank town.

The truce is a cornerstone of Abbas' plan to co-opt the armed factions by offering jobs and political participation. A collapse of the cease-fire would pose a grave risk to Abbas' rule and weaken him before parliamentary elections. Abbas has said he won't disarm the militants, despite repeated Israeli demands. Al Aqsa members said Friday that Abbas is urging gunmen to hold their fire.

The Gaza rocket attacks, the first major barrage since Israel's withdrawal, have given Israel an opportunity to move against Hamas, something it had been unable to do in recent months because of the informal cease-fire.

In the past week, troops arrested more than 400 Palestinians. Israel said they were suspected militants, but the detainees also included scores of candidates for parliament and local councils.

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said Friday the arrests affected the group's showing in the local elections.

Fatah candidates won outright in 51 communities and Hamas in 13. In the remaining 40 towns and villages, there was no clear outcome and coalitions talks were getting under way. Many had predicted a poor showing for Fatah and thought Hamas would get the "sympathy vote" because of the Israeli offensive.

In two previous rounds of local elections, Hamas won 30 percent or more, and took control of some of the largest towns in the Palestinian territories, including Rafah, Beit Lahiya and Qalqiliya. A fourth and final round is tentatively set for Dec. 8 in the largest Palestinian cities, including Nablus, Hebron and Gaza City.

"It's not a very good showing for Hamas," Palestinian analyst Ali Jarbawi said. He said the Israeli offensive has hurt Hamas, weakening its campaign organization.

Fatah, meanwhile, hopes to burnish its image and bring new candidates into its parliament lineup. Some 125,000 West Bank residents have registered for party primaries set for the last two weeks of October, said Ahmed Soboh, the deputy information minister and a leading Fatah official.

Fatah last held internal elections 16 years ago, and the party's young guard has become increasingly restless, attributing the drop in popularity largely to a calcified leadership.

[NormsRevenge]

A Palestinian boy holds a machinegun as militant members of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades brandish their weapons during a rally at the Al-Ein refugee camp near the West Bank city of Nablus September 30, 2005. Israeli forces killed two Palestinian gunmen and a teenager in the occupied West Bank on Friday, pressing ahead with raids against militants despite a halt to cross-border rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip. The week-long wave of violence has badly frayed a seven-month-old ceasefire and deflated hopes that Israel's Gaza pullout, completed on September 12, might soon open the way for a revival of peacemaking after five years of bloodshed. REUTERS/Abed Omar Qusini

[NormsRevenge]

Palestinians carry the bodies of two Palestinian Al-Aqsa brigades militants during their funeral in the Balata refugee camp near the West Bank city of Nablus September 30, 2005. (Abed Omar Qusini/Reuters)

[NormsRevenge]

An Israeli soldier prays at sunset near Kibbutz Nahal Oz, outside the Gaza Strip September 29, 2005. (Stefano Rellandini/Reuters)

[claudiustg]

---The outcome — 54 percent of Thursday's vote for Abbas' Fatah movement and 26 percent for Hamas — was in line with a modest rise in support for Fatah following Israel's pullout from Gaza earlier this month.---

26% think they should kill Israelis today, while 54% think they should wait until tomorrow.

[packrat35]

That's how I read it also. Palis don't want peace.

[strategofr]

"26% think they should kill Israelis today, while 54% think they should wait until tomorrow."

True, but I'll take it nonetheless. Any good news seems like a plus to me.

[Honestfreedom]

The last rocket was fired Tuesday, but Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said in an interview published Friday that the campaign of airstrikes, targeted killings of militants and mass arrests would continue. <<
Outright lie. There were rockets fired on Friday morning as reported in Arutz Sheva. Just because they miss does not mean they don't count.