Posted on 01/26/2006 10:08:41 AM PST by NormsRevenge
RAMALLAH, West Bank - The Islamic militant Hamas won a landslide victory in Palestinian parliamentary elections, winning 76 seats in the 132-member legislature, election officials said Thursday. The rival Fatah Party, which controlled Palestinian politics for four decades, won 43 seats.
Hamas supporters raised their flag over the Palestinian parliament and rushed into the building amid clashes with Fatah loyalists a day after winning parliamentary elections.
The two camps threw stones at each other, breaking windows in the building, as Fatah supporters briefly tried to lower the green Hamas banners. The crowd of about 3,000 Hamas backers cheered and whistled as activists on the roof of the parliament raised the Hamas banner again.
It was the first confrontation between Hamas and Fatah since the Islamic militant group won parliamentary elections on Wednesday.
Palestinian leaders huddled to determine what role the Islamic militant group will play in governing the territories.
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas will ask Hamas to form the next government, with his defeated Fatah Party weighing whether to form a partnership or serve in the opposition.
A Hamas government, without Fatah as a moderating force, would greatly complicate Abbas' efforts to restart peace talks. The Islamic militants, who carried out dozens of suicide bombings and seek Israel's destruction, have said they oppose peace talks and will not disarm. Israel and the United States refuse to deal with Hamas.
The top Hamas leader, Khaled Mashaal told Abbas his group is ready for a political partnership, Hamas said.
In a first sign of pragmatism, Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar said the group would extend its year-old truce if Israel reciprocates. "If not, then I think we will have no option but to protect our people and our land," he told Associated Press Television News.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the U.S. position on Hamas as a terrorist organization has not changed despite the outcome.
"You cannot have one foot in politics and another in terror," she told an international conference in Davos, Switzerland, via a telephone hookup from Washington.
She said she had called Abbas as well as U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Israel's Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.
"The Palestinians have a constitutional process that they will now follow. We ask all parties to respect this process so that it can unfold in an atmosphere of calm and security," Rice said.
Abbas' office said she told him that the Bush administration "will continue supporting the elected president and his policies," said Nabil Abu Rdeneh, an Abbas aide.
Abbas was elected separately a year ago and remains president. However, the Palestinian leader has said he would resign if he could no longer pursue his peace agenda. The Cabinet and legislature must approve any major initiative by Abbas, giving Hamas tremendous influence over peace moves.
Aides said he planned a major speech Thursday night, after final results are announced by the Central Election Commission.
Acknowledging the Hamas victory, Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia and his Cabinet ministers resigned hours before official results were released.
"This is the choice of the people. It should be respected," Qureia said. "If it's true, then the president should ask Hamas to form a new government." The Cabinet remained in office in a caretaker capacity.
Zahar also promised a complete overhaul of Palestinian public services and administration.
"We are going to change every aspect, as regards the economy, as regards industry, as regards agriculture, as regards social aid, as regards health, administration, education," he said.
Hamas supporters streamed into the streets to celebrate. In Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, Hamas loyalists shot in the air and handed out candy. Others honked horns and waved Hamas flags from cars.
Israeli officials declined comment, but senior security officials gathered Thursday to discuss the results. Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert scheduled talks with senior officials later in the day.
Olmert said Wednesday, before Hamas claimed victory, that Israel cannot trust a Palestinian leadership in which the Islamic group has a role.
"Israel can't accept a situation in which Hamas, in its present form as a terror group calling for the destruction of Israel, will be part of the Palestinian Authority without disarming," Olmert said in a statement issued by his office.
President Bush told The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday that the United States will not deal with Hamas until it renounces its position calling for the destruction of Israel.
Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi, according to news reports, called the outcome a "very, very, very bad result." Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the EU external relations commissioner, said Hamas must be "ready to work for peace" with Israel if it joins the Palestinian government.
Annan said any group that participates in a democratic process should "ultimately disarm." Otherwise, he said, there was a "fundamental contradiction."
Hamas capitalized on widespread discontent over years of Fatah corruption and ineffectiveness. Much of its campaign focused on internal issues while playing down the conflict with Israel.
Before the election, Hamas had suggested it would be content as a junior partner in the next government, thus avoiding a decision on its relationship with Israel.
Throughout the campaign, leaders sent mixed signals, hinting they could be open to some sort of accommodation with Israel. Now it will have to take a clearer position on key issues, including whether to abandon its violent ideology.
Mushir al-Masri, a Hamas candidate who won election in the northern Gaza Strip, said the group is ready for a partnership — presumably with Abbas.
Former President Carter, who led a group of international observers, said the elections were "completely honest, completely fair, completely safe and without violence." Turnout was heavy, with nearly 78 percent of 1.3 million eligible voters casting ballots.
Palestinian election officials confirmed that Hamas had won a large majority of the seats up for grabs in electoral districts in the West Bank and Gaza. It was the first time Hamas has contested a parliamentary vote.
Half the seats at stake were chosen on a national list and the other half by districts. While the national voting appeared to be close, election officials said Hamas had won a large majority in the district races. Hamas apparently took advantage of divisions in Fatah; the long-ruling party fielded multiple candidates in many districts, splitting the Fatah vote.
Initial exit polls had forecast a slight edge for Fatah, with Hamas coming in a strong second. The polls predicted that neither party would have a majority and would have to rely on smaller parties to form a coalition.
However, on Thursday morning, Hamas officials said the group had won up to 75 seats — giving it a solid majority in the 132-member parliament.
Officials in Fatah conceded that Hamas had won at least 70 seats, or enough to rule alone. They spoke on condition of anonymity because counting in some districts was continuing.
Palestinian pollsters were at a loss to explain the discrepancy between the exit polls and the reality. It may have been partly due to a reluctance by some voters to admit to pollsters that they were abandoning the ruling party.
Also, the errors appeared especially glaring in the district races, where smaller numbers of voters were polled.
Palestinian legislator Hanan Ashrawi, who apparently was re-elected on a moderate platform, said the Hamas victory was a dramatic turning point. She said she is concerned the militants will impose their fundamentalist social agenda and lead the Palestinians into international isolation.
She said Fatah's corruption, Israel's tough measures and international indifference to the plight of the Palestinians were to blame for Hamas' strong showing.
Washington miscalculated in pushing for the vote, as part of its pro-democracy campaign in the Arab world, she said. "The Americans insisted on having the election now, so they have to respect the results of the election, as we all do," she said.
Israel has repeatedly asked Abbas to force Hamas and other militant groups to disarm but Abbas has refused, warning such an act could cause civil war.
Ya think? We're better off with a puppet dictator we can control to letting the insane masses determine their fate. I thought Germany 1933 proved that long ago.
I think the President just found his funding for another year of tax cuts.
I hope a missile has found it's way to her house.
I believe this election will clarify some things for the West.
1) Elections are not a panacea
2) The majority of the Palestinians do not want peace with Israel.
AS to whether or not we're better off with tin horn third world genocidal dictators ... I dunno. Probably half a dozen one, 6 the other.
Hey Israel...time to cut off the power, water and jobs for this scum?
So the elected leaders of Fatah and Hamas started throwing rocks at each other!!! Man, I won't even let my kids get away with that.
I'd say this pretty well defines the mentality the Israelis are dealing with.
First Canada, now Palestine. Conservatives are on a roll. ;^)
Re' The Road Map top Peace in the middle East,
Looks like this is the last chance for the terrorists to take an off ramp, or now, as an officially sanctioned and "duly elcted" government, to repudiate terrorism or taste the bitter fruits of their "victory" should they choose to continue their terroristic acts.
In due time. Let the new government get full of themselves first. They'll do something stupid - really stupid - soon enough and Israel will have the green light to raze that hellhole to the ground.
did that second point really need clarifying?
What makes you think that the people who found their stand ambiguous last week won't find it ambiguous this week?
Wouldn't it be a shame if it was discovered that Hamas and Fatah were fighting over who would control the .5 BILLION $ that the US taxpayers send to the Palestinians?
Wouldn't it be a shame if it was discovered that the .5 BILLION won't be sent this year?
Wouldn't it be a shame if Hamas and Fatah totally destroyed each other?
Just as with Iraq and Iran, wouldn't it be a shame if some 3d party helped the weaker side to prolong the fight between them?
This is a clarifying moment. Far better, I think, to have honest terrorists in charge than pretend peacemakers who are secret terrorists.
But when the people elect terroritst, the people are no longer innocent bystanders. Total War becomes morally more acceptable.
Yay... mabye they'll sponsor another parade and blow themselves up again.
The "palistinian people" deserve every bit of pain and suffering they have or will endure.
Landslide? The exit polls showed Fatah winning...I guess this means that W stole another election...or have the DUmmies already come up with that idea? (Yes, I am being sarcastic about exit polls.)
I have reluctantly came to the same conclusion. Hamas will either reform itself or it will face a real war with the Israelis.
Palestinians must forever be denied statehood. It is akin to making Nazi Germany a member of the UN Security Council.
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