| Palestine's elections |
 Palestine's elections
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Jan. 26th, 2006 @ 10:04 pm 
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Everyone knows about the feud between Israel & Palestine. The latter wants the former out of "their" holy land; the former says no, this is "our" holy land.
k, that was a very brief generalization. To discuss and debate the, according to CNN, complex factors of competing histories, blood, religion, and, above all, land....would take, and has taken, forever.
So the Hamas has just won a landslide victory in Palestines' elections. Mainly for 2 reasons:
1) the group is dedicated to the complete destruction of Israel -- or so they say -- and one can only wonder how popular that "goal" is with the Palestinians.
2) the Fatah govt that has ruled Palestine for the past decade has been accused of being corrupt and not taking care of their own. In contrast, Hamas has provided successful social/charitable organizations to the Palestinians, which explains its popularity amongst the common folk.
The 2nd reason I can deal with. Altho I do find it ironic that the Palestinians would think so low of the very same party founded by their late-beloved Arafat. (Do you remember when he died? Did you see his "funeral proceedings"? Crowds swarmed his coffin like locusts just to touch "him.") Anyways, I digress. Bottom line: if you help the common poor citizen, you obviously will get their support. Just like Mao used to do.
The 1st reason is where the uncertainty lies. Hamas has been officially labeled as a terrorist org by Israel & the U.S. And they're not the only ones bothered by Hamas' victory -- European countries are too. And who can blame Israel either? A party whose very existence is aimed at their destruction coming into power is warrant enough for concern. And yes, I am aware of the history of Palestinians also being killed by the Israelis. I don't condone that, but I also don't condone the suicide bombings that Hamas has targeted at Israeli civlians. One time, they even blew up university students that were both Israeli and Palestinian.
But there is still some hope. Hamas has, so far, honored their year-old cease-fire agreement with Israel, and toned down their rheotoric of "destroy-the-Zionists" campaign. Recently, Palestinians have blamed their problems less on Israel, but more on the corrupted Fatah govt. They're not as crazed for suicidal bombings as they used to be when the previous intifada was going on. In fact, a recent poll conducted there implies they're growing in opposition of attacks against the Israelis. So hopefully, they elected Hamas as a desire for change, instead of a desire to destroy Israel.
And maybe Hamas will change for the better. Sharon, as unpopular as he is with the Palestinians, did withdraw Jewish settlers from occupied land (a bold move that was unpopular with the Israelis living there). This is the same guy who was blamed for Israel's invasion of Lebanon, who shocked the Arab world when he was elected. So even tho they may not admit it, the Palestinians owe Sharon for the recent withdrawal, IMO.
So the question is whether Hamas will eventually continue on its campaign against Israel, or head to the negotiating tables.
Politics are nothing but uncertainty. We'll see where this goes.Current Mood:  contemplative |
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