The people of Palestine send their regards...

[Mavdog]

Democracy can be a good thing, but then it also isn't a solution to the terrorism problem as shown by the elections held in Gaza this past week.
It seems that our pres doesn't realize that voters can vote for terrorists. I wonder what Bush will do if the Iraqis vote for similar candidates like the Palestinians did?
and BTW, why is it that we didn't hear all the hoopla about the first vote by Palestinians in Gaza like we did by the Iraqis?
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Hamas Wins Gaza Local Elections, US Unimpressed
Al-Shobaki: Municipal Polls Done in 6 Months, 2nd Stage April 28

29/01/2005
Palestine Media Center – PMC

Hamas swept seven out of ten municipalities, winning 75 of the 118 council seats, with 20 seats going for women, on Thursday in a voter turnout that topped 85 percent in the first-ever local elections in the Gaza Strip.

Meanwhile, the United States downplayed Hamas electoral victory and confirmed that it will continue to deal with the Islamic movement as a “terrorist” organization.

Palestine National Authority (PNA) Local Government Minister Jamal al-Shobaki announced that 414 candidates contested 118 seats. 60,480 people representing 72 percent of 83,700 eligible voters took part in the elections, he said.

The ruling Fatah movement won 26 seats, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) one, clan-affiliated Fatah supporters four and the rest of the seats went for “independents.”

Hamas ran in nine of the towns, under the slogan “Change and Reform.”

Thursday’s vote was the first-ever municipal election in the coastal Gaza Strip.

Al-Shobaki told a press conference in Gaza city that the Higher Commission for Local Elections decided to complete the municipal elections within six months instead of one year, as was previously announced.

A list of names of the constituencies that will go to polls in the second stage on April 28 will be submitted to the Council of Ministers (cabinet) for approval, and will constitute 50 percent of the remaining municipalities.

The third stage of the local elections will be held three months later, he said.

Thousands of Hamas supporters celebrated their electoral victory in the streets beneath the green flags of the Islamic movement Friday.

“Hamas’s victory proves Islam is the solution,” blared a slogan from loudspeakers.

“Our people have a consensus on the choice of jihad and resistance and the election has underscored that concept,” Hamas spokesman Mushir al-Masri told reporters.

He said the victory was a vindication for the group’s resistance strategy.

“This is a big victory for the resistance,” said al Masri. “It seems that resistance and Qassam (rockets) that used to be fired ... have won,” he said.

The Gaza voting follows the December 23 local elections in 26 West Bank towns and villages, and a January 9 presidential election in which PLO Chairman Mahmoud Abbas was elected to succeed Yaser Arafat as the PNA President after Arafat’s death on November 11.

US Unimpressed

In the local elections in the West Bank, Hamas made a strong showing and took control of several towns away from Fatah.

However, the United States said Friday it continues to consider the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) as a “terrorist organization,” the State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said in Washington.

The State Department said the group has nothing constructive to bring to the political process as long as it maintains “a course of violence.”

Boucher pointedly did not welcome the election outcome, praising instead the peaceful conduct of the polling and what he said was excellent cooperation between Israeli and Palestinian security officials in facilitating free movement for voters.

“Certainly we have not changed our view of Hamas as an organization. We think it needs to be put out of the terrorism business. And that remains very clear for us. But as I said, I think the test right now for the Palestinians, if they want to achieve a Palestinian state, if they want to achieve their national aspirations, is to see whether they will move forward and end the violence, take active steps to end the violence, and create the institutions that can support a state,” Boucher said.

“Winning an election doesn't mean you stop your violence. You stop your violence because you ban violence as a goal. And that has to be the criteria of judging any particular organization or individual,” he added, according to the official Voice of America radio.

[u2sarajevo]

Interesting. I know we have a policy of not dealing with terrorists.... but when a Country elects known terrorists as their government do we have a choice?

Do we ignore them? What a dilemma.

[Chiwas]

and BTW, why is it that we didn't hear all the hoopla about the first vote by Palestinians in Gaza like we did by the Iraqis?

Go figure.

What a dilemma.

If a State is not recognized by the -western- world but has democratic elections, doesn't it turn them in a real state? Now they are soldiers, not terrorists, by the same western rules. What a dilemma indeed.

[FishForLunch]

I must be really a sad day for the liberals that any election took place in Iraq. Dont fret there will be 2 more this year and there is plently of time for the insurgents to win and ruin the country.

[mercury_rev]

It seems that our pres doesn't realize that voters can vote for terrorists. I wonder what Bush will do if the Iraqis vote for similar candidates like the Palestinians did?

Mavdog, you make a VERY good point with your first sentence.

I agree that President Bush's philosophy leaves him too eager to gamble on democracy "just happening" to work out in favor of a reasonable regime. Both Republican and Democrat administrations - especially their State Departments - often treat Israeli citizens' rights to self-defense against terrorist threats as no more legitimate than the Palestinian terrorists who have constantly attacked them in the last fifty-plus years. (Hence these endless series of "peace talks" and roadmaps that do nothing to end the bloodshed there.) Our leaders' realpolitik with regard to Israel/Palestine hasn't helped matters, but the ultimate responsibility still lies with the Palestinian leaders to love their own citizens more than they hate Israeli Jews. Palestinian leadership has received billions of aid dollars througout the past few decades, and yet they go nowhere because they embezzle that aid and deny their own people basic democratic freedoms.

And you're right: at this point, Palestinians will only elect another set of terrorist sympathizers.

However, I believe the Iraqis are much less inclined to elect terrorist-sympathizers. Despite what Saddam might have hoped, the Iraqi people haven't been systematically brainwashed into endorsing either militant Islam or Jew-scapegoating, unlike the Palestinians under close watch of Arafat and the PA. The Iraqis are struggling to become aware that they are the masters of their own destiny and perhaps, through the Shia-Sunni tensions, the cause of (and solution to) their own internal frustrations. These elections will only help bring that awareness into the open, but of course nothing is guaranteed.

As the elections showed, the Islamic terrorists have very limited influence. While Iraq won't be Israel anytime soon, comparing its elections with the Palestinian elections is comparing apples and oranges.

[Mavdog]

While you are correct in the differences between the Iraqis and the Palestinians, I don't agree with your point about the demonization of the Jews. That is prevalent in every country in the middle east. It was no surprise when Hussein cloaked himself in the Palestinian cause towards the end of his reign.

The influence of the Iranians in the shia establishment of Iraq may present the very same issues that the Hamas candidates presented. It is very possible the majority of the shia end up voting for non-secular candidates who are running on a religious plank. What will we do if the people of Iraq determine they want a theocracy led by their own alatollahs??