Thursday, January 26, 2006

HAMAS to form New Palestinian Government

Hamas has won big, and will now field the next Palestinian government. Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei has conceded defeat and announced his resignation. He said that Hamas must form the next government after the general election.

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri agreed that his party has won 75 seats, giving Hamas an absolute majority. He called upon countries in the region (meaning Israel) and the international community (meaning the USA) to respect the Palestinian people's choice, the result of democracy.

Both the world champion of democracy, the USA, and the region’s most touted democracy, Israel, have objected to Hamas forming the new Palestinian government, even if the party wins through democratic means, with the Americans even threatening to stop aid to the Palestinians if Hamas wins.

The US has been applying pressure on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to keep Hamas in opposition regardless of the party’s showing in the election. US President Bush said he would not deal with Hamas unless it abandoned its tough stance on Israel. It’s a one-sided argument because the very things he criticised or blamed Hamas for, he could well turn around and apply those same accusations against Israel as well.

The US government, in its usual double standard manner, has encouraged the Palestinian parliamentary elections as part of its so-called drive to promote democracy. It has reiterated that it will accept the results as the will of the people. What it didn’t say then was “provided Hamas is not elected.”

The US considers Hamas as a terrorist organisation in the same way the British had considered the Jewish militants in the 1940’s as terrorists. So, what’s the difference?

Israel's acting leader Ehud Olmert said in no uncertain terms that Israel cannot allow Hamas to become part of the Palestinian Authority in its current form.

KTemoc believes that Hamas has won because of 3 factors:

(1) the corruption of Fatah officials,

(2) the perception that Fatah has been an American puppet because the USA was providing it with campaign funds, which has been a blatant illegal interference in the election process - and let's face it - the USA is not exactly reputable or seen as a fair and unbiased political broker in the Middle East, so that perception hasn't done Fatah any good, and

(3) Palestinian voters' defiance of American shameless threats and bullying interference in their parliamentary elections.

I believe the 3rd reason has been a fairly big factor in bringing about a Hamas victory

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