BREAKING NEWS!
Fatah Party: HAMAS WINS Palestinian Vote
AP – 3 minutes ago
JERUSALEM – The Hamas militant group captured a majority of seats in Palestinian legislative elections, according to officials in Hamas and the ruling Fatah Party, a shocking victory that could throw Mideast peace prospects into turmoil.
Hamas Wins Landslide 76 Seats In 132 Member Parliament
GAZA (Irish Examiner/AP) Jan. 26 — The Islamic militant Hamas won a landslide victory in Palestinian parliament elections, winning 76 seats in the 132-member parliament, election officials announced today.
The rival Fatah Party, which controlled Palestinian politics for four decades, won 43 seats.
Palestinian leaders, stunned by the militant group’s sweeping victory, huddled to determine the shape of a new government as world leaders insisted Hamas renounce violence and recognise Israel’s right to exist.
Palestinian supporters of Islamic Hamas wave flags during a rally in support of candidates for the Palestinian parliamentary elections in the West Bank town of Hebron. Despite no immediate public displays of celebration, Hamas on claimed victory, saying that based on partial results it won a solid majority of seats, a dramatic upset confirmed by senior officials in the rival Fatah Party. AP Photo/Kevin Frayer
Israeli politicians from across the political spectrum said there could be no relations with a group that has been responsible for scores of deadly attacks against Israelis and is listed as a terror organisation by the US and the European Union.
Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia and his Cabinet resigned this morning, even before the official results were announced, and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas was to ask Hamas to form the next government.
The top Hamas leader, Khaled Mashaal, told Abbas his group is ready for a political partnership, Hamas said.
In a first sign of pragmatism, Mahmoud Zahar, a top Hamas official, 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 said.
By Ronen Bergman
Ex-Mossad officer took part in failed 1996 assassination attempt on Hamas leader, gave antidote that saved his life.
A former senior mossad official has told the Yedioth Ahronoth weekend magazine “7 Days” he was instructed to save the life of Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal following an Israeli assassination attempt in Jordan in 1996.
Mishka Ben David says he had just finished a stint as head of the Mossad ‘s intelligence wing in Jordan, when the plan to kill Mashaal was hatched. Ben David was about to take a partial study leave of absence when he was asked to play a part in a mission that was to cause one of the deepest Israeli-Jordanian political crises ever.
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GAZA (Reuters) — The Islamic militant group Hamas swept to victory over the long-dominant Fatah faction in the Palestinian parliamentary election, a political earthquake that could bury chances for peacemaking with Israel.
The shock outcome, acknowledged by Fatah ahead of official results, would not automatically unseat President Mahmoud Abbas, who was elected last year. But he has said he might resign if unable to pursue a peace policy.
Hamas’s win could lead to further unilateral moves by Israel, following a Gaza pullout last year, to shape its final border on occupied land Palestinians want for a state. Peace talks have been stalled for five years.
Palestinian election workers begin counting ballots
at a polling station in the West Bank city of Hebron.
Loay Abu Haykel/Reuters
“Hamas has won more than 70 seats in Gaza and the West Bank, which gives it more than 50 percent of the vote,” said Ismail Haniyeh, a leader of the group. Within hours of the statement, which Haniyeh based on results supplied by Hamas representatives at polling stations, Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie of Fatah and his cabinet quit.
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev declined comment on what one Fatah official described as a tsunami.
Interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said Israel would not negotiate peace under a U.S.-backed “road map” with a Palestinian government that does not “fight terror” and disarm militants.
A member of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, hands his pistol to a Palestinian policeman as he enters a polling station in the Balata refugee camp in the West Bank city of Nablus. Amid tight security, Palestinians cast ballots in their first parliament election in a decade, an historic vote integrating Islamic militants into Palestinian politics and determining the future of peacemaking with Israel. AP Photo/Nasser Ishtayeh
Swiss Support Palestinian Election
Speaking after casting his vote in the West Bank town of Ramallah, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas praised his people for overcoming great obstacles to carry out the vote. “We are so happy with this election festival. So far, it’s going very well and we hope it will keep going well until the end without any troubles.”
President Mahmoud Abbas said arranging permission for Palestinians to vote in disputed Jerusalem had been difficult, though the matter had been resolved with the Israelis.
The Swiss foreign ministry welcomed Israel’s decision to allow the vote to go ahead in East Jerusalem. “The foreign ministry is pleased that the Palestinian elections are taking place despite the difficult security situation. It welcomes the fact that president did not give in to internal pressure to postpone the elections,” the ministry told swissinfo.
GAZA (CS Monitor) Jan. 23 — Hamas was founded in the Gaza Strip in late 1987, at the start of the first intifada, as the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. Its secretive military wing, as Hamas describes it, carried out attacks on Israelis. But while its political wing rejected the Oslo Accords, it opened a dialogue with the Palestinian authors of the peace process in Fatah.
Meanwhile, Hamas runs preschools, youth clubs, and health clinics. It provides needy people with assistance, and even holds free weddings. It is that face of Hamas that many Palestinians see first.
“People think of Hamas as only killing people, but no, this is only one side of the picture. We are also doing a lot of social work,” says Yaish, who studied at Liverpool University in England and is a father of six. He believes that Hamas will come to be accepted internationally as an interlocutor. “I think the Americans and the Israelis have to deal with anyone the people choose,” he says.
TEL AVIV (Haaretz) Jan. 24 — Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert opened his speech at the sixth annual Herzliya Conference by saying Israel would have to withdraw from parts of the West Bank.
Israel’s 2005 pullout from the Gaza Strip and part of the West Bank was a “turning point for the state of Israel,” said Olmert, who was standing in for ailing Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
Olmert presented his political plan ahead of the elections, as his rivals – Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu and Labor Party Chairman Amir Peretz – also did this week.
Olmert said that the main challenge facing Israel now is setting the permanent borders of the state of Israel to ensure a Jewish majority. He said Israel must move quickly to set a border that is in line with the demographic reality on the ground.
“The choice between allowing Jews to live in all parts of the land of Israel and living in a state with a Jewish majority mandates giving up parts of the Land of Israel,” he said. “We cannot continue to control parts of the territories where most of the Palestinians live.”
A Peace Stalemate?
After 38 years of occupation by Israeli IDF troops, assassination of it’s leaders, daily humiliation of women, school age kids, friends and relatives; the first chance in a decade to express the opinion of the Palestinian people, is an echec for the Palestinian Authority, the Israeli and U.S. Government.
A large representation in the legislature by Hamas was expected, the largest majority no one dared to imagine and surpasses the chance for restarting the flawed peace process. The election result is black & white, the anger and desparation is made visible by the ordinary people.
The people want the corruption by its leaders stopped and just be able to provide the basic needs for one’s family: food, education, healthcare, jobs and security. The bare essentials to live each life with aspiration for a better future of the next generation.
With a high birth rate, the demographic balans is an important issue to gain independence and their own Palestinian State. Will the political leaders in West-Jerusalem and the White House hear their call?
Ten years ago, the assassination of PM Yitzhak Rabin stopped the peace process, caused by hate and extremism from both sides. The hospitalization of PM Ariel Sharon could do the same, unless the hands of peace are extended by a wiser generation.
STOP ALL WAR – there is no need to destroy a nation when a solution for peace is within reach.
“But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.”
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