My take on the upcoming Palestinian elections:

 

DavidPolakoff.com

My take on the upcoming Palestinian elections:

 

DavidPolakoff.com

 

Tomorrow, the "Palestinian" people will partake in their first democratic voting process. I use the quotes around "Palestinian" because a don't think they are really a people unto themselves (for reasons why click here for a wonderfully written piece by Yashiko Sagamori).

 

But regardless of that, I often hear that most Palestinians only want peace and to live together in harmony with the Israelis. Shortly after I hear this, a Palestinian usually blows himself up somewhere in Israel.

 

Of course, these could be isolated incidents of extremists who will under no circumstances accept peace as a possibility. I do admit that there are Israelis who have that same train of thought. But tomorrow, we'll see, and I'm glad we will.

 

Not enough people are making a big enough deal that this is a democratic election that's about to occur. Remember the huge deal that was made over Afghani elections? How about Iraqi elections? How many Arab countries held democratic elections in 2000? How many do now? Even Egypt switched last year to a multi-candidate, democratic election after years of a ballot asking "yes" or "no" to the ruler's name. Here's the first election by the Palestinian people, and it's going to be a democratic process that the people buy into from the start. It isn't like we're changing their ways - this is the beginning, and they're starting it with free and fair ballotting. It's a huge deal.

 

Another huge reason I'm looking forward to these elections is that they will define the word "most" in the aforementioned phrase "most Palestinians," as in "most Palestinians only want peace." Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas said "the election is a right and duty at the same time, and I hope that the results of this election will reflect honestly the Palestinian people's opinions." [link] With Hamas running in the election, we'll see just how many people vote for the terrorist party that controls a large number of the suicide bombings and openly admits to wanting to eradicate Israel - and that will be the number of people who clearly don't just want peace and harmony in the land of Israel. Although Fatah, another major party running, has many violent factions, on a whole they are the so-called lesser of two evils, as they do have factions that desperately want peace. In fact, according to the aforementioned link, Fatah officials "say they will join Hamas only if it allows peace talks to resume with Israel."

 

That's a good sign. So are the elections as a whole. Hopefully tomorrow, there will be another good sign that signals that most Palestinians really do want nothing more than peace.

I happen to agree with you. Another encouraging sign is now the majority of "Palestinians", at least those polled, now want peace with Israel and support keeping the borders basically the same. Big difference over a few years. Before, 40 % of Palestinians supoorted peace. The rest supported militant groups. But now, over 60 % support peace. Pretty good sign.

Yet Hamas could potentially take the government or force Fatah (no angels themselves, and yes, I'm talking about putting Mr. 5-life-sentences Marwan Barghouti at the top of their list) to include them in the government. BTW, I'm bound to get criticized for this, but that is exactly what the Nazis did to get power, force other conservative parties to take them into the government (oh, and let's not forget the Brownshirts vs. Kassam Brigades comparison).

Whether or not they vote for Hamas has no absolute link to a desire for terrorism or attacks on Israel. Hamas is a terrible organization because of its terrorists acts yes, But they gain the popularity of the people by providing social and economic help to the destitute. That clearly isnt on the top of any of your list in terms of priorities.

 

Put yourself in the shoes of the indivudal voter for a second. Try to be objective as to why a voter would vote for Hamas, taking into consideration all the factors. So no, if Hamas sees electoral success, it is not a de facto endorsement of terrorism by the Palestinian people, though it is not a good thing either.

 

Also, please note the headline on the front page of the horribly biased CNN:

 

Hamas Campaign Threatens Palestinian Leadership.