A victory for terror

The Palestinians have given Hamas a majority of seats in parliamentary elections:

The ruling Fatah party appears to have accepted defeat in the Palestinian parliamentary elections, handing victory to the Islamist militant party Hamas, according to agency reports.

The Palestinian Prime Minister, Ahmed Qureia, and his Cabinet ministers apparently submitted their resignations to the Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, this morning as initial results suggested that Hamas was heading for a big victory.

"This is the choice of the people. It should be respected," Mr Qureia is reported as saying. "If it’s true [the results], then the president should ask Hamas to form a new government. For me, personally, I sent my resignation."

A Hamas spokesman, Sami Abu Zohri, said initial results suggest Hamas has "gained 70 to 75 seats" in the 132-seat Parliament - pointing to an absolute majority.

The Central Election Commission said the vote count had not been completed and that it would make an official announcement at 7 pm (1700 GMT) today.

A senior Fatah member, Saeb Erekat, said he could not confirm the partial results, but blamed Israel’s refusal to resume peace talks with a Fatah-led government for the party’s poor showing.

Considering the years of incitement and propaganda to which the Palestinians have been subjected, not to mention the corruption, incomptence and authoritarianism of Fatah, I can't say this result was unexpected. If the Palestinians believe they're better off with genocidal Islamofascists running their government, so be it. It's their choice, and they'll find out the hard way what it's like living under a Hamas government.

But if Israel wants to build that wall a little bit higher, and make the dreaded "checkpoints" a little more strict, I can't blame them.

Posted by damian at January 26, 2006 07:03 AM | TrackBack