The Qalqilya Effect
Ali Abunimah from Electronic Intifada points to the obvious:
Although a Hamas success was heavily trailed, the scale of the victory has been widely termed a “shock.” Several factors explain the dramatic rise of Hamas, including disillusionment and disgust with the corruption, cynicism and lack of strategy of the Fatah faction which has dominated the Palestinian movement for decades and had arrogantly come to view itself as the natural and indisputable leader.
The election result is not entirely surprising, however, and has been foreshadowed by recent events. Take for example the city of Qalqilya in the north of the West Bank. Hemmed in by Israeli settlements and now completely surrounded by a concrete wall, the city’s fifty thousand residents are prisoners of a giant Israeli-controlled ghetto. For years Qalqilya was controlled by Fatah but after the completion of the wall, voters in last years’ municipal elections awarded every single city council seat to Hamas. The Qalqilya effect has now spread across the occcupied territories, with Hamas reportedly winning virtually all of the seats elected on a geographic basis. Thus Hamas’ success is as much an expression of the determination of Palestinians to resist Israel’s efforts to force their surrender as it is a rejection of Fatah. It reduces the conflict to its most fundamental elements: there is occupation, and there is resistance.
I just love all the spin that’s going on now. Every reason in the book for Hamas to have won, except for the glaringly obvious one that some people just can’t bring themselves to accept.
Question: Granted that Fatah is grossly corrupt, etc., why is Hamas the only viable alternative? Where’s the responsible, decent, peace-loving party?
“The election result is not entirely surprising”
easy to say after the fact. their theories would carry more credibility if they actually said this much before the election
“Ali Abunimah from Electronic Intifada points to the obvious:”
Asaf…no that’s not obvious. That’s an excuse, at best, a possible political analysis.
Here’s what’s obvious:
1) Aggressive wars have been waged against Israel
2) ME leaders/nations can only agree on one thing, and that’s their distaste for Israel
3) When the wars didn’t work, the terror campaigns, and subsequent political slandering, against Israel began.
Under these circumstances, Israel did what it had to do to survive. Everything else has been fallout from these OBVIOUS historical events.
I’m sure your Fatah posters will sell well on E-bay though. So it’s not a total loss.
“Question: Granted that Fatah is grossly corrupt, etc., why is Hamas the only viable alternative? Where’s the responsible, decent, peace-loving party?”
You must mean Mustafa Barghouthi’s Independent Palestine. If they’d had twenty years of existence and a region-wide infrastructure as well as a reputation and record for battling corruption in the past, they might have done better than they did.
Um, Barghouti carries about the same responsibility for the war the Palestinians have been waging – suicide bombings and other civilian killings included – as any other leader, Hamas or not.
It’s amusing to see Electronic Intifadah used as a source for anything seriously. Before Qalqiliah was a “ghetto” and before Israel re-entered Areas A in 2002, and during the height of their attacks on Israelis culminating in 128 blown up and murdered civilians in the single month of March, 2002, 73% of Palestinians in a Khalil Shikaki poll supported suicide bombings and other killings of Israeli civilians. Hmmm, maybe Electronic Intifadah is trying to deflect the obvious?
“Um, Barghouti carries about the same responsibility for the war the Palestinians have been waging – suicide bombings and other civilian killings included – as any other leader, Hamas or not.”
I assume you’re referring to marwan barghouthi, not mustafa. or is it all the same to you?
one thing abunimah hasn’t noticed is qaliqilya is sending only Fatah reps to parliament. in the six months since the municipality elected the hamas slate, they’ve already grown disenchanted with it. the fact is neither group can do anything about the central problem facing qalqilya city and district — the location of the barrier, which is strangling them economically.
for those who haven’t seen this article, this bears repeating:
Analysis: Hamas history tied to Israel
By RICHARD SALE
UPI Terrorism Correspondent
[…] Israel and Hamas may currently be locked in deadly combat, but, according to several current and former U.S. intelligence officials, beginning in the late 1970s, Tel Aviv gave direct and indirect financial aid to Hamas over a period of years.
Israel “aided Hamas directly — the Israelis wanted to use it as a counterbalance to the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization),” said Tony Cordesman, Middle East analyst for the Center for Strategic Studies.
Israel’s support for Hamas “was a direct attempt to divide and dilute support for a strong, secular PLO by using a competing religious alternative,” said a former senior CIA official. […]
http://www.upi.com/inc/view.php?StoryID=18062002-051845-8272r
Mustafa is different from Marwan how? Mustafa is a finer public speaker and can certainly interact with Americans and Europeans better than Marwan, but how exactly do they differ in their views? Or do you mean that because one is a “doctor,” somehow he is less interested in killing Jews to achieve “peace?”
Hamas rising to power is the best thing to happen to Israel. No longer can it fool itself into thinking that it can be a ‘nation builder’ of people who want to kill Jews.
The only people that this surprised were those people who found it convenient to keep feeding others stories and dreams.
Asaf, welcome back.
T_M, can you post something proving Mustafa Barghouthi is interested in killing Jews?
TM, where did you get this figure? Are you sure you’re not confusing it with the 73% figure for support for longterm reconciliation (quite a different thing) that several of his polls have found? The PCPSR polls I’ve seen (2001/2002) are nonetheless very depressing, with majorities supporting hypothetical attacks on Israeli civilians, I just didn’t think they were that large…
The kuron mentions Jerusalem not once but never. So tell me how is this an occupation? Remember , yasser arafat was born in Cairo along with many more of these so called ‘palistinians’.