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World
New Game Plan
Hamas' role is diversifying as P.A. parliamentary
elections draw near.
GIL SEDAN
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Jerusalem
li
amas, the Muslim fundamen-
talist movement and Palestinian
terrorist organization, may
soon become a decisive force not only in
the struggle against Israel but in the
Palestinian political establishment.
For the first time in Palestinian politi-
cal history, Hamas will participate in
parliamentary elections, scheduled for
July 17. All political analysts predict that
the party will make an impressive show
of force.
Hamas candidates may win 30-50
percent of the seats in the next
Palestinian parliament, predicts Matti
Steinberg, a former adviser on
Palestinian affairs to two heads of Israel's
General Security Service. If Steinberg is
right, it would amount to a political rev-
olution.
Hamas is heading toward electoral
success using tactics that demonstrate its
ability to act both as a terrorist organiza-
tion and as a political party that seeks to
influence the Palestinian political agen-
da.
On the one hand, it flexes its muscles
toward Israel, warning that the present
"calming-down" period could end at any
time; on the other, it maintains the
cease-fire for now, realizing that this is
what Palestinian citizens want.
In the last two weeks, Hamas has
proudly raised both the militant and
pragmatic flags. Hamas was a major
player in last week's Temple Mount
demonstration protesting the desire of
Jewish activists to visit the site, which is
the holiest site in Judaism and also an
important Muslim shrine.
Hamas also took part in a barrage of
mortar fire aimed at Jewish settlements
in Gala, reacting to Israel's killing of
three Palestinian youths involved in
arms smuggling across the border with
Egypt.
Hamas has threatened to drop out of
the "calming-down" agreement, but at
the same time, it maintains the tense
cease-fire for now Though Israel killed
many of its leaders during the intifada,
Hamas has retained its popularity —
primarily because of the ineptitude of
the ruling Palestinian Authority and cor-
ruption and infighting in the dominant
4/21
2005
32
Fatah party — and wants to use that
momentum to propel itself forward.
Several weeks ago, Hamas candidates
scored landslide victories in municipal
elections in several Gaza towns. "On the
one hand, people want a political
process" headed by Palestinian Authority
President Mahmoud Abbas, "as was
indicated in the presidential elections" in
January, Steinberg said in an interview
with Bitterlemons.org , a Middle East
Web site. "But on the other hand,. peo-
ple want clean stables, the end of cor-
ruption, and personal security, and these
are connected with Hamas."
The July elections would be the first
for parliament in the Palestinian territo-
ries since 1996, and the first since Abbas
succeeded the late Yasser Arafat as
Palestinian Authority president in
January.
Arafat postponed elections that had
been set for 2000. Hamas boycotted the
earlier elections, saying they were an
outgrowth of the Oslo accords, which it
vehemently opposed because they
implied recognition of Israel. Hamas is
dedicated to Israel's destruction.
Fatah, Abbas' party, now controls
most of the 88-member Palestinian par-
liament. There is growing concern
among Palestinian opposition forces that
Fatah will defer the elections, as Fatah
seems likely to lose many seats.
Palestinian legislators are introducing
amendments to the electoral law, hoping
to postpone the elections. The Central
Elections Commission recently said it
would need three months before the
time the law is approved before it can
hold elections. Three months from July
17 was Sunday, April 17 — and no
amendments have been passed.
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri
said that if elections can't be held as
scheduled, the group would have to
rethink its commitment to an informal
cease-fire with Israel. Hamas agreed to
the de facto truce on the understanding
that Abbas would pursue reforms in the
Palestinian Authority.
Abbas has said concerns about elec-
toral manipulation are unfounded. "We
Palestinians waiting to go through security at a checkpoint near Gilo sit under Israeli
signs protesting the disengagement backed by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
Palestinians walk through a new section
ofIsrael's security barrier near
Jerusalem-Bethlehem road.
have no intentions or desire to delay
these elections," he told reporters at his
West Bank headquarters in Ramallah.
But it's not clear how much of a say
Abbas has even in his own Fatah ranks.
He radiates political impotence, some-
thing President Bush and Israeli Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon discussed at their
meeting this month at Bush's Texas
ranch.
Hamas' decision to move toward
power sharing largely is due to the shift
in Palestinian public opinion since
Arafat's death. A poll taken by the
Palestinian Center for Public Opinion
after the Feb. 8 Sharm el-Sheik summit
showed that 63 percent of Palestinians
were satisfied with the summit's results.
Some 70 percent said they were worried
about the diffusion of weapons in
Palestinian society, and wanted one cen-
tral authority that could maintain law
and order.
Without at least the appearance of a
move toward moderation, Hamas risked
being marginalized by a Palestinian pub-
lic increasingly fed up with the terrorists'
efforts to draw Israel into confrontation.
Hamas violence and the resulting Israeli
retaliation has caused severe suffering
among ordinary Palestinians during the
intifada.
In addition, some changes in Israeli
policy contributed to Hamas' own
change in tactics. They included the
release of hundreds of prisoners, the
removal of Israeli helicopter gunships
from Palestinian airspace, the end of tar-
geted killings of leading terrorists, a
slowdown in arrests of suspected terror-
ists, a growing sense of personal security
in Palestinian areas and the beginning of
Israeli withdrawals from some
Palestinian cities.
"The fact that Hamas is compelled to
pay attention to the necessities of society
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