You’d have thought Harry’s Place would have been straight off the mark with this story:
Figures from Palestinian officials tonight confirmed Hamas’s shock win in the Palestinian parliamentary election over the once-dominant Fatah party.
Polls had predicted a coalition between the two parties as the most likely outcome of the vote, but a surprise surge in support for the Islamists took a party that calls for the destruction of the state of Israel into power.
The preliminary count put Hamas on 76 seats to Fatah’s 43 in the 132 seat chamber. The result could complicate hopes of a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians.
I love that wonderfully understated observation there: “The result could complicate hopes of a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians.”
Nah. You don’t say.
Hmmm…
There is a line of thought (such as this) which suggests that “worse is better”: the PA can no longer shrug and say that any suicide bombers or rocket attacks are beyond their control.
Hamas now has to face the reality that attacks by their militants are now close to an act of war: Israel has much more scope to retaliate….
This is not what Hamas wanted at all.
Unity, Sorry: that dropped the link:
http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/ottolenghi200601261002.asp
PG