Posted on 01/24/2006 8:41:31 AM PST by Esther Ruth
On last day of campaigning, Hamas, Fatah signal readiness for alliance By Israel Insider staff and partners January 24, 2006
The ruling Fatah Party and the Islamic militant Hamas traded bitter accusations and made impassioned last-minute appeals for support, while also indicating a readiness to work together on the final day of campaigning for Palestinian parliamentary elections.
With polls showing Wednesday's election too close to call, Hamas and Fatah on Monday signaled an interest in forming a coalition after the vote. Hamas officials said even if they win a majority, they would prefer lower-profile Cabinet posts and to let Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas deal with the Israelis.
That would likely rule out a Hamas-run government, an alarming prospect for Israel and the West that would spell trouble for future peace prospects.
"We will not put obstacles in the way of Abu Mazen, but we want to correct his policy, to support him in how he can bring more rights for the Palestinians," said Ghazi Hamad, a Hamas ideologue and candidate in Gaza. He referred to Abbas by his nickname.
Across Gaza, Judea and Samaria, Palestinians plastered posters on walls and electric poles, strung up banners and held large rallies to drum up support.
"Don't let anyone steal your achievements," Fatah candidate Samir Masharawi told followers in Gaza City. "It's not a shame to negotiate ... It's a shame to give up."
Fatah candidates in Gaza joined hundreds of supporters on a pilgrimage to the home of Yasser Arafat, hoping to parlay the memory of the late iconic leader into votes.
Led by candidate Mohammed Dahlan, the chanting crowd pledged its commitment "to the blood of the martyrs, to the wounds of the wounded, to the suffering of the prisoners - and to vote for the Fatah list."
Thousands attended a Hamas rally in the Judean city of Hebron, waving green Hamas flags and posters of leaders killed by Israel in a huge show of strength. In a sign of Islamic conservatism, men and woman stood on opposite sides.
Hamas, known for its suicide bombings and calls for Israel's destruction, has emerged as a formidable political force. It has attracted voters with a platform stressing clean government and an end to Fatah's corruption, while pointing to its popular social and education programs.
"The people of Hamas are close to God and their hands are clean," said Abdel Khalim Amer, a 38-year-old resident of Nablus who plans to vote for the group. Hamas recently won municipal elections there.
With many Palestinians weary after five years of fighting with Israel, Hamas has played down its violent ideology. But appealing to its hard-line core, leaders also say they remain committed to armed struggle.
The mixed messages were evident Monday. Khaled Mashaal, the group's exiled supreme leader, rejected negotiations with Israel.
"What is the point of negotiations when your enemy does not acknowledge your rights," he told the Al-Arabiya satellite channel. "We should escalate the resistance."
But in Gaza, Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar, a parliamentary candidate, said the group might be willing to negotiate with Israel through a third party.
"Negotiation is not a taboo," he said. "If there is something from the enemy side to be offered, like stopping aggression, releasing our prisoners, we could find a way."
Zahar's statements reflected the growing likelihood that Fatah and Hamas will seek to work together after the election. In a sign of Hamas' pragmatism, the group has not carried out a suicide bombing in the year since a cease-fire was declared with Israel.
Hamas officials said they will only decide whether to join the government after the vote. But if they do, it will be as a partner in a coalition with Fatah.
"Fatah is the first choice as a coalition partner," said Hamad. He said Hamas would demand service ministries, such as health and education, though it would want some say in diplomatic affairs as well.
Fatah officials have said they expect to lead a coalition government, preferably with smaller parties, but also with Hamas if it agrees to allow peace talks.
"We will be happy to see Hamas become more realistic, more pragmatic," said Palestinian Cabinet minister Sufian Abu Zaydeh. "When you are in power, you understand the situation more - more work and less criticism."
To be sure, tensions remain. In a debate on Lebanese TV, Zahar criticized the Palestinian Authority for dealing with Israel, while Dahlan challenged Zahar to explain how Hamas would handle issues requiring Israeli intervention, such as crossings between Palestinian territories and Israel.
"It's time for you to discover the suffering of being in government," Dahlan said.
Hamas' participation has created friction with Israel, the U.S. and the European Union - which all brand Hamas a terrorist group.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Monday cautioned voters that it does not work to have "one foot in terrorism and the other foot in politics."
In a television interview, Abbas said he expects Hamas to accept peace talks and place its arms under government control once it joins parliament.
"What we see is that Hamas may change its views," he told Al-Arabiya. "It is not enough to come to parliament and say, 'My positions are not changeable' ... This will not be acceptable."
Some Israeli security officials have privately said Israel should engage Hamas in hopes of moderating the group. However, the official line is that Israel will continue boycotting Hamas until it disarms and renounces its call for Israel's destruction.
The United States has said it will not deal with Hamas members who join the government, and U.S. and EU officials have said millions of dollars in aid could be in jeopardy.
"The United States won't change its policies toward Hamas," Rice said.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice cautioned Palestinian voters to bear in mind as they choose a parliament that terrorism is not a "pathway to peace."
Rice also reiterated her support for establishing a Palestinian state and said one was long overdue.
Implying the Bush administration would not work with a Palestinian government dominated by Hamas, Rice said, "the United States won't change its policies toward Hamas."
And referring to potential peace talks with Israel, she said, "It's hard to have negotiations with a party that you do not recognize its right to exist."
But she did not rule out cooperating with a Palestinian government that had some Hamas ministers.
Meanwhile, spokesman McCormack defended the Bush administration's funding of Palestinian projects such as a news center in Ramallah even though the U.S. aid might appear to be supporting Fatah.
The aim, he said, was to strengthen democratic institutions within the Palestinian territories and assisting the Palestinians to realize a better way of life.
Thumbnails of top candidates in Palestinian elections
FATAH:
MARWAN BARGHOUTI, 46, top candidate of President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah Party, a convicted murderer, the most popular leader of the second Palestinian uprising against Israel and considered a possible successor to Abbas. Barghouti, a legislator in the outgoing parliament, is serving five consecutive life terms in an Israeli prison for involvement in terrorist attacks that killed four Israelis and a Greek monk. A former ally of the Israeli left, Barghouti backs the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, but says Palestinians should use force to drive Israel from occupied lands. A leader of Fatah's young guard, he is pushing for a generational change in the movement. Barghouti often meets with Fatah activists who visit him in jail. Israel has said it would not grant him early release, though there is persistent speculation he would be freed in the right political context. ____
MOHAMMED ABU ALI YATTA, 50, second on the Fatah list. He has been in Israeli prison for 26 years, sentenced to life for a terrorist act that killed an Israeli. He has not previously occupied any position in Fatah, and is believed to have been put on the list as a gesture to the thousands of Palestinians held by Israel. He is among the longest serving inmates. ____
INTISSAR WAZIR. Born in Gaza City in 1941. She is a longtime leader of the Palestinian women's movement, has been welfare minister since 1996 and is the widow of PLO military chief Khalil al-Wazir, who was killed in an Israeli commando raid in Tunis in 1988. She has been a member of the Palestine National Council since 1974. ___
HAMAS:
ISMAIL HANIYEH, 46, the top candidate of Hamas. Born in Gaza's Shati refugee camp, he graduated from Gaza City's Islamic University 1987 with a degree in Arabic literature and became a close associate of Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin. He was expelled by Israel to south Lebanon in 1992, returned to Gaza a year later and became the dean of the Islamic University. In 1998, he took charge of Yassin's office. A pragmatist, he served as a liaison between Hamas and Palestinian Authority, established in 1994. He rose to prominence after Israel's assassinations in 2004 of Yassin and Yassin's successor, Abdel Aziz Rantisi. He has been a member of the political leadership of Hamas since the 1990s. ______
MOHAMMED ABU TEIR, 55, second on the Hamas list. Spent 25 years in Israeli jails. He is from Jerusalem, and is a former member of Fatah and of the radical Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command. With his bright orange beard, dyed with henna in line with Islamic tradition, Abu Teir preaches in local mosques and is a patriarch of the Abu Teir clan in the neighborhood of Um Tuba on the edge of Jerusalem. ______
JAMILA SHANTI. Born in 1955, Shanti is the leading woman candidate for Hamas and is third on the group's national list. A holder of a doctorate in English, she taught at the Islamic University in Gaza before resigning to campaign for the elections. She is a founder of the women's section in Hamas. ______
INDEPENDENT PALESTINE PARTY:
MUSTAFA BARGHOUTI. Born in Jerusalem in 1954. He leads the new party on a platform of clean government. A physician known throughout Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip for running a health care think tank and a pro-democracy lobby group. He ran against Abbas for the Palestinian Authority presidency last year, winning about 20 percent of the vote. In 1991, Barghouti - a distant relative of Marwan Barghouti - took part in the Madrid peace conference that paved the way for peace accords between Israel and the Palestinians. Articulate and media-savvy, he has campaigned against Israel's security fence. ______
RAWYA AL SHAWA, No. 2 on Barghouti's list. A legislator in the outgoing parliament. Al Shawa is from a prominent family in Gaza. Her father and her husband both headed the Gaza City municipality. She waged an anti-corruption campaign in parliament and was an outspoken critic of Yasser Arafat. _____
THE THIRD WAY:
SALAM FAYYAD, born in 1952. He founded the new Third Way Party, which favors negotiations with Israel and sweeping reform to root out corruption. He has been minister of finance since 2002, and is credited with doing much to clean up the Palestinian Authority finances. He was formerly a senior executive at the International Monetary Fund and received postgraduate degrees from the University of Texas. ______
HANAN ASHRAWI, 59. She emerged as a prominent figure in Palestinian politics during the first Palestinian uprising, which erupted in 1987. Eloquent and often feisty, she was official spokeswoman for the Palestinian delegation to the Middle East Peace talks 1991-93, and headed a committee responsible for Jerusalem's citizens rights after the signing of the peace agreement. She was appointed minister of higher education in 1996, and quit her post in a high-profile rebuke of Arafat over corruption in 1998. A legislator in the outgoing parliament, she serves on a number of international bodies, including the Council of Foreign Relations. She is a member of the Palestinians' Christian minority.
Main points of party platforms in Palestinian elections
NEGOTIATIONS WITH ISRAEL:
The Fatah party wants to resume negotiations with Israel to achieve an independent Palestinian state in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip, seized by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war. The terrorist Islamic group Hamas has sent mixed messages about talking to Israel - sometimes rejecting it and at other times not ruling it out. Hamas advocates Israel's destruction, but at the same time says a long-term truce might be possible. Two independent parties, Independent Palestine and the Third Way, favor negotiations with Israel.
USE OF VIOLENCE:
Fatah rejects the use of violence by either side, although gunmen affiliated with Fatah have carried out repeated terrorist attacks on Israelis and have occasionally clashed with rival Palestinians. Hamas favors an "armed struggle" against Israel, saying it will respond with force to Israeli attacks, though like most militant groups has largely honored a cease-fire during the past year. The small terrorist group Islamic Jihad, which is boycotting the elections, continues to carry out suicide bombings in Israel.
JERUSALEM, REFUGEES AND BORDERS:
All parties demand east Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state and say Palestinians who lost their homes during Israel's creation in 1948 should be allowed to return. Israel strongly opposes both demands. Fatah, Independent Palestine and the Third Way parties accept the 1993 Oslo peace accords, which recognized Israel and set up the Palestinian Authority. Hamas rejects Oslo and is vague about its vision of a future state, but says sovereignty in Judea, Samaria and Gaza would be only a first stage toward an Arab state in all of historic Palestine. Another group, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, in the past has spoken of a single state to be shared equally by Jews and Arabs.
CORRUPTION:
All parties have pledged a frontal attack on corruption, including Fatah, widely seen as the main offender. Hamas' growing popularity is largely due to its image of incorruptibility.
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