Fatah Gunmen Seize Palestinian Parliament - UPDATED 1-28-06

[bamacre]

Update 1-28-06

linky

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Firing into the air, Fatah gunmen stormed the Palestinian parliament on Saturday in anger at their long-dominant party's crushing election defeat by Hamas Islamists.

Hamas leaders meanwhile rejected as "blackmail" Western demands that it renounce violence against Israel or risk losing aid cash vital to the survival of the Palestinian Authority. Hopes of peacemaking with Israel remained in limbo.

Unrest since the parliamentary election landslide has fueled fears of inter-Palestinian strife as Hamas tries to form a government and possibly take over security forces packed with Fatah loyalists long at odds with the Islamic militants.

Thousands of armed loyalists from President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah held protests across the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, many firing automatic rifles into the air.

They took over parliament in the West Bank city of Ramallah for about 20 minutes, shouting demands from the roof before descending peacefully. Fatah militants joined by police also seized the parliament building in the Gaza Strip.

Gunmen demanded that Fatah leaders resign over the election defeat, but also said the protest was to dissuade any thought of sharing power with Hamas or allowing the group to take over security forces.

"We will cut off the head of anyone who dares to sit in government with Hamas," shouted one Fatah gunman.

Firing as they went, Fatah militants moved into Abbas's Muqata compound and gathered at the graveside of Yasser Arafat, Fatah's founder and an icon for Palestinians. The gunmen demanded that Fatah leaders resign, though not Abbas himself.

In Gaza, where eight people were hurt on Friday in clashes between Fatah and Hamas activists, the gunmen were joined in their protest by police who oppose any Hamas control over security forces.

Fatah leaders have so far rejected joining any coalition with Hamas, though it could take weeks to form one.

Hamas leaders have said they could set up a government by themselves if need be, after winning votes from Palestinians tired with corruption and Fatah's failure to deliver a state, as well as supportive of a Hamas suicide bombing campaign.

AID AT STAKE

The United States has said it will review aid to the Palestinian Authority if Hamas enters government and Israel suggested it could suspend customs revenue transfers. The European Union, the biggest donor, is looking at its options.

"This aid cannot be a sword over the heads of the Palestinian people ... to blackmail our people, to blackmail Hamas and the resistance. It is rejected," top Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh told Reuters in an interview.

Haniyeh suggested that Hamas could turn toward sources in the Arab world if the West cut off funding.

In Damascus, Hamas politburo chief Khaled Meshaal said that not only would Hamas not disarm but it would form a new Palestinian security force which would be an "army like every country ... an army to defend our people against aggression."

But Nabil Shaath, a senior Palestinian official, said Abbas would still control the Palestinian security forces if Hamas formed the next government.

There is much bad blood between the secular and Islamist rivals. Many Hamas gunmen resent past crackdowns against them by Palestinian security forces amid peace overtures by Abbas to Israel, which demands that he neutralize armed groups.

Middle East peace talks have been frozen since 2000 and Israel rules out talks with any administration involving Hamas.

Israeli government sources said Hamas leaders would remain banned from traveling between the West Bank and Gaza Strip and the army would arrest Meshaal if he tried to enter the Palestinian territories.

Israel will hold a general election on March 28 and interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, whose centrist Kadima party is the front-runner, has hinted at unilateral moves to set a border with Palestinian areas on Israeli terms.

Update 1-27-06

Hamas, Fatah gunmen battle over election results

GAZA (Reuters) - Hamas and Fatah gunmen exchanged fire on Friday amid political turmoil as the long-dominant Fatah faction was threatened with a violent backlash from within after its crushing election defeat by the Islamic militant group.

Hamas, whose shock parliamentary election victory changed the face of Palestinian politics and plunged Middle East peacemaking deeper in limbo, said it would hold talks soon with President Mahmoud Abbas on a "political partnership." But Fatah leaders have rejected a coalition with Hamas.

The United States said it will review funding to the aid-dependent Palestinians if Hamas enters government and Israel suggested it could suspend customs revenue transfers, adding economic uncertainty to the political upheaval.

Some 20,000 Fatah supporters took to the streets in angry protests across the Gaza Strip, burning cars outside the Palestinian parliament building and firing rifles in the air. Some Hamas posters were ripped down by the crowd, which burned tires in the streets.

Acknowledging Hamas's new standing as a political powerhouse, Abbas told reporters: "We are consulting and in contact with all the Palestinian groups and definitely, at the appropriate time, the biggest party will form the cabinet."

The militant al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, part of Fatah, issued a statement threatening to "liquidate" the faction's leaders if they changed their minds and joined a Hamas-led administration.

Is this the beginning of a civil war in "Palestine?"

 

[Forsythe]

To the news, all i have to say is this: d'uh!

 

[Moonbeam]

Fear makes your testicles retract, that is, if you happen to have them. As a result half the population looses its capacity to think.

 

[Aimster]

Well doesn't hamas give the palestinians jobs/schools?

How is this surprising?

 

[Sunner]

Originally posted by: Aimster
Well doesn't hamas give the palestinians jobs/schools?

How is this surprising?

Yep.
Most of what shows up in the media is their terror activities, but aside from that, they do a lot of good for the people in Palestine as well.
Help out victims of the war, start schools and universities, make sure people get medical help, etc.

To a lot of people in Palestine they're heroes, not because they fight Israel, but because of what they do for the people there, stuff that the government(well, the soon to be ex-government as it seems) doesn't do.

So no, hardly a surprise.

 

[maddogchen]

I'm not surprised they won. Fatah is in shambles, no cohesiveness. I think one of its own political leaders was killed by fellow Fatah members recently.

Next will come growing hostilities with Israel followed by war and the destruction of Gaza.

 

[Mickey Eye]

I hope Fatah manages to atleast work as a decent opposition. But they screwed up and lost. It's probably a futile hope but I'd like to see this added legitimacy help reign in terror activities.

 

[CanOWorms]

Perhaps the desire to be considered legitimate may force Hamas into a more moderate position.

 

[chcarnage]

Hamas has two faces. They're terrorists, but they also offer welfare to the Palestinians in a region where public welfare is close to nonexistant. Ugh, maybe that's too optimistic but I consider it a possibility that they are able to get diplomacy...

In most of the cases you mentioned it is insightful to look at the alternative. The Fatah has lost some integrity when book keeping under Arafat was insufficient and doubts about his personal fortune rose. (I'm not going to judge Abbas because I don't know enough for this.) Fatah at the moment suffers from internal power struggles and could have a comeback in a few years.

The Venezuelan opposition is a fragmented bunch of unorganised movements and their failure is partly their own fault.

Chirac's direct competitor in the second ballot was right wing extremist Le Pen, convicted by French courts for bodily injury, insults, calls for racial hatred and belittlement of crimes against humanity (read: holocaust denial). I know that hate speech laws are unpopular among Americans but I give the French judicative some credit for convicting this racist. In a short-term perspective, the French elected the better candidate (or the lesser of two evils, depending on your perspective).

Canada's conservatives didn't have a really big win, they're still a minority and are going to pursue a moderate policy. Again, look at the alternative, Martin's performance was insufficent for many and this ballot was a vote-out of Martin in the first instance.

The lesser of two evils-approach doesn't work for Iran and the US, though, in my book.

 

[Kadarin]

Originally posted by: chcarnage
Hamas has two faces. They're terrorists, but they also offer welfare to the Palestinians in a region where public welfare is close to nonexistant.

IIRC, Hezbollah (funded by Iran) is much the same in Lebanon.

 

[GoingUp]

Isreal will be in there within 2 years tearin it up again. A war between Hamas and the Israelis is almost unavoidable.

 

[BDawg]

CNN just said the Dubya says he won't work with them. I'm not sure why. He's big on democratically elected leaders and they were just elected democratically.

 

[CoolTech]

Originally posted by: BDawg
CNN just said the Dubya says he won't work with them. I'm not sure why. He's big on democratically elected leaders and they were just elected democratically.

yah, hypocritical as usual

 

[Doboji]

Originally posted by: CoolTech

Originally posted by: BDawg
CNN just said the Dubya says he won't work with them. I'm not sure why. He's big on democratically elected leaders and they were just elected democratically.

yah, hypocritical as usual

Kinda hard to work on a peace agreement with an organization who declares their entire goal as being your destruction. Kinda hard to work with a group who admits, advocates for, supports, enables, and in fact carries out targeted attacks against innocent civillians on a regular basis.

 

[CaptnKirk]

Kinda took some time for the news to come clean on the outcome didn't it ?

Tuesday: Hamas might have won a slim amount of votes in the Palestinian election.

Wednesday: Hamas appears to have won a minority party in the Palestinian election.

Thursday: Hamas has soundly won and defeated the ruling Fatah party in the Palestinian election.

Looks like they knew it from the start, but didn't have the courage to release the data straight up.
They had to manipulatively ease it out one sound-bit at a time to temper the truth.

Looks like Palestine is getting ready to rumble :shocked:

 

[0roo0roo]

Originally posted by: Aimster
Well doesn't hamas give the palestinians jobs/schools?

How is this surprising?

yea sure, schools that teach hate to make more hamas members convenient. not for peace when you make your own version of the hitler youth

 

[CoolTech]

Originally posted by: Doboji

Originally posted by: CoolTech

Originally posted by: BDawg
CNN just said the Dubya says he won't work with them. I'm not sure why. He's big on democratically elected leaders and they were just elected democratically.

yah, hypocritical as usual

Kinda hard to work on a peace agreement with an organization who declares their entire goal as being your destruction. Kinda hard to work with a group who admits, advocates for, supports, enables, and in fact carries out targeted attacks against innocent civillians on a regular basis.

I agree, but since they won the elections, maybe theyll have more of a vested interest to use diplomacy. Don't these radical groups usually use their techniques because they have no real power to affect change.

 

[techs]

The Palestinian Authority is so corrupt it actually makes the Republicans look like honest public servants.
So while part of the Hamas allure was that they actually get things done a lot of their support is from the realization that the US is no longer trying to broker a peace but to give Israel a victory.
It really is an example of how the Iraqi invasion has strengthened terrorist support in the mid-east.

 

[Lemon law]

What is interesting is that Hamas is calling for a partnership with Fatah---and if they together present a real united front and pair it with moderation some real progress could be made.

Israel------like or not is going to have to deal with Hamas.

One thing for sure--------the old hardline leaders failed to make any real progress-------maybe its time for new leadership.------a stroke disabled Sharon and he is for all intent and purposes gone----and one can hope things get better instead of worse----------the ball is now on both sides of the court-------maybe effective leadership on both sides can emerge to break this zero progress deadlock.

 

[GTaudiophile]

Oh well. Just more reason for Israel to declare war on them. Their funeral.

 

[RightIsWrong]

Originally posted by: Doboji

Originally posted by: CoolTech

Originally posted by: BDawg
CNN just said the Dubya says he won't work with them. I'm not sure why. He's big on democratically elected leaders and they were just elected democratically.

yah, hypocritical as usual

Kinda hard to work on a peace agreement with an organization who declares their entire goal as being your destruction. Kinda hard to work with a group who admits, advocates for, supports, enables, and in fact carries out targeted attacks against innocent civillians on a regular basis.

Hamas has made only one public statement condemning the US that I can find and that was after the US vetoed a UN resolution condemning Israeli military attacks against them in Gaza.

That being said.....Maybe this will be the give them some "legitimicy" (sp) as a political force and drastically curtail or even end their terroristic activities. As for Bush's hypocritical stance on them.....

Are we doing any dealing with Ireland where the IRA has a pretty sizeable holding in the government? Didn't an IRA representative visit the White House every year of Bush's first term? The answer to both is yes for those that are going to try to argue.

 

[da loser]

this is great news, finally the palestinians have shown their true colors. no longer will they be able to hide behind a curtain of having their leaders not represent their views.

when hamas sends another suicide bomber, and israel bombs them. oh well, so sad.

or hamas will be forced to change, and gasp, deal with israel in a peaceful manner. it's a different ball game, going from asking for power and finally holding power and responsibility.

it's always great when people get their desires, because then they can see the consequences of them.

 

[lozina]

Don't forget the Fatah party also had militant wings associated with terrorism like the Al Aksa Brigade (spelling?) so there isn't much new here. Don't know why the media doesn't like to point this out. I'm guessing there won't be new violence. In exit polls 54% of those PAlestinians who voted for Hamas also said they favor peace.

 

[Buck Armstrong]

Just proves that, despite the illusion held by the Left that the Palestinians just want peace, the real truth is that they are commited to eternal war with Israel and DO NOT want it to end. Your darling Palestianians are really racist religious fanatics and hatemongering terrorists, the kind of people the Left would do everything to stop if they lived in the USA (and rightly so). They're half Pat Robertson/Jerry Falwell and half KKK/Neo-nazi skinhead, but since they're overseas and opposed to the Jews, everybody loves them. Its disgusting.

Go ahead and keep blaming the Jews for all the troubles of the ME, even though they're the ONLY democracy in that entire troublesome region, and the only party in this conflict that really desires peace.

 

[CaptnKirk]

Hmmmm - 76 seats out of 132, fairly commanding lead for a first time party showing.

Fatah (Arabic for Corrupt Polititians) kept 43, and had been in control for 4 decades.

The times they are a changin'