Hamas Poised To Make Gains; Israel Shudders

The big media outlets want folks to believe that Hamas has somehow changed its position on Israel and that it will work within the framework of a legitimate government. Neither proposition could be further from the truth.

Hamas was established and dedicates itself to the destruction of Israel. There's absolutely no doubt on that point. What you think you're hearing from Hamas leaders, spokespeople, and various diplomats is a smokescreen. Hamas is simply telling folks what they want to hear, not what their true intentions are.

In the final week of the campaign, Hamas has been broadcasting television ads featuring the party's top national candidate, Ismail Haniyeh, explaining why it is joining the government. Haniyeh, who favored participating in the first parliamentary elections a decade ago, says Hamas will be better able to confront corruption, free Palestinian prisoners and fight the Israeli occupation from inside the system.

Zahar, who lost a son in a 2003 Israeli airstrike that also broke his back and badly injured his wife, said Hamas will not abandon its goal of establishing a Palestinian state across a territory that includes what is now Israel. He argued that Hamas is not joining the existing Palestinian Authority so much as creating a new government through its presence.

"This is to assure people they have not shifted," said Nashat Aqtash, a professor of media studies at Bir Zeit University in the West Bank who is designing the Hamas advertising strategy, though he is not a party member. "They are moving in one direction -- fighting corruption and the occupation -- and that has not changed."

Hamas has no intention of making a deal with Israel - they are as incapable of doing so just as Fatah and Yasir Arafat were unable to do. No one has prepared the Palestinian people to accept Israel as a state alongside a Palestinian entity. Palestinians have been told for generations now that their leaders will eventually supplant and destroy Israel so that they can take over what's left.

As for the claims of fighting corruption, have at it - the Palestinians have been snookered by the Palestinian Authority (AKA Fatah/PLO) since 1993, and it could use a housecleaning. Billions given to the PA have never made it to where it was supposed to go - and someone ended up getting rich all while most Palestinians live in squalor.

And that's not Israel's fault. That fault remains squarely on the backs of the Palestinians themselves.

UPDATE:
Fatah looks like they've still got a majority - winning 58 of the seats. Hamas got 53. Hamas is a force to be reckoned with. President Bush said that the US would not deal with Hamas, no matter how well they did in the election. It will be interesting to see just how that works out with Hamas likely to get some key positions in the future makeup of the Palestinian Authority.