Fatah: Hamas seems to have won majority

[Charlie Brown]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L26252617.htm

RAMALLAH, West Bank, Jan 26 (Reuters) - An official from President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party said on Thursday the militant group Hamas appeared to have won a majority of seats in the Palestinian parliament.

"It seems Fatah has lost in the districts," the official said, suggesting the Islamist movement would have a chance to form the next government. Hamas had earlier claimed victory but exit polls gave long-dominant Fatah a slight edge in Wednesday's election.

[wtmusic]

1. But we don't negotiate with terrorists!

Hmm. Looks like the "roadmap" leads over a cliff.

[The_Casual_Observer]

2. Pretty damned inconvenient, this election thing.

Particularly since diebold apparently doesn't have the contract.

[Behind the Aegis]

3. Not a good thing.

Hopefully, now that they have some official power, their tactics will change for the better.

[Lenore]

4. Ma'ariv (Hebrew) is reporting Hamas has 77 seats

So sayeth Ma'ariv as reported to them by the Palestinian elections authority.

http://www.nrg.co.il/online/1/ART1/039/350.html

[bemildred]

5. Gee, who could have predicted this? nt

[Scurrilous]

7. Not Israeli intelligence:

Israeli intelligence got it wrong

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3206850,00.html

IDF officials failed to predict Hamas victory

<snip>

"OOPS, surprised again: Hamas' apparent victory in the Palestinian Legislative Council elections is something of an embarrassment for the IDF, and particularly for the Intelligence Corps.

The Intelligence Corps failed to predict what now appears as a Hamas victory, and all IDF senior officials apparently failed to correctly judge the goings-on in the Palestinian arena.

Israel's intelligence community will get the results of Wednesday's election this morning, and some officials already admit their pre-election speculations were wrong."

<snip>

"The IDF Intelligence Corps may have chosen to believe opinion polls in the PA, but the fact remains that the official prediction, published several weeks ago, a senior intelligence official said, "Hamas will get 30-40 percent of the vote."

[bemildred]

8. "Faith based" intelligence.

Unpleasant realities must be fended off. Same as Sharon's medical issues.

[centristo]

6. when Hamas had no political control

they could say whatever they wanted about Israel. Now that they are, or may become, accountable for the future of their people, maybe they will learn to compromise, to negotiate, in order to give their people a chance to prosper. I'm looking for the silver lining here, but I'm hoping over time this militant organization will realize that their current position is untenable. And if they realize this, then other factions may give up their arms as well. The alternative to this does not bode well for either Israel or Palestine.