Netanyahu: Hamas won't change

[gilliam]

TEL AVIV, Israel, Jan. 28 (UPI) – Benjamin Netanyahu, leader of the hawkish Israeli Likud party, wants to move the security fence farther into the West Bank after the Hamas election victory.

“An extreme Islamic state that seeks to destroy Israel and whose leaders’ hands are soiled with Jewish blood … is emerging,” the former prime minister said.

Netanyahu dismissed the view that governing might make Hamas more moderate, comparing the Islamist group to Afghanistan’s Taliban and the religious hard-liners in Iran.

(Excerpt) Read more at upi.com …

 

[WanderAimlessly]

I am wondering how the Hamas victory will affect the upcoming Israeli elections.

PF

 

[gilliam]

WanderAimlessly:

I am wondering how the Hamas victory will affect the upcoming Israeli elections.

PF

It’s early, but it hasn’t greatly affected the polling yet:

Poll After Hamas victory: Kadima 40 Labor 19 Likud 17
Aaron Lerner Date: 27 January 2006

How should Israel act towards the PA is Hamas participates in the government?
Break contact 28% Talk with the PA 67%

zionism-israel.com/news/polls2211.htm

 

[gilliam]

Little more detail on that survey:

Two polls published today find more Israelis in favor of contact than against it.

A poll in an Israeli daily (Maariv) says four-in-ten Israelis say their country should negotiate with Hamas if it renounces a call for Israel’s destruction. Another 27 percent say Israel should talk with no conditions attached.

The poll conducted yesterday found 29 percent of Israelis want to cut all contact with Palestinians and to resume assassinations of Hamas leaders.

A second poll by the Dahaf Research Institute found 48 percent of respondents think Israel should negotiate with Hamas. Forty-three percent think Israel should shun a Hamas-led government. That poll was conducted before the Hamas victory in this week’s election was announced. [that is the poll I cited in the previous post]

wbay.com/Global/story.asp?S=4421835

 

[WanderAimlessly]

Looks like Hamas will have more than Israel on their hands:

**Gunmen storm Palestinian parliament **
By Mohammed Assadi
1 hour, 49 minutes ago

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Firing into the air,Fatah gunmen and police stormed Palestinian parliament buildings on Saturday in growing unrest after 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 vital to the survival of the Palestinian Authority. Hopes of peacemaking with Israel have been pushed further into limbo.

Full Story

I do not think this will become a civil war, but it could prevent Hamas from carrying out some of their plans.

PF