Vote Puts Hamas in Control

RAMALLAH, West Bank —  The armed Hamas movement, which is officially committed to Israel’s destruction, was declared the winner Thursday of Palestinian parliamentary elections, a stunning turn that gives the radical religious group authority to shape a new government and injects a host of new problems into the troubled region.

Near-final election results late Thursday placed Hamas in control of 76 of 132 legislative seats, a majority that would allow the group to form a Cabinet without the approval of other lawmakers.

The election outcome amounted to a bitter rebuke to the secular ruling Fatah party of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, which many Palestinians sought to punish for government corruption, chaos in the streets and unrealized hopes for an end to the Israeli occupation.

Hamas has been thrust into a governing role few could have imagined when it decided to run for parliamentary seats for the first time. A group whose military wing has carried out dozens of suicide bombings and other attacks on Israelis in recent years now will control a government that will be responsible for cleaning streets, collecting garbage and providing security for 3.7 million Palestinians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.

Hamas’ victory raises a welter of questions over the prospects for peace talks with the Israelis, the fate of U.S. and other international aid to the Palestinian Authority, and whether Palestinian society can survive the upcoming transition of power without civil strife.

The election result also poses a dilemma for the Bush administration, which pushed to have the Palestinian vote held on schedule even though many in the beleaguered Fatah party had urged postponement for fear of losing. The administration has repeatedly said it could not have direct dealings with Hamas, which it classifies as a terrorist organization.

“If your platform is the destruction of Israel, it means you’re not a partner in peace, and we’re interested in peace,” President Bush told reporters Thursday. He stopped short of refusing to deal with a Hamas-led government, saying the Palestinian Cabinet had not yet been formed.

Hamas’ new role also sends a fresh jolt to a region still coming to grips with the implications of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s incapacitation from a massive stroke early this month, and it further clouds Israel’s upcoming elections. Sharon, who was expected to lead his newly formed centrist party Kadima to an easy victory in Israeli balloting in March, remains comatose in a Jerusalem hospital.

Israel was stunned by the large margin of victory for Hamas, whose founding charter advocates the destruction of the Jewish state. For most of the day, Israeli officials did not comment on the political developments, showing uncharacteristic reticence that seemed to underscore the difficult decisions that lay ahead.

Late Thursday, Ehud Olmert, the acting prime minister, issued a statement saying that Israel would not negotiate with a Palestinian administration if its members included “an armed terrorist organization that calls for the destruction of the state of Israel.”

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ahmed Korei and the rest of the Cabinet resigned early Thursday, as reports of the Hamas triumph leaked out hours before the official tallies were released. Korei and the remaining ministers will remain in place as a caretaker government until Hamas assembles a Cabinet.

The shape of the new government is still in question. Hamas quickly made it clear that it had no desire to govern alone, but it couched its appeals to Fatah in vague language that left observers uncertain about the militant group’s intentions.

Abbas remains president, but he declared at a news conference that the new government would have to accept his peace program, based on negotiations toward creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel. Abbas had said before the election that he would quit if he could not pursue that program, which includes adherence to the U.S.-backed diplomatic blueprint known as the “road map.”

“As much as I was determined to hold elections everywhere, including Jerusalem, I am committed to upholding the program I was elected on,” he said.

Abbas suggested he might skirt the new government by pursuing talks with Israel in his role as chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, the body that has officially represented Palestinians in past negotiations.

Fatah, beset by internal rivalries and disarray, proved its own worst enemy. Some party members split off to run independent campaigns, in effect dividing pro-Fatah votes. Some analysts said Hamas often ran better-quality candidates than Fatah, a big factor in district contests.

Half the seats were elected by district and half by national party slate.

Winning just 43 seats, Fatah becomes the main opposition party, a shadow of its role under late leader Yasser Arafat as the dominant force in Palestinian politics. The remaining seats were distributed among small independent and leftist parties.

Ismail Haniya, a Hamas leader who was the top candidate in Wednesday’s elections, said the group would seek a governing partnership, but he did not specify what it would entail.

“We will discuss with Fatah and our brothers in other factions the nature of a political partnership,” Haniya told reporters in Gaza City. “We mean a framework for leadership, of which the government is only one part.”

Observers predicted Hamas would seek a partnership with Fatah, but members of the losing party were unclear about its future.

Saeb Erekat, the Palestinians’ longtime negotiator, told reporters in Ramallah that Fatah would not join a government led by Hamas, but would become an opposition party. “We will focus on rebuilding our own party. We will not join any national unity government,” he said.

But Nabil Shaath, another senior Palestinian official, said the Fatah leadership had yet to decide whether to join.

The prospect of a Hamas-dominated government presents thorny policy questions for the outside world, especially Israel and the United States.

Olmert met with senior Cabinet officials to discuss Israel’s reactions to the election results. Olmert, who took over after Sharon’s Jan. 4 stroke, had said before the election that Israel would not have dealings with Hamas unless the group disarmed its militia and renounced its aim of Israel’s destruction.

The outcome of the Palestinian vote is likely to spill over into the Israeli campaign. Kadima, now led by Olmert, holds a commanding lead over left-leaning Labor and rightist Likud, according to polls.

Some Israeli analysts suggested that Hamas’ win could give a shot in the arm to the campaign of former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Likud Party. Netanyahu and others on the right have said that Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip last summer, championed by Sharon, boosted support for Hamas among Palestinians by allowing it to claim that it had pushed the Israelis out by force.

“Hamas gives terror, Israel gives territory,” Netanyahu said Thursday on Israel’s Channel 10 television. “The free-withdrawal policy portrayed Hamas as a winning organization, and it is a short path from this to victory in elections.”

Zvi Hendel, a right-wing member of the Israeli parliament who lived in one of the Jewish settlements in Gaza that was evacuated, said: “I am tired of saying, ‘We told you so.’ Expelling Jews from their homes in the middle of a war only encourages the murderers.”

On the other hand, the fact of a Hamas government might boost the unilateral approach pursued by Sharon during the pullout, providing Israel with a freer hand to set boundaries on its own on the grounds that it has no reasonable partner with whom to pursue peace talks.

“It will increase the appeal of unilateralism domestically in Israel and increase the acceptance of unilateralism internationally,” said Mouin Rabbani, a Jordan-based analyst on the Middle East for the International Crisis Group.

Some Israeli analysts said the Hamas win would freeze prospects for talks between Israel and the Palestinians and further imperil the peace plan, which has been stalled almost since its unveiling in 2003.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke with Abbas on Thursday. She expressed support for him and praised Palestinian democracy.

For Abbas, the resounding outcome represented a major blow, both as an expression of public disenchantment with his party and a referendum on his year-old rule. Abbas, known popularly as Abu Mazen, wagered heavily on the elections, which he hoped would rejuvenate Palestinian politics and tame Hamas by easing it into the political mainstream.

“Abu Mazen is the main loser because he has ambitious ideas and programs that he thought would be successful after the elections, with Hamas included,” said Ghassan Khatib, the Palestinian planning minister. “It seems he didn’t have in mind the possibility of Hamas being a majority.”

With turnout approaching 80%, the vote was largely calm, and received generally positive reviews from international election observers, including former President Carter.

Compared with the mass rallies Hamas has staged leading up to the elections, the Palestinian reaction to the organization’s landslide was surprisingly muted.

In the Gaza Strip, where the group built a huge base of support through its network of schools and charities, the news produced only small, scattered demonstrations. In Ramallah, a scuffle broke out between Fatah backers and ebullient Hamas supporters who hoisted the group’s trademark green flag onto the parliament building.

Soon after balloting closed, exit polls had indicated that Fatah appeared to have won the largest number of seats, though fewer than a majority. But as the hand count continued through the night, it became clear that Hamas had garnered at least a majority.

The unofficial results appeared to catch everyone by surprise, including Hamas. Heading into the election, polls had consistently predicted that the political newcomer would draw about one-third of the vote.

Analysts and some voters said the victory was less an indication of Palestinian support for Hamas’ religious piety or militant stance toward Israel than a desire to punish Fatah.

Although most Palestinians favor a negotiated peace thus far rejected by Hamas, many saw a vote for the group as a way to express their anger over corruption within Fatah, which for the last decade had ruled virtually unchallenged. Hamas, by contrast, has a reputation for fiscal accountability in the running of a large network of charities, schools and clinics.

Many voters also said they were alarmed by a sense of rampant lawlessness recently on the streets, where armed bands prowl with impunity.

Some who voted for Hamas said they hoped the group might come to peace with Israel, despite the combative words of its charter. In a sign of Hamas’ more moderate tone leading up to the election, the group’s campaign manifesto did not echo the call for Israel’s destruction.

“The prophet made peace and negotiations,” said Basimeh Hussein, a 46-year-old teacher buying a shawarma sandwich in downtown Ramallah. “Why can’t they?”

But some residents said they feared Hamas might seek to impose its conservative social and religious mores on a society that is largely secular and less tradition-bound than many in the Arab world. During the campaign, Hamas leaders were vague about their policy aims, and said little about making cultural changes.

“They will turn to work on social things on the inside, changing the society and influencing society more toward religion, traditional Muslim religion,” said Jalal Khader, a 48-year-old Christian lawyer in Ramallah, where Hamas won four of five legislative seats. The fifth was won by a Christian.

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Ellingwood reported from Ramallah and King from Gaza City.

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Hamas at the head

Hamas, a radical Palestinian group, won a majority of seats Wednesday in parliamentary elections, complicating the efforts for a long-term Middle East peace:

What is Hamas?

The biggest of the Palestinian resistance movements, active in the West Bank and Gaza and Israel. The U.S., Israel and European Union consider it a terrorist organization.

Formed: 1987 as an outgrowth of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood

Goals: An Islamic theocracy in the West Bank, Gaza and Israel; it refuses to recognize Israel and calls for its destruction

Activities: It has a network of social programs such as aid for the poor, schools and medical clinics; its military wing has carried out attacks against Israeli civilians and military targets as well as political rivals

Leadership: Reportedly, Khaled Meshaal, who directs the movement from Syria; Hamas became more secretive about its senior leaders after Israel killed three of them

Size: The military wing is thought to number more than 1,000; an unknown number of supporters and sympathizers

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Evolution

1960s-1980s: Early activity, under founder Sheik Ahmed

Yassin, concentrates on social issues and community work

December 1987: Turns to violence as first Palestinian uprising starts, beating collaborators and then attacking the Israeli military and civilians

April 1994: Begins suicide bombings in Israel

December 2004: Enters political system by participating in municipal elections

March 2005: Announces it will take part in parliamentary elections

September 2005: Proclaims victory in Gaza as Israel withdraws; pledges to also end Israeli control of the West Bank

January 2006: Wins majority in Palestinian legislative elections

**

Finances: Donations from Iran, which may be $20 million to $30 million per year, Palestinian expatriates; and private funds from Western Europe, the U.S. and Canada, Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf nations

**

Election results

(seats in 132-seat legislature)

Hamas: 76

Fatah: 43

Others: 13

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Sources: U.S. State Department; Council on Foreign Relations; Associated Press

Graphics reporting by Tom Reinken

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VOICES

‘The state of Israel will not negotiate with a Palestinian administration if even part of it is an armed terrorist organization calling for the destruction of the state of Israel.’

Ehud Olmert,

acting Israeli prime minister

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‘Today, Hamastan was formed.’

Benjamin Netanyahu,

leader of Israel’s Likud Party

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‘If your platform is the destruction of Israel, it means you’re not a partner in peace, and we’re interested in peace.’

President Bush

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‘If the people of Palestine have expressed their will by voting for Hamas, we should respect it and give Hamas a chance to prove itself while in government.’

Hamid Karzai,

Afghan president

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‘You cannot have one foot in politics and another in terror.’

Condoleezza Rice,

U.S. secretary of State

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‘This is a victory to all the region’s free people. The Palestinians gave their vote to the party that gave of its blood.’

Ayyoub Muhanna,

Lebanese business owner

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‘The Palestinians have shown their true face by electing Hamas. The group does not want control of the Palestinian Authority, it wants control of all Israel.’

Avi Zana,

Israeli resident

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‘It is obvious that the EU would never countenance funding a regime that continued an armed fight against Israel. But we cannot push for democracy and then deny the result of free and fair elections.’

Ignasi Guardans,

European Parliamentarian

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‘In order to please God and the people, [Hamas] must ... find a smart formula that helps them deal with the situation ... without giving up their principles.’

Mahmoud Ezzat,

Muslim Brotherhood