Abbas Wins Election as Palestinian President

Mahmoud Abbas, a/k/a Abu Mazen, stomped his rivals in the election yesterday for the Palestinian presidency. This portion of the vote looks to be around two-thirds of those cast. In his victory speech, he said, “I present this victory to the soul of Yasser Arafat and present it to our people, to our martyrs and to 11,000 prisoners [in Israeli jails]." One hopes he kept the receipt for this present, as it doesn’t appear to be worth much.

Mr. Abbas has been described as a moderate, whatever that may mean, in Palestinian politics. In the Middle East, a moderate is usually someone who is reloading. However, the large margin of victory does give him a mandate to lead his people. The question is whether they want to go anywhere.

The Israelis have their own political mess, with Labour joining the Likud coalition in a desperate attempt to salvage Ariel Sharon’s “disengagement plan.” The settlers in Gaza and many on the West Bank are threatening civil disobedience, and some of the more hotheaded have threatened armed resistance to their removal from their homes. Some have even taken to wearing the Star of David as their coreligionists in Nazi-occupied Europe did six decades ago.

So, precisely why is President Bush “heartened” by the election result? In addition to the fact that he has a vested interest in successful elections in the Middle East in general (and in Iraq specifically), he now can climb down from his ridiculous no-negotiation position he took up when Mr. Arafat still lived. He would be less heartened if he had heard what Hamas, which boycotted the vote, had to say. Spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri, said: "We will deal with the elected president despite our boycott." Whether this means they will work with him or whack him is unclear.

In the end, a great nothing happened. The people voted, a president was chosen (a man who was already more or less in charge), and the other side still wants to do things its own way. The hardliners are still playing the rejectionist card, and regardless of what anyone says, there is no support for peace in the region. If there were, people wouldn’t be killing one another.



© Copyright 2005 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.

Home