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AAI in the News

Hamas Win Rocks World Economic Forum

By Dan Perry
Associated Press
Posted on Wednesday January 25, 2006

DAVOS, Switzerland – News that Hamas had won Palestinian legislative elections rocked the World Economic Forum Thursday, leaving a group of Israelis, Palestinians and passionate observers debating what it means for peace.

A scheduled discussion of the elections at the elite forum was titled “A turning point for Palestinian statehood?” _ but few at the somber gathering seemed to expect such an outcome anytime soon, given the rise of a group that has been dedicated to Israel’s destruction and is widely considered, in Israel and the West, to be a terrorist organization.

Former U.S. peace negotiator Aaron Miller said Palestinian attitudes reflected “the power of the weak, which is a very formidable power. (It’s) the power … to assume that ‘Since we’re under Israeli military occupation, we’re the weakest party, we can acquiesce to just about any form of behavior including terror and violence.’”

“I see no way, given the circumstances that exist on the ground, that Israel and the Palestinians can negotiate a conflict-ending agreement” anytime soon, said Miller, a public policy scholar with the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

Several Palestinian participants seemed to understand that Israelis would have trouble negotiating with a group that until last year’s cease-fire had claimed credit for scores of deadly suicide bombings.

Palestinian Economy Minister Mazen Sinokrot said one way out of the impasse might be for Hamas _ which according to near-complete results won 76 of the 132 seats in parliament _ to appoint a government of politically neutral personalities.

“This would be a confidence-building measure from the Palestinian leadership and from Hamas as a majority now in the parliament,” he said.

He blamed the Israeli government for not doing enough to support moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the roughly one year that he has been in power.

“It’s always easy to look at somebody else’s mistakes and to blame somebody else,” said Tel Aviv University president Itamar Rabinovich, a former Israeli diplomat and peace negotiator. “We don’t come to Davos for that. Davos is a place where people are looking for fresh ideas.”

“Everybody committed mistakes _ my government, my people no less than anybody else,” Rabinovich said. “I wish many among the Palestinians would do the same, and begin looking at your own mistakes.”

Pollster James Zogby, president of the Washington-based Arab American Institute, said the vote was a reflection of the failure of the long-dominant Fatah party to provide Palestinians with jobs and personal security, much less peace.

“It was anger and despair. It was ‘Throw the bums out.’ I’ll be honest with you: This election doesn’t make me happy. It doesn’t make me happy at all.”

He urged Western nations not to withdraw aid from the Palestinian Authority _ “extremism will only be fed” _ and urged Abbas not to resign.

“It’s something very important to maintain at least the opportunity for the world to have someone with whom they can negotiate and with whom they can do business,” he said.

Michael Tarazi, a Palestinian-American who has been a legal adviser to the Palestinian Authority, saw a silver lining.

“Even if you don’t like Hamas you should be very happy that they won,” he said, seizing the audience’s attention. “We should welcome Hamas victory because they are now … going to have to be responsible because with power comes responsibility.”

Tarazi said the peace process had been a sham anyway, and that the United States itself had strengthened Palestinian radicals by favoring Israel.

“Anyone who says this is going to destroy the peace process has not been paying attention to the fact that there isn’t a peace process to destroy,” he said.