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The Palestinian Elections: Repeating the Mistakes of the Past
(Council on Foreign Relations) Elliott Abrams - The unpopularity of the Palestinian Authority and the ruling Fatah Party due to corruption, incompetence, and growing repression helps explain why West Bank voters might choose Hamas in the municipal elections scheduled for Oct. 8. Voters may also prefer Hamas' Islamism to Fatah's secularism, or may prefer Hamas' manifest desire to kill Israelis over Fatah's and the PA's tamer stance. In the 2006 Palestinian parliamentary elections, most of these same conditions existed and the result was a narrow Hamas victory in the popular vote (44 to 41%) that produced a much larger Hamas majority in parliament (74 to 45). The most fundamental similarity to 2006 involves allowing a terrorist group, Hamas, to contest the election without the slightest nod to stopping its terror or giving up its rule of Gaza. This is wrong for many reasons. First, Hamas may win power in a number of West Bank cities but Fatah will not be able to contest elections as freely in Gaza. Second, those who wish to contest elections should be forced to choose between bullets and ballots. This is what happened in the Northern Ireland agreements, where the IRA had to end its terrorist war and could then run for office. It is a mistake to allow terrorist groups to run for office but continue their violent activities. That was the mistake we made in 2006, and it is being repeated. The writer, a senior fellow at CFR, handled Middle East affairs at the U.S. National Security Council from 2001 to 2009.