Palestinian Civil Society Watch – Hamas Closing In

By
Omri Ceren
– January 11, 2006Posted in: Palestinians

With the land reserved for a future Palestinian state increasingly falling into anarchy, we have this question: is allowing a massive influx of weapons into the Gaza Strip (a) helpful (b) unhelpful?


“The amount of weapons and explosives smuggled into the Gaza Strip from Egypt has grown drastically, by more than 300 percent,” Diskin told the committee, which convened in his Tel Aviv office. “If before the disengagement they smuggled in 200 to 300 rifles a month, they are now smuggling in close to 3,000.”

New polls show Hamas just outside the margin going into the upcoming Palestinian elections:


The Islamic militant Hamas is closing in on the ruling Fatah Party ahead of Jan. 25 parliament elections in the West Bank and Gaza, according to a poll released Wednesday. Fatah won 35 percent support, compared to 31 percent for Hamas, said Nader Said, who conducted the poll for the West Bank’s Bir Zeit University. In a Bir Zeit poll last month, Fatah won 36.7 percent, compared to 20.6 percent for Hamas. Said said the latest poll would be released in greater detail on Saturday. He said it had an error margin of 3 percentage points and was conducted last week among 1,500 respondents.

Then there’s this:


The EU observers are concerned about the security situation during the January 25 parliamentary election, but said Wednesday they have contingency evacuation plans if the situation gets out of control. “What we need is an early warning,” Mathias Eick, spokesman for the EU’s 186-member election observer mission, said. “It is not a matter of stopping (the violence).”

Here’s our contribution. Memo to Mr. Eich: early warning. There will be violence.

And people say we’re not helpful.

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