Hamas Election

I got upbraided today about an article in the Green Left Weekly about the election of Hamas to the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC). The points made were:

• Hamas is a terrorist organisation
• Hamas is not representative of the Palestinian people
• The Socialist Alliance should not be seen to be supporting Hamas
• Fatah was corrupt
• The real alternative would have been a workers' party

It is all well and good to promote a socialist solution. But the main problem is that socialist movements within the Middle East have been throughly smashed through the collusion of CIA, Mossad, the Baathists, and various political Islamist movements. The left of the political spectrum in the Middle East is represented by the political Islamist movements such as Hamas.

This is the reality on the ground. It is no good pining for a fictional alternative. The WCPI is so small within Iraq that it did win any seats in the recent elections. The Communist Party of Israel gets between 3 and 6 seats in the Knesset according to WikiPedia.

This is in line with the general trend within the world outside of South America.

Adam Hanieh wrote in PALESTINE: The end of a political fiction?

Hamas’ landslide victory in the January 25 elections for the 132-seat Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) is an unprecedented turning point for politics in both Palestine and the broader Middle East. For the first time since the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, an official administrative power in the West Bank and Gaza Strip has strong popular support and is not directly beholden to Israeli or Western interests.

Cde Hanieh sees the real problem facing Hamas is a military response:

If Hamas makes good of its promise not to sustain the structures of occupation then this will be a huge setback for Israeli and US interests in the region. The situation, however, defies simplicity due to the labyrinthine network of factions and interests located throughout the PA apparatus.

The PLC is a weak body and considerable power officially remains in the hands of Abu Mazen and the presidential office. The security forces — in particular the Preventative Security branch — remain Fatah-led under the nominal control of Abu Mazen.

A number of commentators have raised the fear that the election results could herald a repeat of the 1991 Algerian experience, where the election victory of the Islamic party FIS was overturned by a military coup and led to prolonged civil war. Any repeat experience in the Palestinian context would undoubtedly see the involvement of the Israeli military and security apparatus in both provoking and maintaining internal armed strife.

...

A terrorist organisation participating in an electoral process is a good thing because they have come to the realization that more can be achieved by talking to people than by threatening them. However, Hamas is exposed because they opposed the wishes of the American and Israeli ruling classes.