Michael Hines, International Christian Embassy Jerusalem
January 26, 2006

The Israeli cabinet met Thursday morning at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum for a special session in honor of the UN-instigated international Holocaust Memorial Day, due to be observed on Friday in capitals across the world.

But the gesture was all but lost, as a dozen miles away in Ramallah, Hamas - the Islamic 'resistance' group dedicated to the elimination of the Jewish State - claimed a landslide victory in the first Palestinian parliamentary elections in a decade.

Across the Israeli government, spokesmen and officials were unable to comment to the press. Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert convened an urgent meeting with senior ministers and defense chiefs. Appointments were cancelled, schedules changed.

Olmert's office had earlier said that the acting premier believes Israel cannot trust a Palestinian leadership in which Hamas has a role.

"Israel can't accept a situation in which Hamas, in its present form as a terror group calling for the destruction of Israel, will be part of the Palestinian Authority without disarming," Olmert told visiting US Senator Joseph Biden as Palestinians flocked to the polls on Wednesday. "I won't hold negotiations with a government that does not stick to its most basic obligation of fighting terror."

As the news of the Hamas victory sunk in Thursday morning, it was announced that newly appointed Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni will leave next week for talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo, bringing forward her first overseas trip in the role.

Elder Statesman Shimon Peres, meanwhile, immediately set off for Jordan to discuss 'economic co-operation' with King Abdullah. Though holding no formal office, Peres is second only to Olmert on the Knesset slate of Israel's governing Kadima party.

By late morning Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Queri and the entire Fatah-led Palestinian Cabinet had submitted their resignations, hours before official results were expected, confirming the watching world's worst fears: that the Islamic group would now be invited to lead a new Palestinian government.

Final results released on Thursday evening by the Palestinian Central Election Commission showed Hamas won 76 seats in 132-seat parliament, with Fatah gaining only 43. Hamas leaders proceeded to open the prospect of coalition talks with the members of the outgoing government, but senior Fatah officials rejected the idea.

"The Palestinian people has expressed its will and the decision must be respected," said former PA Security Chief Jibril Rajoub.

Speaking via video link to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday afternoon, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she had already telephoned Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to congratulate him for holding a peaceful and fair election process with a heavy voter turnout.

Abbas, she added, was elected on a "platform of peace." "Our position on Hamas," she then added, poignantly, "has not changed."

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, the American President was more emphatic. The US, said President George W. Bush, would not deal with Hamas until the radical Palestinian Islamist group renounces its longstanding call for the destruction of Israel.

"A political party, in order to be viable, is one that professes peace, in my judgment, in order that it will keep the peace," the president said.

"And so you're getting a sense of how I'm going to deal with Hamas if they end up in positions of responsibility."

"And the answer is: Not until you renounce your desire to destroy Israel will we deal with you," he said.

Using softer language the European Commission -- the body responsible for underwriting the Palestinian Authority's 60 million euro monthly payroll -- took a different tack. "It is clear that Hamas has really got a very large proportion of the vote," European External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner told a European Parliamentarians before official results were announced. "What is important is that we state we are happy to work with any government if that government is prepared to work by peaceful means," she added.

Back in Israel, the recriminations flowed. Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chair Yuval Steinitz told Israel Radio that the Israeli government made a grave mistake by allowing the Palestinian parliamentary elections to take place with Hamas' participation in the first place-- something outlawed under the terms of the Oslo Accords.

Describing the results as an "earthquake," the Likud MK and said they reflected Israel's "tragic failure" to stand up to US pressure in its war against Hamas. "These elections contradict the Oslo Agreement and contradict democracy," he said.

Copyright © 2005 International Christian Embassy Jerusalem