"West Bank municipal elections set for July" by Karin Laub, Associated Press | February 9, 2010
RAMALLAH, West Bank - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s government decided yesterday to hold municipal elections in the West Bank in July, the first voting since Abbas’s Fatah movement was trounced by the militant Islamic Hamas in national polls four years ago.
Putting aside the obvious Zionist bias of the AmeriKan MSM against Hamas what strikes you is the TRUTH about the ELECTIONS -- something you RARELY SEE in an AmeriKan MSM new article.
Yes, readers, HAMAS WON a LEGITIMATE ELECTION!
Abbas’s rivals in Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, signaled they will not participate in the July 17 election, virtually guaranteeing that Fatah will reclaim key cities where Hamas won in the last round of local elections five years ago. But a Hamas boycott would also probably exclude Gaza from the voting and diminish the potential of the election to compare the present strengths of the bitter rivals.
Presidential and legislative elections were to have taken place in January, but are on hold because of a deepening Palestinian split. Hamas seized Gaza in 2007, expelling Fatah forces and leaving Abbas with only the West Bank.
How could they seize something they won at the ballot box?
Repeated attempts at reconciliation have failed.
Related(?): Palestinians Planning Reconciliation
The fact that Fatah works for Israel might be hurting the cause.
Municipal elections could help shore up the fading popularity of Abbas, who was elected in 2005 and has exceeded his term.
So why is he still there?
Fatah took a drubbing from Hamas in parliamentary elections in 2006, largely because voters wanted to punish Fatah for years of corruption, arrogance, and mismanagement....
That's the Zionist prism's take on things -- except for the electoral drubbing.
And just in time to throw a wrench into the works:
"Israeli soldier dies in West Bank attack; A Palestinian police officer held" by Tia Goldenberg, Associated Press | February 11, 2010
JERUSALEM - A knife-wielding Palestinian police officer killed an Israeli soldier yesterday as he sat in a jeep stopped at a traffic light in the West Bank, the military said, in a rare case of recent violence in the territory.
Another Manchurian candidate?
The attacker reached through the window and stabbed the soldier in the chest, the military said. The wounded soldier, who was alone in the vehicle, tried to drive away, but lost consciousness. The jeep spun out of control and rolled over.
The military identified the suspect as Mahmoud al-Khattib, and said he had tried to flee after the attack. A private Israeli security officer struck the suspect with his car, subduing him until police arrived. The dead soldier was identified as Staff Sergeant Ihab Khatib, an Israeli Arab from the Galilee region.
Neighbors said al-Khattib, 27, has ties to the Fatah group of Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian president.
Yeah, but Israel will blame Hamas anyway!
Salam Fayyad, Palestinian prime minister, denounced the killing and said it “conflicts with our national interests.’’ He pledged to take steps to prevent such attacks, while endorsing “peaceful resistance’’ against settlements and Israel’s West Bank separation barrier.
Yeah, it really makes you wonder about the whole event, doesn't it, cui bono?
A Palestinian ambulance was the first to arrive to help the soldier, said medic Abed Safouri. “I realized that he was clinically dead, but we gave him first aid, and we left when the Israelis took him,’’ he said.
Palestinian security authorities were informed of the attack and said they would carry out their own investigation, said Major Peter Lerner, a spokesman for the Israeli military’s West Bank forces. “It is extraordinary that a Palestinian policeman would carry out such an attack, and we want to get to the bottom of this,’’ he said....
Lethal attacks were once frequent in the West Bank but have become relatively rare as Palestinian forces were given increased security responsibility over parts of the territory....
Hmmmmmmm.
The soldier was a member of the small Druse community, an Arab sect whose followers serve in the Israeli military, unlike most of the rest of the nation’s Arab citizens. Many Druse join the paramilitary border police.
Maybe the guy had it coming considering all the Zettler mayhem "paramilitary(?)" police allow.
Khatib, 28, was in a regular army unit in the West Bank. As news of the attack spread, neighbors converged on his house in Maghar in Israel’s north. The village has both Christian Arab and Druse residents....
Why?
Not wanting to lynch him, were they?
--more--"
