Hamas Win Could Stall Mideast Peace Talks
Hamas, an extremist Islamic group long opposed to Israel, won a stunning victory in Wednesday's Palestinian parliamentary elections, defeating the long-ruling Fatah movement. Madeleine Brand talks to Linda Gradstein about local reaction to the results, and the potential impact on Palestinian peace talks. The Bush administration in the past has vowed not to enter into talks with Hamas.
MADELEINE BRAND, host:
From NPR West, this is DAY TO DAY, and on a day when the world is changing quickly. I'm Madeleine Brand.
ALEX CHADWICK, host:
And I'm Alex Chadwick. The fragile construction that's called the Middle East peace process could be demolished by the results of the Palestinian elections. The radical Islamic group Hamas has won, stunning just about everyone, including Hamas leaders.
President Bush took questions earlier at the White House and had this to say about Palestinians voting the ruling Fatah party out of office.
President GEORGE W. BUSH: You see, when you give people the vote, you give people a chance to express themselves at the polls, they, and if they're unhappy with the status quo, they'll let you know.
BRAND: More from Washington in a moment. First, we're going to Jerusalem and to NPR's Linda Gradstein, and Linda, we just heard the President say people were unhappy with the way Fatah was governing, and these results obviously confirm that, but they appear to have caught most of the world by surprise. Why is that?
LINDA GRADSTEIN reporting:
Well, even yesterday, the polls, the Palestinian polls were showing Fatah winning by about 10%. Last night, after the polls closed, the exit polls still had Fatah eking out a narrow victory, but those polls didn't take into account the district elections. Half of the votes were for national elections, half were for district elections, and in those local district elections, Hamas won an overwhelming majority.
So this morning everybody woke up to a new reality, and it's really stunned everyone: Israel, the United States, Fatah, Hamas, and nobody quite knows what to do with this.
BRAND: And sadly, there were reports today of gunfire outside the parliament building in the West Bank, members of Hamas and Fatah clashing. That doesn't bode well.
GRADSTEIN: No, it doesn't bode well. What happened was Hamas supporters, several thousand Hamas supporters burst into the Palestinian parliament and put a Hamas flag on top and scuffled with Fatah supporters, and there was gunfire. It's not clear whether this is going to be sort of a one time thing and, you know, both Fatah and Hamas will kind of pull their supporters back and say, you know, hey, you know, we've got to take it easy here. This is all new to everybody, and let's calm things down. Or whether this could spiral out of control.
In the past few months, we have seen, especially in Gaza, you know, sort of armed gunmen and armed militias kind of doing whatever they wanted. There was a lot of internal Fatah fighting, so it's really not clear, you know, how unstable the situation among the Palestinians is going to become, but there's certainly efforts by both Hamas and Fatah to cool things down.
BRAND: Meanwhile, everyone's wondering what's going to happen with the peace process with Israel, and the US says it will not negotiate with Hamas until it renounces violence and removes its pledge to destroy Israel. How is Hamas reacting to that?
GRADSTEIN: There's sort of conflicting signals coming from Hamas. On one hand, they're saying that they will not end their resistance to Israel. At the same time, Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar said that the yearlong cease-fire with Israel could be extended if Israel also pledges to maintain calm.
You know, I think Hamas is just as stunned by this as anybody else. Hamas leaders said that they wanted to form a coalition with Fatah. They don't necessarily want to be completely in charge of the Palestinian government. They have no experience in running a Palestinian government, so it's not clear whether Fatah will go into a coalition or Hamas will have to go it alone.
BRAND: And quickly, how are Israelis reacting today?
GRADSTEIN: Well, Israelis are completely stunned. Officially, Israelis are not reacting. The acting prime minister is going to hold a series of discussions. But privately, Israeli officials have said to me that they are very concerned, that Israel will not negotiate with Hamas, and they are concerned about a possible resumption of violence, but officially they're saying, you know, they have to wait and see what happens. Some Israeli analysts say it could prompt Israel to take further unilateral action rather than negotiated action with the Palestinians.
BRAND: NPR's Linda Gradstein in Jerusalem. Thank you, Linda.
GRADSTEIN: Thank you.
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