By Reuters (via Ha’aretz)
Israel Defense Forces attacks in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip have boosted the popularity of the Islamist group’s leader Ismail Haniyeh among Palestinians in that territory and in the West Bank, according to a poll released Monday.
The survey by the West Bank-based Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research showed that if new presidential elections were held, Haniyeh would receive 47 percent of the vote compared with 46 percent for President Mahmoud Abbas of the rival Fatah faction.
The figures represented a sharp strengthening of Haniyeh’s popularity. He served as prime minister in the Hamas-led government Abbas dismissed after Hamas seized the Gaza Strip from Fatah in June.
But the survey also found that Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti, imprisoned in Israel and seen as a possible Abbas successor, would defeat Haniyeh by a clear margin. The poll gave him 57 percent of the vote, compared to Haniyeh’s 38 percent.
The center’s previous poll, in December, gave Gaza-based Haniyeh just 37 percent of a potential presidential vote compared with 56 percent for Abbas, whose peace efforts with Israel are opposed by Hamas.
The latest poll was conducted shortly after Israel ended an offensive in the Gaza Strip in early March that killed more than 120 Palestinians, almost half of them were identified as civilians.
Israel said the operation was aimed at stopping cross-border rocket fire from the Gaza Strip.
According to the survey, Hamas’s breaching of the Gaza Strip’s Rafah border crossing with Egypt in January also contributed to Haniyeh’s popularity among Palestinians.
“These developments managed to present Hamas as successful in breaking the siege and as a victim of Israeli attacks,” commentary accompanying the poll said.
Lack of progress in Abbas’s peace negotiations with Israel also gave Hamas a boost, the poll indicated.
The survey found that if new parliamentary elections were to take place, Hamas would receive 35 percent of the vote and Fatah 42 percent, compared to 46 percent for Fatah and 34 percent for Hamas in an opinion poll in January.
The current survey polled 1,270 Palestinians in Arab East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. It had a margin of error of three percentage points.
Hamas and Fatah far apart ahead of Yemeni mediation bid
Meanwhile, delegations from rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah will travel to Yemen this week to discuss reconcilation, but the groups’ leaders will not attend the talks, officials said on Monday.
The groups will meet separately with Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, but the absence of Hamas leader-in-exile Khaled Meshal and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah casts doubt on any success in ending hostilities between the factions.
Hamas Islamists routed Fatah forces to seize control of the Gaza Strip in June. After the takeover, Abbas dismisssd a Hamas-led government and appointed a new Western-backed cabinet in the occupied West Bank.
Officials loyal to Abbas said the Yemeni initiative calls on Hamas to hand over control of Gaza and agree to early presidential and parliamentary elections, conditions endorsed by Abbas but rejected by Hamas.
Meshal was initially expected to lead the Islamist group’s delegation, but a Hamas spokesman said the Damascus-based leader’s deputy, Moussa Abu Marzouq, would be sent instead.
The spokesman gave no reason for the change.
Senior Abbas aide Azzam al-Ahmed will head the Fatah team.
Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said Hamas would only be willing to discuss reconciliation with Fatah in a “non-conditional dialogue”.
“We will respect any agreements that would result from that non-conditional and open meeting, if it takes place,” Barhoum said.
NAFTA should start negotiating a free trade agreement with the West Bank ASAP. The world, Israel and America included, also needs to start working on a Marshal plan for the West Bank ASAP.
This, I hope is something we can all agree on.
I know that this is off topic, but it is important. Most poor people around the world care about free trade more than everything else put together.
http://fareedzakaria.com/articles/newsweek/031008.html
{Fareed Zakaria is also one of my heroes along with flat brain.}
American racists who use protectionist rhetoric inspire far more anti-Americanism around the world than any other actions Americans commit put together.
The vast majority of people around the world don’t care about Palestine one way or the other. But they become irate when Americans try to block imports from their countries.
I am very sad that much of the global left is becoming almost indistinguishable from Lou Dobbs, Pat Buchanan, Anne Coulter and Bill O’Reilly.
The racist pro sanctions rhetoric must stop!!!
“The world, Israel and America included, also needs to start working on a Marshal plan for the West Bank ASAP.”
Isn’t this cart-before-the-horse kind of thinking? The OPT have received quite a lot of international aid over the years – at least until the election of Hamas. But what is the point of injecting money into a country under military occupation, when the IOF can – and does – sabotage the local infrastructure and prevent the Palestinians from trading with their neighbours?
There is only one solution: End the Occupation. Now.
@ Anand: “American racists who use protectionist rhetoric inspire far more anti-Americanism around the world than any other actions Americans commit put together.
Wanna bet? Protectionism has little to nothing to do with anti-Americanism. It as at most a minor contributor.
Wow. Irish Eyes. You are right that the Palestinian authority has received a lot of aid. But it is corrupt and incompetent. Its policies on education and business development have been uninspiring to say the least. Israel’s role hasn’t been helpful either. Israel’s and Palestine’s security forces need to work on ways to better fight terrorism and organized crime without inconveniencing ordinary people and businesses.
Free trade and free mobility of labor with Israel would enormously benefit Palestine. So would successful final status agreements. But both will take time to negotiate.
As an interim measure, other countries should start negotiating free trade and free investment agreements with Palestine now. (Jordan, Egypt, America, Lebanan, EU, Japan, China, India, South Korea etc.)
Anonymous, why don’t you actually visit a foreign country first before you speak. {I mean common folks, not leftist university campuses.} There is abstract unspecific anti-Americanism and there are specific US policies that people care about. The later is usually about US trade and investment policies.
Let me give you an example. In the 1980s, there was tremendous frustration in India about US (and international) support for Afghan Jihadis. Yet, the anger over US “fair trade” legislation in 1988 greatly exceeded all other perceived US grievances. There was hysteric screaming about American hypocrisy, two-face, fork tongue, imperialism, violation of sovereignty and all the rest. But the root was the “fair trade” legislation. Trade policy gets into people’s jobs and livelihoods, and causes emotion like nothing else.
In Brazil, by far the biggest complaint they have about America is American trade/investment policies. My goodness are they upset about American anti-dumping Steel policy and farm subsidies. In fact, that dominates most US/Brazil discussions.
Anonymous, why don’t you actually visit a foreign country first before you speak. {I mean common folks, not leftist university campuses.} There is abstract unspecific anti-Americanism and there are specific US policies that people care about. The later is usually about US trade and investment policies.
Well, since I have probably visited more countries than you can name, Anand, let me tell you that “anonymous” is absolutely correct: protectionism has little or nothing to do with anti-American feelings in the world. The real causes of anti-American feelings are imperialism, arrogance, ignorance, hubris, militarism, support for Israel support for despotic regimes, etc.
Anand, I already told you: stop telling people what they should or should not do. Many posters here have forgotten more than you will ever know, in particular about the world outside the US of A.
You are welcome to post the most outlandish and silly things here but you are *not* welcome to act arrogantly towards others.
The Saker
“So would successful final status agreements. But both will take time to negotiate.”
Yup. And in the meantime, Israel will continue to build ethnically-pure ‘settlements’ over the most strategically and economically valuable areas of Palestine, kill Palestinians on a daily basis, finish its illegal wall, and do everything in its considerable power to strangle Palestine’s economy.
Also in the meantime, anand will continue reading Thomas Freidman.