From The Australian Editorial, December 18, 2006 ...
IN ... the Palestinian territories, the right of ordinary people to peace and democracy is being ignored by terrorists and warlords fighting for power. The result is chaos.
...what the Middle East needs -- especially the long-suffering people of Iraq and the Palestinian territories ... is the peace and justice that only democracy and the rule of law provide.
Yesterday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called for elections, in a desperate search for a circuit-breaker to end fighting that is coming close to civil war between supporters of the Hamas Government and his own Fatah faction.
.... Mr Abbas's solution, to put the power-struggle between his Fatah organisation and the Hamas faction to a vote of the people, is also born of desperation. There is no doubting that Hamas won the Palestinian Authority elections last January fair and square. Voters on the West Bank and in Gaza were sick of Fatah, which had used hatred of Israel as cloak for the corruption and incompetence of its administration.
But by refusing to renounce its hard line against Israel, Hamas ensured an end to Western aid. The Palestinian people, who were always poor, are now reduced to the most desperate poverty while the two factions squabble in the squalor.
...If the Palestinian people are ever to have any hope of a functioning economy and a society where basic services work, they need peace with Israel. And securing both depends on an honest administration which does not use Israel's existence as an excuse for every failing.
Elections at least give ordinary Palestinians a chance to call the factions to account. ....the Palestinian people are caught in the crossfire between Hamas and Fatah. ....Mr Abbas must find a way to force the two major groups to accept that the ballot box, not bullets, decides who rules.
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