Israel shocked over Hamas win
2006-01-26 21:24
Jerusalem - Israel was shocked to the core on Thursday over the landslide Palestinian electoral victory for Hamas, a group that has killed hundreds of Israelis and advocates the destruction of the Jewish state.
With Prime Minister Ariel Sharon having suffered a stroke three weeks ago that left him comatose, an Israel bereft of its strongman faces a profound crisis with the prospect of a Hamas government in the Palestinian terriories.
Hamas annihilated Fatah at the polls, winning 76 seats in the 132-member parliament against a paltry 46 seats for Fatah.
Leaving the Middle East and West reeling, the result is likely to radically alter the course of Israel's own election at the end of March, as an outraged right wing flexes its muscles and the centrist government plots its response.
As Palestinian officials announced the results, Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert convened top-level talks with senior political and defence officials to formulate how to manage the crisis.
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, among those at the emergency powwow, earlier urged the European Union, the Palestinians' biggest aid donor, to speak out clearly against the creation of a Palestinian "government of terror".
"It is up to the European Union to speak out clearly and unequivocally and clarify that there will not be any European understanding shown towards a process which would mean the establishment of a government of terror."
Defeat in the war against terrorism
Olmert, who heads the newly formed centrist Kadima party, is keen to define the permanent borders of the State of Israel and even make further territorial concessions in the West Bank. He faces a critical challenge which could have a dramatic impact on his party's hitherto positive ratings in the polls.
Any perceived leniency towards Hamas could play directly into the hands of Benjamin Netanyahu, the hawkish leader of the right-wing Likud party, who last year warned that Israel's pullout from Gaza was a prize for Hamas violence.
But intransigence towards a Hamas-led government would likely bring about international pressure on Israel to comply with earlier commitments reached with the Palestinian Authority.
Hamas's victory prompted a flurry of negative reactions from across the political spectrum, with the right-wing heaping scorn on the government for failing to prevent the Islamists from contesting the polls.
The vote has created "the State of Hamasistan just 1 000m away from the citizens of Israel", army radio quoted Netanyahu as saying.
Yuval Steinitz, Likud MP and head of the parliamentary committee on foreign affairs and defence, likened the Hamas victory to "an earthquake" and a "tragic defeat for Israel in the war against terrorism".