Elections for the replacement of Arafat are on January 9, and this could mean a lot for the future of Israel and Palestine as states. Recently, about 600 leaders of various positions signed a petition that called for an end to violence against Israel in order to boost the credibilitiy of their cause for statehood. In other words, stop attacking Israel, cuz it makes us look bad. Mahmoud Abbas is the champion of this peaceful policy, and he is supposedly in some sort of majority. On the other hand, there is a group named Hamas, who is overtly anti-Semetic and would never want to stop attacking the Jews. They don't have anyone going for prime minister, but the group did suprisingly well in local polls (I don't understand it entirely - I guess the polls were for a legislative body of sorts).
So we have two major groups: One that wants to abandon violence, and one that never will. Has a desire of most Palestinains for statehood finally replaced their desire of the to kick the Jews out of the Middle East? The elections may give us an answer.
But there is also a subtle revelation of motives in this petition from the leaders. Perhaps I am reading too much into this. But listen: The leaders did not say they want to stop violence because they no longer hate the Jews and want to kill them all. They said they want to stop violence because it makes them look bad internationally. Does this mean that they still hate the Jews? That if they finally achieve statehood, they will then return to their original plans of attacking and killing Jews, which they have been doing ever since Jews starting fleeing from Europe to join the small pockets of Jews that were already in Palestine? Only time will tell.
Edmond the Hun
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