Where Is the Good Faith in the UN, Europe and Obama Favoring the Palestinian Authority over Israel?

"We really envy the Israelis. Our leaders don't want elections. They want to remain in office forever." — Veteran Palestinian journalist from Ramallah. ~~~~~ It'll be a few hours before we hzve the results of today's Israeli parliamenrary elections. And it'll take some negotiating before we know who will be asked by Israel's president to form a new government. BUT, we already know one thing -- four Israeli elections have come and gone since their neighbors, the Palestinians, held their last election. It was in 2005 that Mahmoud Abbas of the Fatah group was elected president of the Palestinian Authority based in Ramallah in the West Bank. That was shortly after the death of Yasser Arafat, and if it seems a long time ago, well, it was. And the next year in 2006, Gaza Strip Palestinians held the election that brought the terrorist jihadist Hamas to power. And all has been silence for Palestinian voters ever since. ~~~~~ So, while Israel, including the 20% of its citizens who are Arab Israelis, goes about ensuring the democratic right to vote for all Israelis, Palestinians languish, at the mercy of the infighting between Fatah and Hamas, neither of which is very interested in democracy or voting. ~~~~~ The truth is that neither Fatah nor Hamas wants to hold new parliamentary and presidential elections. Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip are wondering whether they will ever again have the privilege of holding their own free and democratic elections. The average age of the Fatah leadership is 75. The same men have been in control of Hamas for the past 20 years. When Palestinians last went to the ballot boxes in January 2006, they voted for a new parliament, the Palestinian Legislative Council, resulting in a victory for the Hamas-affiliated Change and Reform list. One year earlier, in 2005, the Palestinians held a presidential election, which brought Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas to power. The next parliamentary elections were supposed to be held in 2010, with a presidential vote scheduled for 2009. But the Palestinians have failed to hold new parliamentary or presidential elections because of the dispute between Fatah and Hamas, which reached its peak with Hamas's violent takeover of the Gaza Strip in 2007. ~~~~~ Today, Fatah and Hamas continue to blame each other for the long delay in holding elections. Last week, Fatah's Abbas spoke to the Central Council in Ramallah, telling them that he's prepared to call new elections if Hamas agrees. But, said Abbas, Hamas is not interested in holding elections. In response, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said that Abbas was the one who was obstructing new elections and "violating the reconciliation agreement" he had signed with Hamas last year. It appears that, in reality, neither Fatah nor Hamas want to hold parliamentary and presidential elections. Abbas's Fatah has severe internal divisions that have only gotten worse since the death of its former leader, Yasser Arafat, in November 2004. Several senior Fatah officials have been expelled from the group in recent years, for challenging Abbas and the old-guard representatives. The anti-Abbas faction in Fatah is led (and perhaps funded) by Mohamed Dahlan, a former security commander in the Gaza Strip who currently lives in the United Arab Emirates. Dahlan has accused Abbas of hindering efforts to hold new elections in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. They contend that Abbas's only goal is to remain in power for life. Fatah leaders answer that it would be impossible to hold new elections while Hamas remains in control of the Gaza Strip, insistsing that there are no guarantees that Hamas would allow a democratic and free vote, especially at a time when it is continuing to crack down on Fatah supporters in Gaza. Hamas takes the position that it is opposed to new elections because it does not trust Abbas and Fatah, saying there can be no free elections while the Palestinian Authority security forces continue to arrest dozens of Hamas supporters in the West Bank every week. ~~~~~ Tired of the delays and bickering, some Palestinians have launched an initiative to pressure the two parties to end their dispute and agree on new elections in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, in a campaign that demands free and democratic elections. But the campaign seems to have fallen on deaf ears. Dunya Ismail, one of the organizers of the campaign, said : "Every Palestinian should rid himself of despair and frustration, and take part in the drive to put pressure on the political leadership to hold new elections as soon as possible." She and her colleagues have taken to the streets to spread their message, but with little success. ~~~~~ Dear readers, it seems that the Palestinians are not likely to have new elections, at least not in the foreseeable future. All that's left for them is to sit and watch with envy as voters in Israel practice their right to elect new representatives. "We say all these bad things about Israel but at least the people there have the right to vote and enjoy democracy," remarked the veteran Palestinian journalist from Ramallah. "We really envy the Israelis. Our leaders don't want elections. They want to remain in office forever." So, dear readers, the next time you hear a Palestinian leader or one of their supporters in Europe or the UN praise Palestinians for simply wanting to join the company of nations, remember the fate of ordinary Palestinians -- trapped between two terrorist factions who use them as shields in their fight to see who can win the right to take all the UN, US and international funding and use it to try to destroy a democratic Israel, whose only fault is that it wants to protect its citizens from terrorist attacks and live in peace. Sometimes, it is indeed difficult to see the good faith in the world's favoring the Palestine Authority.