Poll: Only 10 percent of Gazans would vote for Abbas

[Jefferson23]

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Only 10 percent of Palestinians in Gaza would vote for current president Mahmoud Abbas if elections were held now, according the results of a recent poll released Tuesday.

Some 29.8 percent would vote for senior Hamas official Ismail Haniyeh, who headed the former government in the Strip, the poll, conducted by the Gaza-based House of Wisdom Institute, showed.

Twenty-eight percent would choose jailed Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti, and 32.4 percent would choose a different candidate.

Meanwhile, the Fatah and Hamas movements would be neck in neck in legislative elections, with 30.8 percent for Fatah and 30 percent for Hamas.

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=727746

[King_David]

1. Guess the population has taken a hard right wing turn.

[Jefferson23]

2. Not necessarily. This is an indication who they don't trust, Abbas...and with good reason. n/t

[Scootaloo]

11. Untrue, apparently

They view Hamas less favorably - in political terms anyway. So. This is why the Palestinian socialist and communist groups are starting to perk up and speak out. Hamas cannot govern effectively. Fatah is more concerned with stuffing its pockets with Israeli shekels than with doing anything for Palestinians. There's a market for a political paradigm shift in Palestine right now.

[King_David]

12. Where do you get all that from?

[Scootaloo]

14. See oberliner's post below?

Fewer Palestinians would vote for Hamas. Here's a thread starting with the Palestinian People's Party (a leftist / communist organization) starting to move.

i have no idea what Palestinians are going to do. But it's clear that they're disappointed in both Hamas and Fatah, as far as politics goes. And the leftist parties of Palestine seem to be seeing this as an opportunity to poke their heads up after a rather long dormancy.

[BillZBubb]

3. Why would anyone vote for Abbas?

He's been the weakest leader the Palestinians have had.

[Scootaloo]

10. Untrue; that would be Arafat

granted, there's only been the two...

[oberliner]

4. Alternate headline: Only 30 percent of Gazans would vote for Hamas

38 percent choose one of two Fatah leaders and 32 percent choose a different candidate altogether.

[Jefferson23]

5. That does not change the percent that went to Abbas. n/t

[oberliner]

6. No indeed

But Hamas supposedly just scored this great victory by standing up to Israel and such - yet most residents of Gaza still reject their leadership.

I think that is significant and pleasantly surprising. Whereas the Abbas number is neither.

When you include Barghouti and other candidates, Abbas usually scores pretty low. If you just had Abbas vs. Haniyeh, the results are closer to 50/50 as indicated by the Fatah vs. Hamas legislative election poll results indicated in the OP.

In any case, I am glad to see that the majority of Gazans want nothing to do with Hamas.

[Jefferson23]

7. Since Abbas is suppose to be leading them out of the abyss it is significant how poorly he is

trusted. How he negotiates in the near future will be telling.

*Regarding the Israeli assault on Gaza, 73.6 percent of those surveyed were satisfied with the performance of the militant factions in "resisting and withstanding" Israeli forces.

[oberliner]

8. Who would you vote for?

Just hypothetically.

Myself, I'd be with the 10 percent.

What about you?

[Jefferson23]

9. With all the Palestinians in acts of civil disobedience in the streets and in conjunction

with the courts.

[oberliner]

18. Right well, since Hamas doesn't actually allow elections in Gaza I guess it's a moot point

But I'm saying hypothetically, if by some miracle Hamas did allow such a thing to take place, and it was, in fact election day, for which Palestinian leader would you cast your ballot, given the options listed?

[Jefferson23]

19. I'm not aware Abbas is set to have elections. Although 50 days of violence can trip up

any plans to be ready to do so.

My previous response speaks to my vote of no confidence for any of them.

Abbas' low percent of trust is someone you can get behind, that's interesting to me.
He may likely be the one to sell out his people with an agreement to those hideous
land swaps that would leave Israel with the most precious resources within the
West Bank..the settlements they carefully carved out.

[oberliner]

21. Are you able to identify a party or candidate you might support?

It doesn't seem that you are.

[Jefferson23]

22. You asked me, I answered you, twice.

The Palestinians are up against powerful political forces, from Israel and the US, the EU and
now the Arab Initiative that has acquiesced on land swaps.

They do not have anyone in my estimation who can deliver what is necessary to achieve
a viable state...no one but themselves and the international courts.

[LeftishBrit]

16. I probably would too..

just as in Israel I'd be one of the 4 or 5% who vote for Meretz.

Having said that, people who live in a country tend to vote much more on economic and related domestic issues, whereas foreigners tend to think of another country's politics more in terms of foreign policy issues; so my perspective might be different if I actually lived there..

[oberliner]

17. "people who live in a country tend to vote much more on economic and related domestic issues"

This may be true for most countries, but I don't think it's the case in Israel. I think the Israeli public today votes on the diplomatic-security situation

[Jefferson23]

13. Senior Hamas official: Abbas is afraid of Palestinian elections

Mahmoud Zahar says Abbas trying to cover up the failure of the unity government, avoid elections, calls him an illegitimate president.

Senior Hamas official Mahmoud Zahar said Wednesday that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was afraid to hold elections, because he fears he would lose.

Speaking in an interview with Lebanon's Al-Akhbar, Zahar attacked Abbas for trying to cover up the failure of the Palestinian unity government by accusing Hamas of running a "shadow government" in Gaza.

"Fatah lost the legitimacy to represent the Palestinian people after the elections," Zahar said, referring to the 2006 Palestinian elections. "Abu Mazen [Abbas] is not a legitimate or agreed-upon president. He is a president because there is no other choice."

Zahar said Hamas was prepared for elections at any time, and that such elections were supposed to take place within six months of the April signing of the unity agreement, but Abbas refuses to hold elections.

http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Senior-Hamas-official-Abbas-is-afraid-of-Palestinian-elections-375597

[Jefferson23]

15. Hamas MP calls on members not to participate in Cairo talks

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- A senior Hamas member of the Palestinian parliament on Wednesday called upon the movement's members not to participate in the next round of indirect ceasefire negotiations with Israel in Cairo.

Hamas MP Yahya Moussa said in a post on his Facebook page, "I call upon the brothers in the Hamas movement not to participate in the Cairo negotiations concerning an airport and a seaport."

Moussa added that PA leaders Mahmoud Abbas, Rami Hamdallah, and Azzam al-Ahmad should "be commissioned” for the job of finishing the negotiations, adding: "They are the authority, the legitimacy, and the government and they hold the decision to peace and the decision to war. It is their job to break the siege."

Israel and a delegation comprised of representatives from all major Palestinian political parties are expected to meet before the end of the month for the second half of long-term negotiations for a long-term ceasefire in Gaza.

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=728174

[Jefferson23]

20. Hamas denies Qatar is pushing it to leave

Qatar shocked many political circles on Sept. 12 when it asked several Muslim Brotherhood leaders to leave Doha in an effort to meet conditions for restoring ties with its Gulf neighbors.

On Sept. 14, leaks emerged that Qatar might also apply the decision to leaders of Hamas — who have been residing in Doha since leaving Syria in mid-2012 — in response to international pressure.

Speaking to Al-Monitor, Ismail Radwan, a senior Hamas leader and former Palestinian minister of Awqaf, who has been alternately residing in Beirut and Doha, denied that Doha has asked Hamas to leave its territory. He said, “The leaks [are] a desperate attempt to destabilize the ties between both sides, which are at their best.”

Ahmed Yousef, a former political adviser to former Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, told Al-Monitor, “Hamas did not receive any request to reduce its presence in Doha, and has not been under any pressure in this regard, particularly since Hamas political leader Khaled Meshaal has had close ties and mutual understanding and respect with the ruling family in Qatar for more than 20 years. Hamas and Qatar have strong political relations and understandings on the policies toward the successive developments in the region. Qatar sought to promote its role in the region when it hosted Hamas. Its decision to dismiss the Brotherhood leaders does not apply to the Hamas leaders.”

Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/09/hamas-qatar-relations-decision-dismiss-brotherhood.html#ixzz3Di4VI1vo