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Hamas parliamentary candidates arrested

by reposts
The Israeli military has arrested dozens of Hamas candidates for parliament and local councils as part of its new offensive against the Islamic militant group.
The arrests in Ramallah have prompted charges that Israel is using a weekend truce breach as a cover for trying to crush Hamas before upcoming Palestinian elections.

The arrest sweep – the biggest in three years, with 379 people in custody - came after Israel failed to win international backing for its demand that Hamas be barred from Palestinian parliament elections on January 25.

Israel fears Hamas in government would threaten peace prospects, but letting Hamas contest elections is the cornerstone of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas’ plan to tame his biggest rival.

The Palestinian Authority believes it will be the main loser in the Israel-Hamas showdown.

The arrests are generating sympathy for Hamas and could further improve its strong electoral prospects; Abbas’ ruling Fatah movement is widely perceived as corrupt, and many Palestinians say they will vote for Hamas to teach Fatah a lesson and get better government services.

On the other hand, if Israel arrests more candidates than Hamas can replace, it might decide to bow out of the election, a step that could lead to the cancellation of the vote and further undermine Abbas’ claim to leadership.

“The Israeli interference is only complicating the situation for the Palestinian Authority,” said Palestinian Planning Minister Ghassan Khatib.

Israel launched its offensive of air strikes, targeted killings and mass arrests – codenamed “Operation Last Rain” – after Hamas fired scores of homemade rockets from Gaza at Israeli border towns over the weekend.

It was the first major rocket barrage after Israel’s pullout from Gaza in mid-September, but caused only minor injuries. Israel said it had to react strongly to make Hamas understand new rules were in place after the pullout and that attacks from Gaza would not be tolerated.

The rocket fire also gave Israel an opportunity to renew a broader campaign against Hamas that had largely been put on hold after Abbas negotiated an informal truce in February, Israeli and Palestinian commentators said.

“This (the rocket fire) was a fatal error,” military commentator Alex Fishman wrote in the Yediot Ahronot daily. “They played directly into the hands of Israel which was just waiting for such an opportunity.”

Even before the weekend violence, the head of Israel’s domestic Shin Bet security service, Yuval Diskin, told reporters the rise of Hamas posed a serious threat to Israel. Diskin was quoted as saying he considered Hamas’ attempt to grab power a “strategic problem” for Israel.

Hamas is pledged to Israel’s destruction, has carried out scores of fatal attacks against Israel and as a partner in an Abbas government could block future peace moves. Its rocket barrage was in response to a blast at a Hamas rally in Gaza that killed 21 people on Friday.

Hamas said the explosion was caused by an Israeli missile, but both Israel and the Palestinian Authority said it was caused by militants mishandling explosives.

More
http://breakingnews.iol.ie/news/story.asp?j=157255852&p=y57z56558

Hamas Islamic militants complained on Tuesday that Israel was damaging its chances in Palestinian elections after a wave of arrests in the West Bank that included candidates for local and parliamentary ballots.

Israeli forces arrested some 300 people in the West Bank they suspected to be Islamic militants following rocket attacks from Gaza.

Hamas is at a critical point as it takes on President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah in hope of political gains while remaining the most powerful armed faction behind suicide bombings and rocket salvoes in a Paletinian uprising.

Spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said Hamas prospects had been damaged by Israel's arrest of candidates for local elections on Thursday and a January parliamentary vote in a round up of suspected militants.

"Arrests included not only candidates, but also leaders who are supposed to supervise the preparations and the election process," Abu Zuhri told Reuters in the Gaza Strip.

The local election committee said 27 candidates for Thursday's local poll in parts of the West Bank had been arrested.

Israel does not want Hamas, sworn to destroying the Jewish state, to contest parliamentary elections and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has said Israel could hamper them if it does.

But Israeli officials said the arrests were purely for security reasons following Hamas rocket launches and threats in the worst bloodshed since Israeli troops left the Gaza Strip on Sept. 12 after 38 years of occupation.

"The idea is to hurt Hamas command and control," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev. "Israel is acting against Hamas because it is a brutal terrorist organisation."

Violence surged after an explosion at a Hamas rally killed 17 people last Friday. Hamas accused Israel, which denied any part. The Palestinian Authority blamed Hamas for mishandling explosives and called it a massacre.

ATTACKS STOP

Hamas has now said it would stop attacks from Gaza, but claimed responsibility on Tuesday for killing an Israeli in the West Bank. Israel has continued airstrikes on Gaza and vowed to press ahead if any factions carry out rocket attacks.

Palestinian analysts said Hamas's decision to return to a truce it largely respected since February was prompted partly by fears it could suffer politically from anger among those who disbelieved its account of the explosion at the parade.

"The decision (to halt attacks) implied a confession of responsibility," said political analyst Hani Habib. "It seemed the Palestinian public did not accept Hamas justifications in the usual way."

Hamas has continued its war of words with the Palestinian Authority over the deadly explosion, though, accusing it of trying to reap political gains and standing by while Israel arrested Hamas men.

"This is unjustified," said top Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat. "The Palestinian Authority have condemned the Israeli attacks, the assassinations and the arrests."

Abbas has shied from disarming Hamas and other militants, a process the Palestinians promised to start under a U.S.-backed peace "road map" and which Israel demands as a condition for statehood talks.

But Abbas has said that after the January elections, Hamas will no longer be able to justify keeping a militia.

Hamas made a strong showing in local elections early this year and opinion polls show it has the support of about one third of Palestinians.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L27399538.htm
by Islam Online (reposted)


By Yasser Al-Banna, IOL Correspondent

GAZA CITY, September 26 (IslamOnline.net) – The Israeli military escalation in the Gaza Strip is aimed at provoking Hamas into attacking Israeli targets and eventually undermining its participation in the January legislative elections, Palestinian experts said on Monday, September26 .

"Israel wants to cast a pall over the upcoming elections by arresting Hamas politicians and candidates," Taher Al-Nono, a political analyst and a politician, told IslamOnline.net.

Israel arrested Sunday, September25 , up to 207 Palestinians, including Hamas leaders in the West Bank Mohammad Ghazal and Hassan Yusuf, both potential parliamentary candidates.

Hamas official Nayef Rajoub accused Israel on Saturday, September24 , of escalating violence to sabotage the movement's planned participation in the legislative elections.

The latest escalation began when Israel assassinated three Islamic Jihad fighters on Friday, prompting the resistance movement to fire three rockets into the Israeli town of Sderot.

Shortly afterwards, Israeli warplanes bombarded a Hamas rally in the Jabalya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, killing 19 people and injuring dozens.

Sharon has recently vowed to disrupt Palestinian legislative elections if Hamas fields candidates.

Hamas is widely expected to make a strong showing in the legislative polls at the expense of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' mainstream Fatah movement.

Tarnishing Image

Al-Nono said Israeli Premier Ariel Sharon wants to "tarnish Hamas’s image in the eyes of the Palestinians and portray it as the main reason behind their sufferings," citing leaflets dropped by Israeli warplanes on the Gaza Strip.

Adli Sadeq, another analyst, agreed.

"Sharon wants to leave the impression that the core problem lies in Hamas’s weapons and not in the West Bank separation wall, or settlements or Judaization of Al-Quds."

They, however, expected the Israeli schemes to fail.

"It would backfire on Sharon at the end of the day and Hamas’s popularity will keep soaring," Al-Nono said.

Hamas, which saw its popularity soaring during more than four years of the Al-Aqsa Intifada, entered electoral politics for the first time at the end of last year.

It secured a landslide victory over corruption-tainted Fatah in the first-ever Gaza Strip council elections in January.

Provocation

The two analysts further believe that Sharon wants to drag Hamas into carrying out resistance attacks inside Israel after nearly seven months of shaky truce.

"Sharon wants to leave the impression that Hamas doesn’t want to engage in the political process but is only preoccupied with the destruction of Israel," Nono said.

"Hamas should act in unison with the Palestinian Authority at this critical juncture to skip the Israeli snare," added Sadeq.

Hamas decided on Sunday, September25 , to halt Gaza-based attacks against Israel and end military parades.

"We are committed to protect the Palestinian people from the Zionist entity and to continue in the climate of celebrations" marking the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza Strip, said senior Hamas leader Mahmoud Al-Zahar.

Domestic Agenda

Iyad Al-Barghouthi, professor of political science in the West Bank university of An-Najah University, said the Israeli escalation was also motivated by a domestic agenda.

"Sharon is trying to court the rightists in his Likud party to beat off his anti-pullout rival Benjamin Netanyahu," he told IOL.

Some 3 , 000members of Likud's central committee will vote Monday on whether to subject Sharon to an early leadership contest and face the prospect of being ousted.

Opinion polls have indicated that the central committee will snub Sharon's desire to hold off a leadership primary until April and instead endorse Netanyahu's demand for a ballot in late November.

Sharon is furious that his leadership of the party he helped found is in doubt at a time when his popularity with the public and abroad has never been higher after the Gaza withdrawal.

The 77 -year-old has resisted calls from some Likud power-brokers to declare he will remain in the party regardless of Monday's vote, fuelling speculation Sharon could take his leave and go it alone within a matter of days.

http://islamonline.net/English/News/2005-09/26/article04.shtml
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