Palestinian Election 2 

It is three days after the Palestinian Elections and the victory of Hamas. Most reactions from inside Palestine, from Israel, Europe, the US, the whole world focus on the results of the elections, and not the democratic process and smooth functioning, the peaceful transfer of the authority. And hardly anyone is looking for the reasons of these results. For me in fact it is of highest importance to understand why the Palestinian people voted for Hamas. In my opinion, there are several reasons: 

1) The failure of the peace process – the so-called peace process of the last decade did not produce any positive change in Palestinians’ daily life. Even after the election of Abu Mazen, accepted by the Israelis as moderate candidate, Israel still claimed that there is no Palestinian partner for negotiations and refused to improve the restrictions on our life. We are still living in three cantons in the West Bank and all the Palestinian cities are disconnected from each other. 

2) The corruption - the trust in Fateh as the leading political party in the Palestinian Authority has been lost after years of corruption. Many Palestinians wanted to punish Fateh by voting for Hamas.  

3) The double measures from the US and the EU on the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict. When Israel kills 10 Palestinians or violates human rights, they voice very soft criticism, but if a Palestinian group kills any Israeli, all the US politicians and the EU condemn and punish the Palestinians accusing them of terrorism.

Palestinians feel that whatever they do, they will never reach the level of support that Israel enjoys from the US and Europe, because the power of the Jewish lobby in the United States and the feeling of guilt from the Europeans towards the Jews and the fear from the accusation of anti-Semitism. 

4) Since the Palestinian Nakba in 1948, the UN is discussing in almost every assembly meeting and Security Council the rights of the Palestinians and there are tens of decisions about the Palestinian rights and respecting Palestinian human rights, though these decisions have no effect at all. At the same time, UN decisions on Iraq, Sudan, Libya, or Bosnia are implemented by force. Israel is always an exception, so the Palestinians lost trust in the UN....