In Bush’s naïveté about the magic of elections, he ignored a crucial point about democracy.
A Hamas militant waves his party’s flag as he celebrates the radical Islamist movement’s victory in the general election on Jan. 26, 2006.In a speech during President Biden’s visit to Israel last week, he urged the nation’s military to do all it can to minimize civilian casualties in its war with Hamas. “The vast majority of Palestinians are not Hamas,” he said. “Hamas does not represent the Palestinian people.
It was in January 2006 that the Palestinian territories held what turned out to be their last parliamentary elections. Hamas won a bare plurality of votes but, given the, a strong majority of seats . Neither party was keen on sharing power. Fighting broke out between the two. When a unity government was finally formed in June 2007, Hamas broke the deal, started, and, in the end, took total control of the Gaza Strip.
Six weeks before these elections, Dennis Ross was on one of his frequent trips to the Middle East. As the Middle East envoy for Presidents Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush, Ross had more experience negotiating with Israelis and Palestinians than any American. He was no longer in the U.S. government, but he knew all the relevant players.Ross was leery about holding elections.
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