RE: Hamas or PLO , what's the difference ?
That is an excellent question.
For many years, the P.L.O. was considered a terrorist organization. Then sometime in the seventies, President Carter recognized Yasir Arafat as a legitimate leader...I firmly believe that one of the primary reasons that this whole affair has been dragging on for so long is: A sitting United States President recognized a known terrorist as a legitamate leader.
But anyway, In the last decade or so, the P.L.O. has been re-structured into what is now known as the P.A. or, Palistinian Authority...Technically, the P.L.O. is no more. With Yasir Arafat at the helm, nothing much changed...It was pretty much business as usual...Send over as many suicide bombers into Isreal as possable and then whine about their economic state of affairs.
Now, lets transfer to the present.
Recently, the political process in the Palistinian territories is actually a little bit similar to ours...There are two parties...The Fatah and the Hamas. To put it in simple terms, think of it like this: we have the United States led by two parties...The Republicans and the Democrats...In their case we have the Palistinian Authority led by two parties, the Fatah and the hamas.
For many years, the absolute biggest roadblock in the roadmap to peace in that region was Yasir Arafat. The elections were a joke, and every so many years there would be a token election to keep him as the "official" leader.
When Yasir Arafat finally cashed in his chips, the Fatah party, who was in the parlimentary majority, Elected Mahmoud Abbas as the new "head of State"...He committed to some changes and has actually done quite well...The recent transfer of territories was done on his watch. It was widely predicted that if he could only convince the Hamasanimals to quit blowing people up, that the peace process might even have a chance.
The Hamas people are the hard liners...They have only one goal...Kill all of the Israelies...period. They blame all of their woes on the jews.
And now they are the controlling party in the palistinian authority (P.A.)
I can't help but recalling a phrase used by Henry Kissenger some thirty years ago..."The Palistinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity"
It's my opinion that this election is both a good thing and a bad thing...It's bad because the peace process actually had a pretty good chance of coming to pass...Not quickly, but it was certainly heading in the right direction. On the other hand, with Hamas in power, It could be a good thing because there won't be anymore skirts to hide behind. We will know where they stand on issues and can deal with them accordingly.
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