The Takeaway: Does Hamas win if Abbas delays Palestinian elections?
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Hot take on Palestinian Elections: Abbas faces lose-lose decision on elections
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas seems ready to delay next month’s scheduled elections at a meeting on Thursday with PLO and other leaders. The formal election campaign is otherwise scheduled to start on Friday.
The stated reason: Abbas is saying that Israel will not allow Palestinians living in Jerusalem to vote in the upcoming legislative elections. No Jerusalem, no elections. Israel has not made a public statement on Jerusalem voting one way or the other but is privately saying it will not interfere in the elections.
The real reason: Abbas had envisioned the elections as a means to unify Palestinian factions under his leadership. His Fatah party lost elections to Hamas in 2006, and the Islamic Resistance Party has ruled there since. The trends in the pre-election polling and politicking so far have presented Abbas with an awful, if not worst case, scenario: that Hamas would gain in the West Bank where Fatah rules, and that splits within the Fatah coalition, with at least two former members drafting competing election lists, are beyond repair. Both Israel and Abbas want to avoid Hamas expanding its influence in the West Bank — so if Abbas calls for a delay, Israel will be fine with that.
