Hamas backers shoot off guns to celebrate their election win today as Jimmy Carter says he hopes this will help Hamas become moderate,
VIDEO HERE (CBS)
Later… Hamas supporters ransacked the Palestinian Parliament Building,
VIDEO HERE (Reuters)
After more than 50 homicide attacks on Israel since 2000, Jimmy really needs to define “act responsibly”.
Former US president Jimmy Carter (L) talks to Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas, in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas hailed Wednesday’s parliamentary election as a decisive step towards statehood as security forces took guard outside polling stations on the eve of the vote.(AFP/Pedro Ugarte)
Jimmy Carter urged the world community to give to the Palestinians. Jimmy also asked the terrorist organization Hamas to “Act Responsibly”
“The Palestinian Government is destitute, and in desperate financial straits. I hope that support for the new government will be forthcoming,” Carter said at a Jerusalem press conference.
He added that if international law barred donor countries from directly funding a Hamas-led government than the US and the EU should bypass the Palestinian Authority and provide the “much-needed” money to the Palestinians via non-governmental channels such as UN agencies.
“Regardless of the government, I would hope that potential donors find alternative means to be generous to the Palestinian people [even] if the donor decides to bypass the Palestinian government completely,” Carter said, stressing that his main concern was to avert the “suffering” of the Palestinian people, which he said could lead to a new cycle of violence.
Hamas, the largest and most powerful of the Palestinian terror organizations, which advocates Israel’s destruction, has carried out scores of bombings over the last five years of Palestinian violence, attacks which have killed hundreds of Israeli civilians.
Carter, who has long supported the participation of Hamas in the Palestinian elections, voiced the hope that the Islamic terror group would act “responsibly” now that it had won the elections.
Well, at least he didn’t let a dictator steal this election.
Turnout was high in today’s election:
Voter turnout in the historic balloting was 77.7 percent of 1.3 million eligible voters, the Central Election Commission said. In the 1996 parliamentary election, turnout was about 75 percent.
Earlier:
Palestinian PM Qurei Steps Down, Hamas Wins
Daniel Holt at Publius Pundit sees things this way…
Probably better to deal with straight-up terrorists than with terrorists who are widely considered to be peace-seeking politicians.
Jeff Goldstein has thoughts on the new Hamas Charter.
Light Seeking Light has pictures of the Hamas democracy babes packing heat.
John Stephenson has more on Jimmy’s call to the world.
