Haaretz comments: „The Hamas movement’s sweeping victory in the elections for the local authorities could be an indicator of what results to expect in the January election for the Palestinian Legislative Council. In anticipation of a possible Hamas triumph in this election as well, the Americans and Europeans have warned the Palestinian voters that such a result could lead to the reduction of the world’s aid to rehabilitating the Palestinian Authority (PA). In Israel too, warnings have been voiced to the effect that Israel would not cooperate with a PA in which the Hamas is a senior partner. There is no dispute that Hamas is defined as a terror organization, and that its acts against Israel have caused the largest number of casualties on the Israeli side since the Intifada’s eruption in September 2000. There is no place to legitimize this armed organization, which is still threatening to continue its war against Israel (after a short lull) and objects to negotiate with it in future… Israel can do nothing but leave a door open to negotiations with Hamas, and regret its own continued contribution to weakening Mahmoud Abbas’ movement to such an extent that Hamas has become the leading Palestinian movement. At this stage, Israel can do little more than this. Any Israeli intervention in the Palestinian election would be perceived as the occupying side’s meddling in the democratic of the occupied nation.” The Jerusalem Post writes: „Given the mounds of evidence that speed kills, it is incredible that the Livne committee, appointed by the Transportation Minister Meir Sheetrit, actually advocated raising our speed limits. A group of 15 physicians and scientists wrote Sheetrit to protest this ‘unethical exercise in human experimentation,’ but Sheetrit has not ruled it out, and claimed to The Jerusalem Post that the public wants higher speed limits… There is simply no excuse to allow the carnage, which has claimed more lives each year than terrorism, to continue. Some day Israel will catch up with some 75 countries where speed cameras are used widely. The only question is when, and how many lives must be needlessly lost before that happens.”
BPI-info
BPI-info
