Not that this is a surprise, of course. But Hamas has been strengthened as the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. It easily leads Fatah in the polls in Gaza. More worrying, it also leads Fatah in the West Bank, where Fatah was supposedly stronger. Israel's clear preference for Fatah appears to have discredited it as a vessel for Palestinian national aspirations. Which was the worst of all possible worlds. Now the Palestinians are united behind a more hardline and hateful version of Hamas than existed last year.
Hamas would get 28.6 percent of the vote compared with 27.9 percent for the rival Fatah faction of Western-backed president Mahmud Abbas if elections were held today, according to the survey by the Jerusalem Media and Communications Centre.It marks the first time that an opinion poll has placed Hamas in front of Fatah, which it ousted from the Gaza Strip in deadly fighting in June 2007.[...]Ironically Thursday's poll found that Hamas has stronger support in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, still administered by Abbas, than it does in its own Gaza bastion. In Gaza, the poll put Hamas at 28 percent against 33.6 percent for Abbas' Fatah. In the West Bank, the poll gave Hamas 29 percent support against 24.5 percent for its rival.
The question with the war in Gaza was not whether it was right. It was whether it was smart. If you believe that the point was to weaken Hamas and push the Palestinians towards more sensible leadership, it's hard to see how Israel's assault can be judged successful.
