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The Palestinian people have given a resounding electoral verdict in favour of democracy and peace, electing Mahmoud Abbas as their new President with a two-thirds majority vote. The election, monitored by international observers from the US as well as the European Union, proceeded peacefully. Even though the radical Islamist group, Hamas, had boycotted the election, it made no effort to disrupt the process. And now that the Palestinian people have spoken, Hamas spokesman, Sami Abu Zuhri, said on Monday that despite the boycott his group is willing to work with the newly elected President.
Given that even in well-established democracies such as that of India, election-time violence is common, it is a measure of the Palestinian people's political maturity that the whole exercise took place in an orderly fashion.
This display of orderliness and the under-current of unity also shows that the Palestinian people have been mindful of the fact that the election is not only about an important choice as to who is to head the Palestinian Authority (PA) after the demise of their much loved and revered leader, Yasser Arafat, but that the new President also needs to have substantial popular backing in order to negotiate peace with Israel.
Similarly, in extending its support to Abbas, Hamas has also proved that contrary to the Israeli-US propaganda that the group is committed to the elimination of Israel through unabated violence, it wants Abbas to succeed in achieving a negotiated two-state solution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
As a matter of fact, during the period when Israel had started to comply with the Oslo Peace Accords, Hamas and the other Islamist organisation, Islamic Jihad, had been co-operating with that process as well.
It was only when Israel had stopped complying with the phased troop pullout agreement, and Ariel Sharon had decided to add fuel to the fire by making a provocative visit to the Temple of the Mount that the second Palestinian Intifada erupted.
President Abbas is known for taking a strong stance against his people resorting to violence to end occupation. After the US-Israel duo's refusal to do business with Arafat and on their insistence that the Palestinians bring forward a new leader, Abbas was appointed as prime minister. But he resigned after a few months, complaining of not having enough power to assert his policy. Now that he is fully in charge as head of PA and the PLO both, neither he nor the US and the Israelis have any excuse not to work out a peace settlement.
In fact, welcoming the election result, George Bush has already said that he would soon invite Abbas to Washington for talks. Logically, now that Arafat, whom the US and Israel termed as a hindrance in the implementation of the latest peace plan - called the road-map - is gone so should their excuse not to talk to the Palestinians.
Besides, Bush has safely secured his second term in office, which means he no longer has to fear a backlash from the powerful Jewish lobby at home in case he applies the required pressure on Israel to comply with the road-map. On the face of it, the prospect is good for a peaceful settlement of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The reality though may be different.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has already repeated his old, absurd demand that the new Palestinian President must first end "Palestinian violence" in order for the peace process to be resumed. Notably, the road-map calls on both sides to stop violence against one another - a condition Israel has continued to violate with impunity because of the Bush administration's blind support for it. It remains to be seen how Bush intends to deal with this basic issue now.
The Palestinian-Israeli conflict being the root cause of so much violence going on in the rest of the world, Bush must work towards a solution that is seen as just by the Palestinian side.
Abbas may be easy for the Americans and the Israelis to deal with, but when it comes to the 'final status' issues, on which there is a strong Palestinian consensus, even he is not expected to deviate from the position that Arafat took on them.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2005

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