Thousands take to streets after Hamas victory: Fatah demand Abbas resign

[DeepModem Mom]

CNN: Thousands take to streets after Hamas victory
Angry Fatah members demand Abbas resign
Friday, January 27, 2006


GAZA CITY (CNN) -- A mob of up to 2,000 furious Fatah supporters took to the streets Friday, burning cars, firing guns and demanding the resignation of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas after the militant group Hamas trounced their party in parliamentary elections.

Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president, was in the West Bank, where he called on Hamas to form a new government after its election landslide snatched power this week from Fatah's ruling old guard.

Waving yellow Fatah flags in the flickering light of bonfires, protesters swarmed around Abbas' home in Gaza City, where they shot in the air and accused him of being a "collaborator" with Israel.

"We don't want to join the Hamas government!" demonstrators chanted, according to The Associated Press. "We don't want corrupt leadership! We want reform, and we want to fire all the corrupt!"

The crowd moved to nearby Palestinian legislative buildings, where protesters set a van on fire and scaled walls, trying to force their way into the compound. Demonstrators outnumbered uniformed police on the scene....


http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/01/27/palestinian.election/index.html

[channa18]

Hamas, Fatah gunmen battle over election results

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060127/ts_nm/mideast_dc


Hamas and Fatah gunmen exchanged fire on Friday amid political turmoil as the long-dominant Fatah faction was threatened with a violent backlash from within after its crushing election defeat by the Islamic militant group.

Hamas, whose shock parliamentary election victory changed the face of Palestinian politics and plunged Middle East peacemaking deeper in limbo, said it would hold talks soon with President Mahmoud Abbas on a "political partnership." But Fatah leaders have rejected a coalition with Hamas.

The United States said it will review funding to the aid-dependent Palestinians if Hamas enters government and Israel suggested it could suspend customs revenue transfers, adding economic uncertainty to the political upheaval.

Some 20,000 Fatah supporters took to the streets in angry protests across the Gaza Strip, burning cars outside the Palestinian parliament building and firing rifles in the air. Some Hamas posters were ripped down by the crowd, which burned tires in the streets.

[varkam]

1. Ahhh, democracy in the middle east...

it's a thing of beauty.

[Journeyman]

4. Yeah, I remember when Tom Jefferson burned John Adams coach. . .

and George Washington threw rocks at Patrick Henry. . . the violent backlash against the first Congress and the gunfire that rang out in Independence Hall, spurred by the angry mobs that swelled the streets and swore to keep their adversaries from taking their legitimately won seats. . . while France went in a snit and swore to oppose any government in the New World that dared to seat a government it didn't like. . .

Yeah, I remember all these scenes, and more -- and you would too if you just took our Pretzeldent's beliefs to heart, shut off reason and the power of thought, and convinced yourself that Democracy is Democracy and an election is the sole determinant of who is a "free" people.

[pelsar]

5. good point..

democracy is far more then "mere elections" its the rule of law, its civil rights, it responsability for ones actions....all of what are missing within the palestenian society today.....

[Behind the Aegis]

2. Civil War?

[Journeyman]

6. Maybe multiple Civil Wars is George W's plan all along. . .

Kind of hard for nations to attack other nations when they're consumed with infighting. So yeah, maybe this is all part of a brilliant plan by George W., a sure-fire way to "protect the US" by getting everyone else so wrapped up with killing each other they won't have the time or the energy to so much as think about us. Yeah. Maybe he's smarter than we believe. Or maybe I'm just too tired to be at this keyboard. . .

[channa18]

3. Think of the new Hamastan like a new younger Iran......

only a little more reactionary.