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Local Jews express dismay over (Hamas) results
Friday, January 27, 2006
By PAUL BRUBAKER
HERALD NEWS
PASSAIC - When Nechama Samuels came to the Kosher Konnection supermarket on
Thursday, the results of the first Palestinian election in more than a decade
weren't on her mind.
But when she learned that Hamas had won an overwhelming majority in the
Palestinian Parliament, Samuels' feelings were intense about the Islamic
fundamentalist group's rise to political power.
"All they stand for is the eradication of Israel," said the 31-year-old Samuels,
whose infant daughter, Esther Malka, was cradled in the shopping cart. Her
3-year-old, Tzipora, played with some cheese from the refrigerated case on aisle
five.
On Thursday, from Main Avenue stores to American Jewish organizations, reactions
to the militant faction's overwhelming plurality ranged from visceral to
analytical.
"It's disconcerting that an organization like Hamas can be given political
power," Samuels said. The face that they give to the world may seem clean and
civilized, but all they care about is pushing all the Jews into the sea."
Tzvi Maller, 34, a devout Jew from Teaneck, who was at the checkout counter,
played off the news by turning to his faith.
"I guess you could say God is putting us in a corner. We've got to do our work -
living by the Torah, mitzvahs," he said. "By living according to the faith,
everything should fall into place."
Arlene Resnick, another shopper at the store in the Passaic Park section of the
city, had a simple response to the Hamas takeover.
"It's going to be more violence and no peace," she said simply.
"It's as if the last 12 years of the Oslo (peace) process have been erased in a
certain way," said Yehudit Barsky, director of the American Jewish Committee's
Middle East and International Terrorism Division.
In the 1993 Oslo Accords, the Palestinian Liberation Organization recognized
Israel's right to exist.
Both Arab and Jewish groups cited widespread corruption within Fatah, which
became the PLO's representative party, as a major factor is Hamas' landslide
victory.
Barsky said that led him to conclude that ballots were cast in protest of Fatah
more than in favor of Hamas.
But Leonard Cole, an adjunct professor of terrorism at Rutgers University and
past president of the UJA Federation of New Jersey, said voters supporting Hamas
turned a blind eye to the group's insurgent past.
"The record it (Hamas) had demonstrated by way of supporting and engaging in
suicide terrorism and killing, was not sufficiently an obstacle to that
individual's thinking when he went to the polls," Cole said.
To Paul S. Miller of Livingston, president of the American Jewish Congress, the
election marked the end of the peace process in the region.
"The only thing left is for Israel to unilaterally protect the security of the
people," he said, "which would mean that Israel must complete the security
barrier (on the West Bank), must unilaterally separate, and cannot negotiate a
peace treaty."
Meanwhile, Aref Assaf,
president of the American Arab Forum, said he hoped people would not rush to
judge the new Palestinian leadership.
"The message of Palestinians has always been to work out a peaceful
settlement with the Israelis on the basis of a two-state solution," Assaf said.
"While the political past of Hamas differs from that, now that they are in
charge, they have to fulfill the expectations of the general Palestinian
populous," he added. "They will have to be more moderate and do away with
militaristic rhetoric, and also understand that there is an international
community that they have to be concerned about."
But Hamas in moderation was a concept that held little credibility with some
local Jewish residents.
"These people are ruthless, fearless," said Ted Cohen, 40, a Passaic
businessman.
"Their whole intention is to hurt innocent people to get what they want."
And what about a possible peace process with the new Palestinian majority?
"There's no such thing as a peace process. It's either peace or no peace," Cohen
said.
"You can't make peace with a murderer."
Staff writer Jessica Adler |contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2006 North Jersey Media Group Inc. |
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