KEEPING THEM TOO BUSY TO HATE:

Hamas Is Facing a Money Crisis; Aid May Be Cut (STEVEN ERLANGER, 1/28/06, NY Times)

Hamas leaders, savoring their landslide victory in Palestinian elections, faced an array of threats on Friday: a huge government deficit, a likely cutoff of most aid, international ostracism and the rage of defeated and armed Fatah militants.

Of the many questions that the Hamas victory presents, the need to pay basic bills and salaries to Palestinians is perhaps the most pressing. The Palestinian Authority is functionally bankrupt, with a deficit of $69 million for January alone.

First you have to make the trains run on time....

MORE:
In One Village, Anger and a Hunger for Change (IAN FISHER, 1/28/06, NY Times)

It is not hard to find Palestinians here who see the victory of Hamas as the triumph of resistance and of the group's longstanding vow to drive Israel into the sea.

But here, at least with the radical Islamic party's sweep of the Palestinian parliament still fresh, the talk turned more to responsibility — to improve the lives of Palestinians, even if that means Hamas has to moderate itself and, someday, to negotiate with Israel.

From interviews in this village — neither poor nor rich, with deep ties to Fatah but also much sympathy for Hamas — the bottom line seemed to be this: Exhaustion with Fatah's perceived corruption and incompetence, along with the hope that Hamas, known by Israelis for terror but by Palestinians for charity, might actually deliver change.

"Resistance is the second stage," Nazieh Barghouti, 67, an accountant, insisted Friday, amid celebrations with no concern for the rain and cold. "But the main stage is to arrange the house of Palestine."

Posted by Orrin Judd at January 28, 2006 9:43 AM