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?Israel in deep trouble? if Hamas wins

Shin Bet paints bleak picture of what Islamist group?s victory portends


By Stan Goodenough
January 04, 2006

Stating what many observers might have called the blatantly obvious, General Security Services (Shin Bet) chief Yuval Diskin warned Tuesday that a victory for the increasingly popular ?Palestinian? terrorist organization Hamas in the January 25 PA elections would spell ?deep trouble? for Israel.

Addressing the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee (FADC), Diskin said an overall win or even a strong showing would position Hamas to insert its terrorist operatives inside the Palestinian security services and work from within to block any post-election efforts ? if they are even forthcoming ? to disarm the group.

Hamas, which adheres to a stringently Islamist agenda and remains fully committed to the destruction of Israel, would also be able to make a deep and long lasting impact on the education of ?Palestinian? children.

?Israel will be in deep trouble if Hamas wins the elections for the Palestinian Legislative Council or if it scores a significant achievement,? Diskin said.  ?They will penetrate [Palestinian] government offices, and bolster their grip on the territory.?

In response, FADC Chairman Yuval Steinitz said Diskin had painted a ?bleak? picture. A powerful Hamas performance would confront Israel with a situation in which the terror group would share equal control over the ?Palestinian? parliament.

Last month, outgoing chief of Israel?s Military Intelligence had warned that the Gaza Strip was on the way to becoming ?Hamastan? while Samaria and Judea (the ?West Bank?) looked like turning into ?Fatahstan? after the elections.

Since then, the Fatah group, in which PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas is a senior leader, has descended into turmoil and in-fighting that has split its supporters between those who will vote for the ?old guard? and those who will stand with the younger generation of leaders.

Meanwhile, Hamas unexpectedly won a rash of municipal elections in Samaria and Judea, leaving analysts wondering if it won?t end up trouncing Fatah after all.

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