Abbas popularity at all time low.

[Andy Bowden]

http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/article.php?pg=11&ar=1135

Democracy triumphant as Americans pick another winner

Abbas's popularity at its lowest ebb

07.04.2007 | Palestinian Information Center (PIC)

RAMALLAH, (PIC)-- An opinion poll conducted by the Palestinian Al-Quds newspaper has shown that PA chief Mahmoud Abbas's popularity was at its lowest ebb, with only 13.47% voting for him as president if elections were held now.

The poll further said that if an honest election process was held Ismail Haneyya, premier of the caretaker government, would win 51.47% of the votes, which is 38% more than Abbas.

The poll further indicated that Marwan Al-Barghouthi, a detained Fatah leader in Israeli jails, would only get 12.16% of the votes while Dr. Mustafah Al-Barghouthi, leader of the National Initiative party, would only get 5.93% of the total votes.

It further showed that Salam Fayyad, the premier of the so-called emergency government, would win the least of votes with 4.93%.

The paper is closely associated with the Fatah faction and the PA presidency.

***

Unsurprising to see Fatah's Abbas do so badly, but would have expected Barghoutis % to be higher. What position has he taken on Fatahs coup?

[Revolution Until Victory]

strange.
I mean, you would defenatly expect a collaborater to not have any popularity. It is an insult for a colonized people if they favor a US-Zionist collaborater, but I have seen other polls that say the popularity of BOTH Hanneya AND Abbas are very low.
that's the first one I see were Hanneya got a higher percentage.
and true, Barghuti got a very low percentage in that poll. Obviously, as a al Fatah member, he refused what Hamas did in Gaza, but he still got some popularity among the Palestinians.

[MYSTIC OWL]

FATAH has not an ounce of credibility left amongst the Pelestinian populace.

They can't govern, they can't organise, they can't fight, they can't negotiate, they've sold out their people and betrayed their ideals.

And guess what . . . the Palestinians want to see them gone!!

Is anyone surprised?

The final nail in Mahmood Abbas's coffin was driven in as he welcomed the new peace envoy for the Quartet powers (ST) Tony Blair :angry:

Nothing indicates the totally fucked up condition of Fatah than the fact that an international war criminal arrives to lecture the Palestinian Authority on building democratic institutions that have credibility with the people :lol:

Satire is dead !! :lol:

But, the suffering of the people continues . . . :(

[Severian]

Dude, turns out this is just a web-poll on the website of this newspaper:

www.alquds.com and http://www.alquds.com/apolls1.php?id=42&optxx=2

Use google translate if you need it.

The source of this myth has since partly changed it:
Palestine Information Center (http://www.palestine-info.com/en/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi 1s7PQH%2fM%2fC9mtUI92S4irvQ8%2fW4Kbubzt6UczpbKVwEe fJFFLyN4cYICAxWU%2fcKx2aig6qsQURAW2WORnazko4GUv0HC 2bXP2iPjUrVwnZxFLM%3d), :


RAMALLAH, (PIC)-- An opinion poll conducted by the website of the Palestinian Al-Quds newspaper has shown that PA chief Mahmoud Abbas's popularity was at its lowest ebb with only 13.47% voting for him as president if elections were held now

Emphasis added. They should do a full retraction, of course. I've e-mailed them, don't expect much.

Every scientific poll - says the opposite. As Revolution Until Victory Says.

Not that Abbas is super-popular, but that he'd win an election against Hamas. Or Barghouti even more so. And that both sides are blamed for the dead-end factional fighting - with Hamas especially losing support. Perhaps many Palestinians had already lost illusions in Fatah, with some only now losing illusions in Hamas?

For example (http://www.pcpsr.org/survey/polls/2007/p24e1.html)

Or (http://www.amin.org/look/amin/en.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=7&NrArticle=41430&NrIssue=1&NrSection=3)

Or (http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/882022.html)


The Palestine Info Center, and other sites who've naively picked up its article, are trying to draw big conclusions from a totally unscientific website poll that is contradicted by the results of every scientific poll of Palestinians. It's as if someone tried to draw real-world conclusions from one of the polls in Chit-Chat on this site.

It's a monument to wishful thinking that so many people are willing to believe this. Of course, why some Western leftists want so hard to believe that Palestinians will continue voting for Islamic fundamentalist reactionaries, I don't know.

Personally, I'm heartened that Palestinians basically know that with Fatah and Hamas, they're only choosing the lesser of two evils, and aren't too attached to either. I'd be more heartened if more Palestinians were supporting some progressive alternative to both, of course.

Bet it'd be a lot harder to stop this bit of mythology from circulating around the web than it was to start it. Anyone who wants to point this out to sites carrying the PIC article is welcome to, of course.

Oh, man. Google shows two websites with the old version of the article and 159 with the new version.

And looks like the PIC has locked comments on its page with the article, keeping anyone from refuting the myth at its source. One blog with the article already has a comment refuting it, basically pointing out what I have....I only checked those, plus Finkelstein's site. Which doesn't take comments.

[Andy Bowden]

I was surprised to see Hamas do so well (in the poll on Finkelsteins site), given that there is little public protest against what was a pretty obvious coup d'etat by Fatah. I can imagine many Palestinians in the street will be pissed off, to say the least, with the lack of unity in the face of occupation.

But I was more surprised to see (in those polls Severian posted) to see Fatah have a convincing lead over Hamas - has the corruption and lack of progress regarding settlements etc been forgotten already? Or maybe it is just seen as a lesser evil in the face of crippling sanctions.

Why has Hamas' support spiralled downwards so rapidly? Then again I suppose its important to remember that Hamas' share of the popular vote was far smaller than the number of MPs they had over Fatah.


Personally, I'm heartened that Palestinians basically know that with Fatah and Hamas, they're only choosing the lesser of two evils, and aren't too attached to either. I'd be more heartened if more Palestinians were supporting some progressive alternative to both, of course.

Would strongly agree with the need for a progressive alternative to both, but is there any obvious quarters it would come from? The best I can think of is Barghouti.