I’m guessing no.

Asked if a Hamas-run cabinet would negotiate with Israel, Zahar said even prior to his movement’s victory there had been no movement toward peace and, therefore, there was no point in holding a dialogue at this time.

“We have no peace process,” he said. “We are not going to mislead our people to tell them we are waiting, meeting, for a peace process that is nothing.”

You know how when guys are young, they greet each other with a punch? (Yeah, I know, girls, I never understood it, either.)

What’s the grown-up equivalent of that punch?

Two thousand soon-to-be-unemployed Fatah members are rioting across Gaza–even in front of Mahmoud Abbas’ house. And the AP headlines its story thus:

Thousands of Fatah Members Protest in Gaza
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) - Thousands of activists from Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah Party rallied across the Gaza Strip on Friday, burning abandoned cars, shooting in the air and demanding corrupt leaders resign after their devastating election loss to the militant Hamas movement.

Sounds like rioting to me.

On Friday night, thousands of Fatah activists burned cars and shot in the air in demonstrations demanding the resignation of corrupt party officials and insisting that Fatah form no coalition with Hamas.

Yep, still rioting.

Perhaps they can blame it on the Muslim “youths” of France. No, wait, then they’d have to call it a riot.

This is why the AP has its very own category on my blog: AP Media Bias.

Update: Oh, this is even more precious. An earlier version of this headline is “Fatah Members Rally Against Corruption.”

Yes, because the corrupt members of Fatah would almost certainly rally against their own corruption. The AP should have a new motto: “We’re always good for a laugh.”

Wow. Just when I think the AP can’t get any dumber, they surprise me. Get a load of this drek put forth as analysis of what Hamas’ position on Israel is:

JERUSALEM (AP) - Islamic Hamas militants who swept the Palestinian parliamentary election have a clear domestic agenda: purging government corruption and restoring order to lawless streets. But they are much murkier when it comes to explaining how they’ll deal with a Jewish state whose existence they reject - but cannot ignore.

“What their real agenda is I can’t say,” said Palestinian lawmaker Hanan Ashrawi, a former Fatah legislator re-elected to parliament on a small party list. “I don’t think they have it fully formulated.

“We know what they say, they want all of Palestine (including Israel) and say that negotiations did not work,” Ashrawi said. “They talk about wanting reform. That doesn’t mean they will do it.”

Funny, that sounds like a real agenda to me.

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Today is the 61st anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. You know, the camp that didn’t exist, and the Jews that weren’t prisoners there, according to the heir to the Nazis, the current president of Iran (known here and at Israellycool as Gorilla Boy).

One of the things that struck me as the most evil and contemptible of everything the Nazis did was their attempt to murder all the remaining Jews rather than let them be rescued. 60,000 Jews from Auschwitz went on the death march. More than a quarter of them died.

Read Elie Weisel’s “Night.” It’s been recently re-translated and re-issued.

Someone should send a copy to Gorilla Boy. Not that it would do any good.

Today’s main editorial in the Washington Post concludes with a hard-line stance on Hamas’ involvement in the PA:

The Islamists no doubt will seek to construct a coalition that could continue to attract international aid — without which the Palestinian Authority would collapse — while evading compromises on Hamas’s militia or ideology.

Even if Fatah consents to this strategy, Western governments should not. Instead, they should stick to the principle already articulated by the so-called Quartet of peace process sponsors, which includes the European Union, the United Nations and Russia, as well as the Bush administration: that “a future Palestinian Authority cabinet should include no member who has not committed to the principles of Israel’s right to exist in peace and security and an unequivocal end to violence and terrorism.” If Hamas will not meet that condition, then it should be condemned to governing Gaza and the West Bank in diplomatic isolation, without European, U.S. or World Bank aid. The Islamists must be forced to choose between democracy and terrorism; between their ideology and the yearning of Palestinians for security, good government and a state of their own.

Fine. I will take them at their word, and leave this here for future reference–to return to when the WaPo starts saying that Hamas has “reformed” and it’s time to deal with the “democratically elected” government of the palestinians.

There’s plenty of blame to go around. Really. The WaPo found someone to blame Bush–Edward G. Abington Jr., a “consultant to the Palestinian Authority” (and what, one wonders, does he consult on? How to rename terrorism “resistance”?).

Abington said the Bush administration shares responsibility for the outcome because U.S. officials did little to help Abbas or to push the Israeli government to end settlement expansion, limit roadblocks, release prisoners or stop other activities that undermined his authority in the eyes of the Palestinian people. He said the result is a “huge blow to Bush’s advocacy of democracy in the Middle East” because Arab leaders fearful of Islamic victories in their countries will “push back very hard.”

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The Times is in fine fettle this morning, with an editorial that pretends to blame Fatah and Abbas for the Hamas upset. But they know who the real villain in the piece is:

Israeli hard-liners can blame themselves as well. Even though most reasonable people have recognized Mr. Abbas as a far more pragmatic negotiating partner than Yasir Arafat was, Prime Minister Sharon failed to give Mr. Abbas any concession that he could point to as an achievement. Instead, Israel has busied itself with carrying out Mr. Sharon’s doctrine of unilateral separation from the Palestinians, a doctrine that is sure to gain more favor now that the Palestinians have chosen Hamas.

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