Great news out of Palestine. With the recent Israeli pullout from Gaza, Hamas tried to capitalize on the movement. I thought they actually had done so and would garner many more votes than it appears they have.

According to the Jerusalem Post:

Final results Friday showed the Fatah movement of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas making an unexpectedly strong showing against key rival Hamas in local elections in dozens of West Bank towns and villages, with 54 percent of the vote compared to Hamas’ 26%.

Though the elections were mostly about local issues such as roads and water, Fatah’s showing was in line with a recent rise in support for the party following Israel’s pullout from the Gaza Strip.

Faced with early results showing a worse-than-expected outcome, the Hamas complained that many of its candidates were detained by Israeli troops before Thursday’s election.

Hamas still received votes, but that is to be expected. What is surprising is how well Fatah did in comparison to what the role of Hamas in Palestine is and how they have played the Palestinian people to their own agendas. All politicians do bend and tweak people’s viewpoints to their own, but Hamas takes it quite a large step further by advancing their viewpoints based upon their religion of convert or kill.

While I have not seen any evidence the PA will restrict the radical Islamic groups in Palestine, they have a far better chance at doing so under Fatah than Hamas.