News Service from House Harris

MID: War-weary Gazans put little hope in Israeli vote

GAZA CITY, Feb 10 AFP - From their besieged enclave left in ruins by three weeks of massive Israeli bombing, Gazans are watching the Jewish state's vote with little hope the ballot will improve their lot.

"Netanyahu, Livni or Barak? They all say they want peace, but they are all liars," said policeman Abu Ahmed, a Kalashnikov resting on his knees, as he shared a plate of hummus with three colleagues at a grimy Gaza cafe on Tuesday.

"They all want war. All their declarations are nothing but political manoeuvres to assume power," he said, wearing the blue uniform of Hamas police.

"If they want confrontation, we are ready. We are not afraid," said another policeman, without looking up from the dish of mashed chickpeas.

The Israeli military hammered Gaza for 22 days in December and January, killing more than 1,300 people and causing massive destruction throughout the tiny Palestinian territory.

Israel said it launched the offensive in response to rocket fire from the enclave, now ruled by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) which is pledged to the destruction of the Jewish state.

The war swung much of the Israeli electorate to the right as security concerns shot to the top of the agenda, with ultra-nationalist Avigdor Lieberman making great strides with his vows to deal with Israel's enemies, including "disloyal" Israeli Arabs, with an iron fist.

Lieberman's Yisrael Beitenu party was predicted by opinion surveys to become the third-largest in parliament, nudging out centre-right Labour that has been a pillar of Israeli parliaments since the Jewish state was founded in 1948.

As far as Gazans are concerned, Israeli candidates are outbidding each other at the expense of the impoverished enclave that they have kept closed to all but essential humanitarian goods since Hamas took power a year and a half ago.

"This election is taking place bathed in Palestinian blood and its only aim is Israel's security," Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum said on a local radio station during a programme devoted to the Israeli election.

Israel pulled its troops and settlers out of Gaza in 2005 after 38 years of occupation but retains control of its borders, airspace and territorial waters.

"Whoever wins these elections will not do anything to resolve the conflict," said Abu Ibrahim, 47, a spice seller in Gaza's Firas market.

"Jews don't want peace. They have proven this for 60 years," he said. "The solution is here, between us, between the government of Hamas and the one in Ramallah."

He was referring to the cabinet of Western-backed Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, whose Fatah party has been deeply at odds with Hamas since the Islamists booted its forces out of Gaza in deadly street clashes in June 2007.

His neighbour, Khaled al-Ghul, agreed. "The Jews have but one goal -- to battle against Islam."

Said Abu Ibrahim: "Our sole solution is a government of national unity that will allow for the opening of border crossings and the lifting of the siege."

"All the candidates, they're all the same. And those who want to bring about peace are killed -- look at Yitzhak Rabin," said Ashraf Komi, 40, referring to the Israeli premier who signed the Oslo accords with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and was killed by a Jewish extremist in 1995.

In a comment posted on its website, Hamas said that "all the Zionist parties have launched into a frenetic race, each wanting to show that it is more bloody, more extremist and more repressive in regard to the Palestinians."