The fruit of the sacrifices

Ehud Olmert is tired and Shimon Peres is not afraid of Hamas. As we await the Israeli election results, let's see what Hamas is up to.

GAZA (Reuters) - A Hamas-dominated Palestinian parliament approved the Islamic militant group's cabinet and program on Tuesday, clearing the way for it to take control of the government two months after its shock election victory.

Chanting [that their] "God is Greatest" after the 71-to-36 vote, Hamas lawmakers hugged and kissed a teary-eyed Ismail Haniyeh, the incoming Palestinian prime minister, who vowed not to abandon the fight against Israel.

"The Koran is our constitution, Jihad is our way, and death for the sake of [Allah] is our highest aspiration," Hamas lawmaker Hamed Bitawi said.

Tens of thousands of Hamas supporters later poured onto the streets of the Gaza Strip in celebratory rallies.

"We cannot recognize Israel," Hamas's newly-approved Minister of Information, Youssef Rizka, told one cheering crowd. "The land of Palestine is ours and not for the Jews."

.... Haniyeh said: "We were born from the womb of resistance, we will protect resistance and the arm of resistance will not be touched."

Addressing Mariam Farhat, a newly-elected Hamas lawmaker whose three sons died fighting Israel, Haniyeh said:

"This is the fruit of the sacrifices by martyrs, including your sons.
You've got to be proud of this day."

Olmert said in his (2005) "tired speech" that he prayed that "a new morning of great hope will emerge in our part of the world" when, a month after the disengagement, "all Israelis will be resettled inside the State of Israel and the Gaza District will be sovereign entirely by the Palestinians."

Against this backdrop, let me tell us a true story. I have a friend who lives in Jerusalem. Her mother and her mother's sister survived Auschwitz, unlike most of their other siblings. After the Holocaust, my friend's mother moved to America and the sister moved to Israel, to the Sinai. In 1982, the aunt's family was expelled from Yamit by the Israeli government so that Israel could hand over the Sinai to Egypt, Jew-free, in exchange for a peace treaty. They then settled in Gush Katif. My friend's aunt, uncle, cousins and cousin's children were forcibly removed from Gush Katif last summer. Seven months later, they are still living in a hotel. Now the hotel wants them out by Pesach, because the government doesn't want to pay the higher Passover holiday rates. Their caravilla is not ready; it has no electricity, no plumbing. They have nowhere to go.

I was going to try to tie this all together with some clever comment about the fruit of sacrifices, but I can't. Israeli TV news is reporting on exit polls and predicting a Kadima win. YNetNews.com:

Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told associates that the exit polls were "a big victory for those who put the disengagement plan before a national consensus, over those who wished to see the elections as a rejection of the disengagement."

Voter turnout is reported to have reached 63.2 percent. The people have spoken. And all I can think of is Mariam Farhat, enjoying the fruit of her sacrifices.