Ehud Ya’ari, writing in the June 27 edition of The Jerusalem Report:
The decision of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmud Abbas (Abu Mazen) to postpone the parliamentary elections scheduled for July 17 until November, and possibly even beyond, means that
Israel will be carrying out its disengagement plan without knowing the extent of Hamas’s political strength in the future administration of the Gaza Strip. . . . It is no doubt easier for Prime Minister Sharon to complete this complicated process when a degree of uncertainty obscures the question of who, in the end, will inherit Gush Katif and the other settlements of the Strip. The presidential decree putting off the parliamentary elections, issued by Abu Mazen on June 4, spares
Sharon the risk of appearing as if he is transferring territory — for absolutely nothing in return — straight into the hands of the camp that rejects the very principle of a peace deal. . . .
The fact is that Hamas, together with the "popular army" it is hectically building in the Gaza Strip, is already operating as a governing authority, in tandem with the weakened PA.
Khalil Shikaki, director of the Ramallah-based Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, interviewed by Bernard Gwertzman, consulting editor of www.cfr.org, on March 14, 2005:
What is the public attitude toward the Israeli plan to pull out of Gaza?
The evacuation of the settlements is viewed positively by the public, but it is seen as a victory for violence, not as something the Israelis are doing because they are nice. The public believes the Israelis are evacuating the settlements because Israel has been beaten in Gaza. . . .