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Page 2 of 2 AMY GOODMAN: What do you think happened, this surprising landslide for Hamas? Were you surprised?  JAMAL DAJANI: I was surprised that they won by a landslide. I was not surprised that they were going to show a major showing. I thought maybe it might be 50%, 40%, something like that. And I can talk about a myriad of factors, but -- and people, you know, you always listen about the corruption factor. Yes, that was an important issue, that the Palestinian National Authority was very corrupt. You hear about ministers that were in the education system, with very limited salaries, owning cement factories and manufacturing plants, and so forth. And then, of course, you cannot ignore the good job that Hamas did campaigning, campaigning on reform. They stayed with their message, while the Fatah were bickering amongst themselves and did not stay focused. Also, you know, the absence of Arafat, there was no symbol; Abu Mazen is not Arafat. He could not unite Fatah behind him and lead them to the promised land. But the most important thing for the Palestinians was the failure of Oslo. You know, since Oslo, Palestinians' lives have not improved. They have been living under subhuman conditions. And Hamas promised them a change, promised them reform. And at the end of the day, when people are desperate, they turn towards God, and Hamas presents that for them. AMY GOODMAN: And when you say Oslo, for people who are not familiar with the Oslo so-called peace process, the peace accord? JAMAL DAJANI: Yes, I mean Oslo promised that there's going to be a Palestinian state, promised the end of settlements. It did not promise an apartheid wall to be constructed on Palestinian territory. It promised jobs, it promised change. And since then, the situation has deteriorated. It has deteriorated terribly for Palestinians. I go back and forth to Palestine, you know, to the Occupied Territories. I go to Gaza. And every year I go back, things have gotten worse. AMY GOODMAN: We're talking to Jamal Dajani, who is the editor of Middle East Programming here at Link TV and does the program MOSAIC, the award-winning program MOSAIC. The response of the Bush administration, President Bush holds a news conference yesterday, and yes, he criticized Hamas, but he also said that this is the result of democracy. JAMAL DAJANI: Yes, because, I mean, people in the Middle East are watching this very carefully, and they're always saying the word "hypocrisy" when it comes to the United States. Now, you want to see democracy on the march in the Middle East. These are the results. There might be some results that you don't appreciate, you don't like, but for the U.S. administration to come now and say, ‘Let's nullify the elections,’ a lot of people are watching this very carefully. And we might have a violent reaction to it. AMY GOODMAN: One last question, and it relates to Iran right now and the whole nuclear issue. How is the Arab media covering what's happening in Iran? JAMAL DAJANI: Actually, I wrote an article about this issue. And the issue deals with both the Iranian nuclear file and the Israeli nuclear file. Arabs feel now they are caught in the middle. They are caught between a nuclear Israel and Iran. And remember one thing, Arabs were involved in bloody wars, not only with Israel, but also with Iran. You know, the Iran-Iraq War, one million people were lost, over $1 trillion were spent. The Iranians were attacked by chemical weapons, by Iraq. So they feel that there is a major fear that at some point Iran can cause a major catastrophe in the Middle East. AMY GOODMAN: Jamal Dajani, I want to thank you very much for being with us, Director of Middle East Programming here at Link TV, where we're broadcasting from in San Francisco. Thank you. Recommend this article...
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