Brit Tzedek v’Shalom

Jewish Alliance for Justice and Peace

Haaretz
By Arnon Regular

April 26, 2006

Although Hamas’ popularity has risen in the first two months since its late January parliamentary victory, three-quarters of Palestinians want negotiations with Israel, leading pollster Khalil Shakaki has found.

In a poll conducted March 16-18, Shakaki found that 47 percent of the 1,270 respondents in the West Bank and Gaza Strip said they would bring Hamas to power again if elections were held a second time. However, 75 percent said they want Hamas to hold negotiations with Israel.

Hamas, meanwhile, issued an official announcement on Tuesday denying repeated Jordanian accusations that it had sent activists to Jordan to carry out a terror attack.

Jordanian government spokesman Nasser Joura said on Tuesday that a Hamas activist arrested by Jordanian authorities led security forces to a cache of rockets and explosives in the north of the country. Jordan announced last week that it had arrested Hamas activists who were instructed by Hamas headquarters in Damascus to attack Jordanian facilities and officials.

Hamas said on Tuesday that Jordan was citing “unfounded evidence,” and that it has never planned to carry out terror attacks on Jordanian territory.

“Jordan’s new announcement about capturing the storehouse of weapons and explosives is not completely correct, and is contrary to Hamas policy, which has always been limited to activities against the Zionist entity in Palestine,” Hamas said in a statement.

“The Jordanian position is part of a local and regional propaganda campaign to isolate the elected Palestinian government and force it to change its positions in accordance with the Zionist and American conditions. All such efforts will only strengthen the determination of Hamas to maintain its principles,” the group said.