Hamas is gaining in popularity while Palestinian Authority PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas is losing support, according to the latest poll carried out by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research.
De facto Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh’s 40 percent support represents a gain of more than 10 percent from the level of support recorded last August, while backing for Abbas has dropped by almost the same percentage, from 54 percent to 50 percent. If elections were held in Judea, Samaria and Gaza today, Abbas would defeat Haniyeh, but 10 percent of the respondents to the poll said they are undecided.
Abbas won the first and only PA election in 2005 with slightly more than 62 percent of the voters backing him. Then-U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had encouraged PA elections as an exercise in democracy but was shocked by Hamas’ victory in the 2006 legislative vote, despite Abbas’s victory as chairman in 2005.
The United States has promoted Abbas, leader of the Fatah party, as a moderate and has claimed that a growing Arab economy in Judea and Samaria and the implementation of an armed PA security force would boost his support.
Israeli military officials have repeatedly stated that the relative calm in Judea and Samaria is due to Israeli intelligence efforts and daily arrests of wanted terrorists and occasional counterterrorist maneuvers.
The PA officially is responsible for halting terror in areas where its growing armed forces patrol, but the IDF has carried out most operations resulting in the capture of major terrorists in PA cities.
Abbas previously promised new elections as far back as a year ago but has postponed a vote, mainly due to the split with Hamas, which charges that he is now in office illegally because his term of office has expired.