Lies, damned lies, and palestinian spokesliars

Saab Erekat is whining to the world that the Israelis are going to interfere with palestinian elections in January.

WASHINGTON (AP) – Saeb Erekat, a senior Palestinian official, raised concerns Tuesday that Israel might try to sabotage Palestinian elections in January or even resort to assassination to upset balloting.

After talks at the White House and then with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the longtime associate of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat said thousands of monitors were needed to oversee the elections Jan. 25.

“We want the American administration to help us, to send as many observers as possible, people to help us in the training and making sure that the Israelis don’t sabotage or obstruct those elections,” he said in a doorway of the State Department after meeting with Rice.

Later, at a news conference at the Palestine Center, a half-mile from the department, Erekat referred a half-dozen times to the possibility of Israeli sabotage and twice to assassination.

“We want the United States to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with making sure elections take place … and to protect us from any Israeli effort to sabotage the elections with assassination,” he said.

In response to a reporter’s question, Erekat, who is a top Palestinian negotiator, said he did not have any evidence Israel was contemplating assassinations, but said Israel was refusing to cooperate in setting the stage for elections.

That’s a very interesting theory, especially as how he has absolutely no evidence for it. But here’s a group of people who actually are interfering with palestinian elections, and it’s funny, but Erekat didn’t say a word about them.

The Palestinians’ ruling Fatah Party halted its primary election across the Gaza Strip on Monday after angry gunmen shot in the air at several polling stations, stole some ballot boxes and destroyed others.

Fatah officials said the votes cast Monday would be nullified, and the primary would have to be rescheduled. The election violence highlighted the ongoing lawlessness in Gaza’s streets.

[…] Even before the new problems emerged, scheduled votes in Rafah and areas of central Gaza were postponed until Wednesday because of technical hitches, Fatah officials said.

In one station in eastern Khan Younis, about 15 armed gunmen came to vote. When they did not find their names on the registration list, they fired in the air, witnesses said.

Officials closed the polling station for about 45 minutes after the incident.

A similar incident in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun also forced the closing of a polling station there, officials said.

Could this be what is known as the Distraction Policy? Instead of discussing the palestinians’ inability to have free and fair elections, blame Israel for an election that hasn’t even happened yet?

Yes, those were rhetorical questions.