Following appeared in Jordan Times

By Daoud Kuttab

“The people have spoken, the voters have decided and I bow to the will of citizens and accept the election result.”

This sentence or a variation of it is often spoken to the press by candidates who lose elections, often after having made a congratulatory phone call to the winning candidates.

For the most part, however, accepting results and taking responsibility for what happened on election day did not happen after the elections for the 17th Parliament in Jordan. Most losing candidates spent their time making accusations or complaining of voting irregularities. Many encouraged their supporters to take to the streets and riot, often causing damage to public and private property, while the Independent Elections Commission had stated clearly that those losing have a chance to go to court to contest the results. Continue Reading »

Following appeared in Jordan times.

By Daoud Kuttab

Even before a single vote was counted and results announced, it was clear who were the main winners and losers. And for the most part, they were not the candidates.

The biggest winner in the Jordanian legislative elections was the state. It bargained on the public and the international community ignoring the absence of the Islamists in the elections.

Conversely, the Islamic Action Front and some of the small secular parties that joined the boycotters are the biggest losers. By calling for a boycott without being able to make it the main story of the elections, the Islamists overreached and failed. Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

The ambiguous results of the Israeli elections have left Palestinians with an attitude best embodied by the novel of the late Palestinian novelist Emile Habibi, a pessoptimist. Palestinians were dumbfounded by the unanticipated and unclear results, which have left them torn between feelings of optimism and pessimism.

There were plenty of reasons to be pessimistic, which is why expectations were low that the results would actually effect any sort of real change. Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

Despite claims to the contrary, the Palestinian reconciliation effort appears to have hit a snag of some sort. Publicly, both Fatah and Hamas leaders are insisting that the musalaha is going ahead and that a unified, agreed-to government will be declared by the end of the month. Senior Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzouk publicly stated that the Islamic movement accepts the Doha agreement concerning the next prime minister of the state of Palestine, who will be the current president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas. On the ground, statements coming out of Gaza suggest that the Central Elections Committee, which was stopped from work last summer, will be invited back next week. Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

During the past few decades, one can easily and accurately trace times in which world powers (especially the US) were able to influence a political process.

At least two Israeli elections come to mind: the victory of Labor’s Yitshaq Rabin replacing Yitshaq Shamir in the early 1990s and not long after that, the victory of Ehud Barak and the defeat of Benjamin Netanyahu. In both cases, the US was looking for a leader that could usher in a peace process and in both cases, they seem to have gotten what they want. This time around, the US seems to be interested in getting rid of Netanyahu but is unlikely to succeed.

There is no doubt that both Rabin and Barak, both decorated military leaders, are strong characters that don’t need the help of outsiders. Ironically, the current roster of contenders for the top position in the upcoming Israeli elections don’t have any army experience to speak of. Neither Netanyahu, Zipi Livni nor Shelly Yachimovich can compare militarily to either Rabin or Barak. Continue Reading »

Daoud Kuttab

When the leaders of the two conflicting Palestinian organizations meet in Cairo, they will have a long, hard set of problems to resolve. Some of these problems continue to exist between the two leaders, but the bigger problems exist between the leaders and their own radicals. This latter problem is more acute with Hamas whose Gaza-based leaders have often vetoed decisions made by Khaled Meshaal on the outside.

Both Mahmoud Abbas and Meshaal enter the current round of reconciliation talks from a position of strength and popular support. Abbas is carrying with him in Egypt two impressive winning cards. He succeeded in unifying the entire Palestinian population, including his Hamas rivals, in supporting the bid at the UN for Palestinian statehood. The leader of the Fatah movement also begins intensive talks with his movement having displaying an impressive public event in Gaza on Jan. 4. Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

Whenever I travel from Jordan to the state of Palestine, I have to use three different cell-phone devices, each with a different SIM card. I need to keep my regular Zain Jordanian cell and therefore I put it on phone roaming. But in Palestine I need to use two other cell phones.  Jawwal, the leading Palestinian cell company is a must whenever you are anywhere in Palestine; most people have Jawwal numbers and to ask them to call any other service provider would be a financial burden on them.  Palestine does have a second provider, wataniya, but this new provider doesn’t have the same agreement with Zain as Jawwal, which allows you to receive calls from Jordanian Zain subscribers when you are in Palestine without extra charge. Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

Despite the positive tone of the Abbas-Meshaal meetings in Cairo, it is safe to say that the long-awaited breakthrough in the Hamas-Fatah talks has not yet materialized. Maybe the best evidence for that failure lies in the fact that the two Palestinian leaders were not invited by the Egyptian president for a tripartite meeting.

Observers of the flow of the talks can look for three key areas that reflect whether the talks have produced the desired outcome of full Palestinian unity, and the return of a single governmental/security command structure for both the partially-liberated Gaza and the still-occupied West Bank. Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab
For a long time, Palestinians followed the Israeli elections very closely. They were aware of who was up, who was down, the platforms of every party in Israel and how each’s victory or loss could affect the coalition and the peace process.

Today in Palestine, there is no such interest — and it is not clear why. Is it because Palestinians see little difference between the various competing politicians? Is it because the peace process is not a major topic of discussion among Israelis, or simply that the media terrain has changed so much in the past few years? Continue Reading »

By Daoud Kuttab

While so-called leaders of the Palestinian resistance from Fatah and Hamas were traveling to Egypt to hold talks in five star hotels, another group of Palestinians were actually doing work worthy of the words “liberation and resistance.”