WASHINGTON, September 3 (RIA Novosti) -It is too soon to assess the political realities in Gaza prior to a post-conflict scenario being established on the ground, said Hussein Ibish of the American Task Force on Palestine, commenting on a recent Palestinian opinion poll showing majority support for Hamas.
“We’re still in a period of time where the real questions have not been asked yet, and the costs have not been counted. We don’t even have a post-conflict scenario exactly that has arisen,” Ibish told RIA Novosti.
He also said, that the real question now is who gets blamed and who gets credit for the current situation in Gaza, noting that these questions are very subjective, as “perception is reality in the political world.”
It has only been one week since the violence in Gaza and the West Bank stopped under the Egyptian-brokered ceasefire. And according to Ibish, an expert in Middle East affairs, it will take weeks for the situation in Gaza to become clear and even longer for the public to process it. “It’s not after the immediate aftermath, but the medium term in which the really difficult questions start to get asked,” he explained, adding that it would be wiser “to give the reality a chance to breathe and play itself out.”
The opinion poll results, released by The Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research on Tuesday, show that 61 percent of Palestinians would choose the Islamic militant group’s leader, Ismail Haniyeh, for president if elections were held today. The poll noted that those numbers could possibly change in the coming months, as it has following previous wars.
More than 2,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have lost their lives to the conflict in Gaza since the beginning of Israel’s Operation Protective Edge against the Hamas movement on July 8. Israeli death toll stands at 72 people – 65 soldiers and 7 civilians.
On August 26, Israel and Palestine agreed on an open-ended ceasefire.
