Hamas launches new TV-station

On sunday, the new TV-station al Aqsa started broadcasting from an undisclosed location in Gaza. The station is the mouthpiece of Hamas.It will focus on themes that project the religious and sociopolitical vision of the group and their perspective on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The group is planning for the future satelite launching of the station. 18 month´s ago, the Hamas radio station in Gaza was rocketed by the Israeli army. The launching of the station comes as the Palestineans are preparing for parliamentary elections on 25th of January ,which Hamas will contest for the first time, and just five months after Israels unilateral withdrawal from the Hamas heartland of Gaza.Hamas have had quite a successful local election campaign prior to the parliamentary elections.

In another development it now seems the Jerusalemites might be able to vote. The Israeli government had threatened, not to let the palestinean voters of Jerusalem participate due to Hamas taking part.

The Israelis will go to the polls in their own parliamentary elections in late March in an election that seemed rather predictable when the Prime minister Ariel Sharon announced that he was leaving the Likud and creating a new party, Kadima(forward), aiming to win the middleground of Israeli politics. The party was the creation of Sharon and it´s supposed constituency, the silent majority, wanting a settlement of sorts, with the Palestineans, but not trusting them enough after five years of the second intifada. The bulldozer´s popularity seemed sufficient enough for Kadima to win the elections, but without Sharon in the game, it´s a different election altogheter. If violence and counter violence continues to be the norm in the prelude and during the election campaign, Bibi Nethanyahu could end up as the victor, and could start his second term in office in early spring 2006.

Hamas