Abbas Reacts To New Hamas Palestinian Parliament

THE PHOTO SAYS IT ALL REALLY! In this case we have a shot of how Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas reacts during the swearing-in of the new Palestinian parliament at the Palestinian Authority headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah February 18, 2006.

Hamas took over as the dominant party in the Palestinian parliament on Saturday and President Mahmoud Abbas challenged the militant Islamist group to recognise peace deals with Israel and maintain a truce.

It remains to be seen how a previously militant and deadly group can adapt to the political process, but there sure are a lot of nervous people in Israel at the moment as a result of this election surprise. From the reaction in this photo it’s clear that most people expect this election result to lead to complete political disaster, but sometimes extraordinary things can happen in such circumstances.

We will continue to watch this story as it progresses, but I just thought the photo said it all, and was worth republishing here as today marks the milestone date when Hamas officially took control.