When universities elect a student government, the election race usually involves debates about issues that, well, involve students: fees, food, libraries, etc. At Bir Zeit University in the West Bank, however, the election debate was all about who killed the most Israelis: Hamas or Fatah?

The San Francisco Chronicle reports:

The campaign for the student government council at Bir Zeit University near Ramallah featured exploding models of Israeli buses and claims of prowess based on Israeli casualties. ... Fatah set up models of Jewish settlements and then blew them up with fireworks. The display was meant to emphasize the group's focus on attacking settlers and their communities -- considered by Palestinians to be one of the most provocative elements of Israel's occupation of territory they claim for a state Hamas countered by blowing up models of Israeli buses, a tribute to the dozens of suicide bombings its members have carried out in the past three years, killing hundreds of Israelis.

Hamas, the group that could claim the highest body-count, won the election - thus demonstrating that the Palestinians were most impressed by how many people a group could kill via suicide bombings than anything else. The report doesn't mention, though, whether the Hamas group tried to argue that they achieved any progress through their tactics. As reprehensible as suicide bombings might be, such an argument would at least have the virtue of being relevant - a group that achieves something, even through immoral means, is at least making some sort of progress in something. A group that is achieving nothing, and still through immoral means, is just a joke. A violent, pathetic joke - just like the people who support it.

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