"With Sportsmanship and Fairness"

Let's see if you can catch the contradictions:

Dozens of masked Palestinian gunmen took over election offices in the Gaza Strip, exchanging fire with police and demanding spaces for the ruling Fatah Party's military wing on a list for Jan. 25 parliamentary elections.

The clashes came hours before a Wednesday afternoon deadline for submitting the list and as Fatah's two main factions — party veterans and a young generation of activists — announced an end to an internal rift that had threatened to bolster the electoral prospects of the militant Hamas. After intense negotiations, young guard members said Fatah will submit a single, unified list for the elections.

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas praised the party's decision to unify and urged Palestinians to come together. "What's important is that we go through the election process first united but also ... with sportsmanship and a spirit of transparency and fairness so that we can achieve the true democracy that we all want," he told reporters in Gaza.

So, let's recap: Abbas is praising the party's decision to unify, which happened after (and because) shots were fired and his own party took over election headquarters. In addition, he has the gall to praise what happened with the words "sportsmanship", "transparency", and "fairness".

You have got to be kidding me.

Technorati tags: Israel, Abbas, Palestinians, Fatah, Elections, Gunmen.