YOU WANT DEMOCRACY? YOU GOT IT!
Palestinian leadership hit by political earthquake
Fatah official: 'We have lost the elections; Hamas has won'
CNN
Posted: 9:52 a.m. EST (14:52 GMT) , Thursday, January 26, 2006
RAMALLAH, West Bank (CNN) -- The Islamic fundamentalist group Hamas, which has said it favors the destruction of Israel, won an apparent victory in Palestinian legislative elections, officials said Thursday, reshaping the political landscape of the Middle East.
"We have lost the elections; Hamas has won," said Saeb Erakat, a Palestinian lawmaker with the ruling Fatah Party. He said Fatah, which has held power since the creation of the Palestinian Authority, will now be the opposition.
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This is surely a sad day for anyone who has hoped for a two-state solution, or for even so much as the (relatively) more sedate of affairs in the biblical land of Palestine (at least from the vantage point of this armchair blogger) that existed once Yasser Arafat died.
When I was growing up, I held what I'm sure would now be considered a quaint, reductive notion: that Israel did not want to surrrender its land, but that the Palestinians were not interested in negotiating, and were not interested in making peace (negotiation, which would have given them much of the land they wanted, was spurned by Arafat in Oslo. Why? I believed, then, that Arafat was more interested in waving the bloody shirt as a means of keeping himself in power than in achieving his purported goal of a Palestinian state, since, if that goal were achieved, his demagoguery - which was the key to his appeal - would lose much of its luster. Analogize this to the Republicans and Roe v. Wade - many Republicans want the case overruled, but Republican strategists concerned about the party's long-time future are scared to death about the prospect of the case being overruled, because the case has been the party's signature wedge issue for decades, and has attracted single-issue voters to the party for those decades; if the case were overruled, those voters would now be free to vote Democratic, and the certain-to-develop national backlash formed as a result of the Republican ruling would seriously damage the party).
When Abbas came to power, many were optimistic that Palestinians were amenable toward the idea of a two-state solution.
Today's news, however, seems to cast that optimism in doubt. Hamas is a terrorist organization, and "respected" Middle East leaders - Arab, Persian, Islamic - have refused to condemn it (guess why?) By its own statements, it wants to wipe Israel off the map (Hamas, the President of Iran - there are certain people who, if they do not say "Israel should be wiped off the map," and "driven into the sea" (make up your minds, guys - if it's driven into the sea, then it's still on the map!), it would be as anomalous as a Miss America Beauty Pageant contestant NOT wishing for "world peace."
Remember way back in 1947 when Britain declared that Palestine was to become a free state, and it offered the land in equal parts to Jews and Muslims? The Jews accepted these terms, and the Palestinians, wanting all or nothing, took nothing, and then the war of Israeli Indepedence was fought. (By the way, the Palestinians were not "driven off the land" in 1948; the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem told them to leave because the Arab countries were planning to attack Israel).
And then there was 1967, when Israel seized Gaza, the Golan Heights, the West Bank, and Sinai (again). Sinai has been ceded by Israel. Gaza has been ceremoniously (and then some) ceded, and will be ceded outright (or would have been, anyway), before Hamas was elected). The entire world, practically, has vilified Israel for taking the Golan Heights and the West Bank (two territories not exactly missed by Syria and Jordan) - as if this land grab were the first time, during a war, a nation annexed territory (it was not. Remember the Spanish-American war? Spain seems to have gotten over the annexation of the Phillipines, somehow.) If the Arab countries (who couldn't care less about the Palestinians, despite being some of the richest nations on Earth) weren't poised to attack Israel in 1967, then they would have been able to keep their land. Of course, worldwide sentiment by 1967, and much earlier, was such that the very idea of a Jewish state was a radical notion - and the belief in such a state was a racist belief (the U.N. charter called Zionism -what was the word - racist?).
As far as the Palestinians wanting their own state, I'd say to them, and to their hatrons, God (or Allah, or whomever) helps those who help (or restrain) themselves. The world may still think of Israel as an occupier for many years, but one day, it may wake up to realize that the Palestinians who genuinely want their own state have been sold out by their leaders, who took the bargaining chips off the table to cash them in at the table of corruption.
There is one more point that today's news illustrates: democracy does not eliminate terrorism. Terrorists operate within any kind of government. Under the Bush (freedom at gunpoint) Doctrine, democracy is supposed to create anti-terrorist friendly regimes. We have just seen today yet another instance of this doctrinal failure. The Palestinian democratic elections produced terrorist leaders.
So, George Bush, when you start bullshitting about "democracy," be prepared to live with the consequences of it. Either that, or rethink your archly simplistic notions (or have someone re-think or first-think them for you) about how the world works.
Fatah official: 'We have lost the elections; Hamas has won'
CNN
Posted: 9:52 a.m. EST (14:52 GMT) , Thursday, January 26, 2006
RAMALLAH, West Bank (CNN) -- The Islamic fundamentalist group Hamas, which has said it favors the destruction of Israel, won an apparent victory in Palestinian legislative elections, officials said Thursday, reshaping the political landscape of the Middle East.
"We have lost the elections; Hamas has won," said Saeb Erakat, a Palestinian lawmaker with the ruling Fatah Party. He said Fatah, which has held power since the creation of the Palestinian Authority, will now be the opposition.
******************************************************************************
This is surely a sad day for anyone who has hoped for a two-state solution, or for even so much as the (relatively) more sedate of affairs in the biblical land of Palestine (at least from the vantage point of this armchair blogger) that existed once Yasser Arafat died.
When I was growing up, I held what I'm sure would now be considered a quaint, reductive notion: that Israel did not want to surrrender its land, but that the Palestinians were not interested in negotiating, and were not interested in making peace (negotiation, which would have given them much of the land they wanted, was spurned by Arafat in Oslo. Why? I believed, then, that Arafat was more interested in waving the bloody shirt as a means of keeping himself in power than in achieving his purported goal of a Palestinian state, since, if that goal were achieved, his demagoguery - which was the key to his appeal - would lose much of its luster. Analogize this to the Republicans and Roe v. Wade - many Republicans want the case overruled, but Republican strategists concerned about the party's long-time future are scared to death about the prospect of the case being overruled, because the case has been the party's signature wedge issue for decades, and has attracted single-issue voters to the party for those decades; if the case were overruled, those voters would now be free to vote Democratic, and the certain-to-develop national backlash formed as a result of the Republican ruling would seriously damage the party).
When Abbas came to power, many were optimistic that Palestinians were amenable toward the idea of a two-state solution.
Today's news, however, seems to cast that optimism in doubt. Hamas is a terrorist organization, and "respected" Middle East leaders - Arab, Persian, Islamic - have refused to condemn it (guess why?) By its own statements, it wants to wipe Israel off the map (Hamas, the President of Iran - there are certain people who, if they do not say "Israel should be wiped off the map," and "driven into the sea" (make up your minds, guys - if it's driven into the sea, then it's still on the map!), it would be as anomalous as a Miss America Beauty Pageant contestant NOT wishing for "world peace."
Remember way back in 1947 when Britain declared that Palestine was to become a free state, and it offered the land in equal parts to Jews and Muslims? The Jews accepted these terms, and the Palestinians, wanting all or nothing, took nothing, and then the war of Israeli Indepedence was fought. (By the way, the Palestinians were not "driven off the land" in 1948; the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem told them to leave because the Arab countries were planning to attack Israel).
And then there was 1967, when Israel seized Gaza, the Golan Heights, the West Bank, and Sinai (again). Sinai has been ceded by Israel. Gaza has been ceremoniously (and then some) ceded, and will be ceded outright (or would have been, anyway), before Hamas was elected). The entire world, practically, has vilified Israel for taking the Golan Heights and the West Bank (two territories not exactly missed by Syria and Jordan) - as if this land grab were the first time, during a war, a nation annexed territory (it was not. Remember the Spanish-American war? Spain seems to have gotten over the annexation of the Phillipines, somehow.) If the Arab countries (who couldn't care less about the Palestinians, despite being some of the richest nations on Earth) weren't poised to attack Israel in 1967, then they would have been able to keep their land. Of course, worldwide sentiment by 1967, and much earlier, was such that the very idea of a Jewish state was a radical notion - and the belief in such a state was a racist belief (the U.N. charter called Zionism -what was the word - racist?).
As far as the Palestinians wanting their own state, I'd say to them, and to their hatrons, God (or Allah, or whomever) helps those who help (or restrain) themselves. The world may still think of Israel as an occupier for many years, but one day, it may wake up to realize that the Palestinians who genuinely want their own state have been sold out by their leaders, who took the bargaining chips off the table to cash them in at the table of corruption.
There is one more point that today's news illustrates: democracy does not eliminate terrorism. Terrorists operate within any kind of government. Under the Bush (freedom at gunpoint) Doctrine, democracy is supposed to create anti-terrorist friendly regimes. We have just seen today yet another instance of this doctrinal failure. The Palestinian democratic elections produced terrorist leaders.
So, George Bush, when you start bullshitting about "democracy," be prepared to live with the consequences of it. Either that, or rethink your archly simplistic notions (or have someone re-think or first-think them for you) about how the world works.
posted by EnterCenter at 7:11 AM
2 Comments:
Scary times indeed. At the same time, being somewhat of an optimist, I am hoping that a Hamas government would mean that the radical elements will be coopted. Perhaps with a Hamas government, the suicide bombing types will realize they have something to lose if they continue on their path. Only those without hope are willing to suicide bomb themselves.
I hope you are right. Every once in a while in the course of human affairs, having great power imposes a sense of responsibility on those who possess it (to paraphrase Cliff Robertson in Spiderman). And now that Hamas is in power, it will have to deal with its own "extremists," and in so doing, may (hopefully) have an appreciation for the values of statesmanship and pragmatism.
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