Congratulations to Hamas for its stunning victory in the Palestinian elections. In a dramatic gesture, this party has worked its way up from a purely ideological fringe group to take on the deeply important tasks of meeting the everyday needs and desires of the Palestinian people. It gained the trust of the masses by cleaning the streets, opening food shelters, and not giving in to Israeli bullying.
It also showed that it was free of the political and moral corruption that had infected the senescent Fatah Party, the empty shell of Yasser Arafat's elderly megalomania. ...
Of course, there are many in Israel and the US who will run around like Chicken Little and say the sky is falling. It does not need to be so. If the US takes a rational approach to Hamas, realizes that it does indeed have the Palestinians' interests at heart, and that it is a rational entity, then the US should realize that Hamas can indeed be reasoned with.
If Israelis scream about Hamas' violent past, they should consider how leaders like Menahem Begin rose to power from the terrorist who bombed innocent Bristish and Palestinians and gained recognition as a legitimate leader within Israeli society and the world at large.
There's no reason why Hamas cannot transform itself in a similar way. This is what democracy does--it brings with it its own set of accountability procedures and rationales. Most within the Palestinian population want the stand-off with Israel to end. But they want it to end with some shreds of dignity attached. Hamas can bring with it a huge amount of "street credit" thereby enabling it to negotiate with Israel without appearing to be kissing ass.
At the same time, Hamas' leaders appear to see the writing on the wall about Israel's right to exist. They will no doubt eventually backtrack on their hard-line calls for the destruction of Israel, but only after Israel pays it the respect that a sovereign nation and people deserve.
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Thursday, January 26, 2006
Democracy in Palestine
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1 comment:
Sober up buddy!
What a wonderful world, it looks like Hitler won the war, that it, if anyone bother to read the Hamas Charter. article 22, 28 and 32 are guaranteed entertainment.
http://www.palestinecenter.org/cpap/documents/charter.html
…and this is their own site, their own words, their constitution. Obviously they all could use a drink to calm themselves down a bit, but what is the excuse of the writer of this article for wondering what is Hamas agenda?
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