Thursday Morning Quick Shots
Hamas the winner in Palestinian elections? Say it ain’t so…what a revolting development this is…
The Real Ugly American fisks Marc Cooper’s ‘goodbye to all that’ piece on Pacifica radio…
The WSJ editorial board thanks Ted Kennedy and Ralph Neas? You should, too…
Don’t forget to to get your submissions in by 6:00 p.m. tonight for the latest Carnival of the Chillin’…AJ has the details…
I’ve said since the beginning on many sites and in many posts: democracy by itself will not work. The radicals will get elected.
Hamas? Pssh. Look at IRAQ. The secular party was blown out of office into the dustbin of maginality.
There are no such things as “moderate” muslims. The idea is sheer fantasy in a secular west. I’ve laid bait there … wonder what rube will step in it?
On the other hand, allowing Hamas into the government (even if they hadn’t taken the most votes, but in a coalition with Fatah) might actually help to moderate them. It’s easy to call for the destruction of Israel if you’re not part of the government, but if Hamas starts on that rant now (a rant which they notably did not include in their campaign) it would probably spell the end to most of the foreign aid that’s been pouring into Palestine since the Oslo Accords.
Likewise, in the Future of Freedom, Fareed Zakaria points out that when Islamist parties are allowed to run in elections, as the Muslim Brotherhood is in Egypt, that it has a tendency to de-glamourize them to the populace in the said country.
aaron,
a hypothetical if i may.
do you think it is possible, however remote, that hamass could possibly just maybe call for a peace accord with israel just to get more foreign aid, AND, just maybe use that increased foreign aid to send more homicide stooges into israel?
keeping in mind that these terrorists are principled.
do you think that just possibly hamass would maybe try such a ploy?
p.s. would that foreign aid that would be drying up, be the money coming from tehran and riyadh?
It is definitely possible (perhaps even probable) that Hamas could keep up the peace long enough to get enough cash to bankroll a renewed intifada.
However, if Hamas does considerably tone down the “Death to Israel, Death to America” lines and focus more on reform (a recent op-ed piece in the WSJ noted that even Christians were not afraid to admit that they’d voted for Hamas in the elections due just to that), and if Hamas begins to actively condemn terrorism against Israel, rather than promote it, then the West and Israel should at least give Hamas a chance.
Prior to the recent elections, I always thought it foolish for Israel or America to advocate ending negotiations while terrorist attacks were still going on, considering that it essentially gave the terrorists power over the peace process. Now, as a certifiable terrorist organization is in charge of the PA, they need to prove themselves as reasonable before they should be given foreign aid.
I would also note that “the Great One,” Christopher Hitchens, in A Long Short War points out that there is an inherent difference between groups like Hamas, the IRA, or ETA, and Al Qaeda. He refers to the latter not just as terrorists, but as nihlists, promoting violence for the sake of violence, while it is possible (according to Hitchens) that the IRA, ETA or even Hamas might sit down to a negotiating table.
Especially if Kadima wins the upcoming Israeli elections (as it appears they are going to do) and Ehud Olmert is able to complete what Sharon started and pull-out from the West Bank, I’d like to see how many Palestinians will still go for a “death to Israel” (I know that they say that, but will they really just be content if Israel pulls out of Palestinian territories?) message. Not many, I’d think, but I’ve been wrong before . . .
Palestinians have grown up with “death to Israel.” It’s all they know. They indoctrinate their youth from toddler age on up to serve in jihad.
This isn’t something that evaporates just because their different brand of murder gets elected.