The Hamas Victory and Democracy is Not a Panacea
Week of February 3, 2006

President Bush’s campaign to democratize the Middle East is not without problems. Democracy reflects those who adopt it. Giving Hamas a landslide victory in the Palestinian election is a clear vote in support of terrorism and hate. Apologists in the press and among some of the “more enlightened” Arabs want us to believe that the vote was not for Hamas’s role as a terrorist movement or its Islamist fanaticism, but an expression of mass frustration with the Palestinian Authority’s governance and corruption. This is tantamount to saying, “yeah, he’s a murderer but he’s honest, he least but never steals”.

In Israel, the day after the election, my leftist friends were urging the government to extend an invitation to talk to the election victors, the Hamas leadership. Most Israelis, however, saw the Hamas victory as an ominous sign. In their view, Israel no longer has a partner for peace and will have to make unilateral decisions as to permanent borders and all other matters that Israel and the Palestinian Authority have been doing together. In simple words, leaders reflect the will of their people. Palestinians are not interested in peace. Their agenda is the same as Hamas, the destruction of Israel. Fatah may have been more realistic but Arafat was not.

When then Prime Minister Ehud Barak and President Clinton offered Arafat more than the Oslo accords ever imagined, Arafat responded with violence. He organized the Al Aksa Brigade, a band of hooligans who competed with Hamas for the role of most bloodthirsty of Arab terrorists. Abbas, Arafat’s successor, would not reign in Al Aksa, thus making Fatah every bit as terrorist as Hamas, but Israel’s leaders from Netanyahu, Barak and Sharon gave legitimacy to Fatah or the PLO as we have known them in the past.

Democracy itself is not a panacea. Just because Hamas joined the electoral process does not legitimate them, in fact they should not have been permitted to run. In most civilized countries, felons are not permitted the right to vote, no less to seek office. Hamas, by its own words and actions determines them to be felons. Abbas lacked the will or the ability to exclude this band of murderers from seeking power.

Jimmy Carter’s approval of the Palestinian election process means nothing. It is analogous to the comic anecdote about the woman who serves her husband poisoned food, but when denounced by the Rav, she replies that the food was kosher.

Ehud Olmert, Israel’s acting Prime Minister was right in telling the world that Israel will not deal with Hamas. The Hamas leader condescendingly declared that they might talk to Israel via a third party. This too must never happen. Israel should not negotiate with terrorists who are committed to the destruction of the Jewish State and the Jews. Israel should continue to collect taxes due the Palestinians and place them in an escrow account to be conveyed to the Arabs when they finally depose Hamas. The United States and the European Union countries must withhold any financial support for the Palestinians and the United Nations must offer its humanitarian aid directly to those in need, circumventing the Hamas led PA.

Hamas is funded by and is a part of the Iran/Syria axis. While the United States engages in bloody mire in Iraq because of Iran’s support for the insurgent’s terror, it should not dare to permit this axis to expand to the soil of Israel. The Palestinian electorate did not vote for democracy. Their vote was to bring fascism to a part of the world that does not yet understand the beauty and magnificence of democracy. Free elections are but one of many aspects of democratic life. Freedom is the essence of it and is defined as an opportunity for all people to choose their way of life, their beliefs and respect for differences. An ideological monolith defines fascism, not democracy. Iran’s President and Hamas are opposed to a non-Islamic Middle East like Hitler who wanted a world dominated by Fascism or Stalin, by Communism and the Iranian mullahs would like to see a world dominated by their view of Islam. Palestinians, however, should know Iran’s intent, they are Shia and the Moslems in Israel’s part of the world are mainly Sunnis. Shia eschatology calls for a world where the Shia view of Islam excludes all others. I hope Palestinians will someday choose to be free and open, thus rejecting Hamas and all other monolithic movements. Democracy is great, but only when it offers freedom.

Shabbat Shalom