Hitler's election is a huge chance for peace. - Jews should offer real recognition to the elected Nazi party.
All will be well and good with the world.
Posted on 01/28/2006 5:59:58 PM PST by SJackson
Can anyone be surprised Palestinians went against the status quo this week in their historic election?
The success of Hamas in the Palestinian elections shocked many analysts but appeared inevitable to those who were watching closely. Fatah has long been discredited by corruption and general mismanagement. Israeli unilateralism and the mainstreaming of Sharon as a peace hero in the face of a helpless P.A. was bound to cause Palestinian protest at the ballot box. American silence has allowed Israel to take more land, build more settlements, and construct the aberration Palestinians know as the Apartheid Wall. The light at the end of the tunnel had flickered out.
A new institutional role for Hamas raises important questions. Will the P.A. function as a two-party body? It's anybody's guess. President Abbas was elected in a separate election, so he remains in office. With the legislature now controlled by his opponents, the rubber-stamping will come to an end. Hamas picks the new Prime Minister. For the first time, the government is divided between parties. Will they be able to work together?
Can Hamas make the leap from terrorist group to governing political party? This is certainly not impossible. The Stern Gang and Irgun, groups responsible for the King David hotel terrorist attacks, as well as massacres of Palestinians, gave up arms for politics. The pro-slavery rebels of the American South laid down their arms after the civil war and joined the Democratic party.
It is possible, but is Hamas willing? If the P.A. is kept as a quasi-government with symbolic authority only, Hamas will have little incentive to change – and Hamas will continue to try to win sovereignty by force. If the P.A. is granted real authority and power, Hamas will be forced to accept the responsibility that comes with it and become a political party. Since Israel and the U.S. determine the PA’s true authority, the ball is in their court.
Many pundits ask what this vote means for negotiations. In many ways, that is a moot point. Negotiations appear to be a thing of the past. Israel’s unilateral pullout from most of Gaza and the way Israel went about designing and building the Apartheid Wall shows it has little interest in exchange and cooperation. U.S. inaction proves the administration concurs with a path devoid of negotiations, a concept it only pays occasional lip service to.
Though the United States doesn’t know it, its best course of action is to make this an opportunity for negotiations as a framework for peace.
First, the U.S. wanted elections. At a November 12th, 2004 White House press conference, Bush reiterated the need for "a free, truly democratic society in the Palestinian territories that becomes a state." They've gotten closer to democracy, so it's time to deliver. American credibility is at stake.
Second, Hamas has established and run many well-functioning institutions in Gaza in the absence of a state. It knows something about institution building. Hamas will give the P.A. more experience in indigenous governance, even if the Hamas model has been mostly limited to schools, medical clinics, and wedding halls.
Third, the P.A. finally has a full mandate. With the P.A. actually representing different views among Palestinians, it is a much more democratic body than it has been in many years. Especially since the passing of Arafat, the P.A. has been largely missing true legitimacy.
Fourth, given that Hamas has a lot of strength in Gaza, this will bring Gaza closer to the West Bank politically. Fatah rule over the P.A. distanced Gaza. That should not be the case if the new P.A. is more representative.
Finally, just as pundits galore said Israel needs a warmonger like Sharon to make peace (the Israeli DeGaulle), maybe the Palestinians need the same thing.
Can the Bush administration come up with the expertise, the political capital and the perspective to make something positive of this? If not, a major opportunity will be blown here.
Hamas will try to build a true government. It won't work if it's under Israel's military occupation, if Israel dictates Palestinian mobility, operates checkpoints, has soldiers, tanks, etc. on the ground. No government can function under such conditions. No amount of elections and polling will change that.
A government with no sovereignty is not a real government. And the less real the government is, the less likely Hamas will moderate and fully commit to electoral politics.
Further entrenchment of Israeli apartheid – separation between the two peoples on unequal terms - is not an option. Palestinians who make up half of the population on historic Palestine will be stuck behind Apartheid walls and fences on 12% of historic Palestine’s land. There may be a temporary illusion of peace with the dressings of sovereignty – like the black homelands in South Africa. Then the struggle will become an anti-Apartheid one.
Hamas will only accept a true peace offering: real sovereignty on the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem. No more playing games. But consider this: It is only true peace that will bring security to Israel.
These guys are living in some alternate reality. Didn't Isreal just hand back Gaza to these abominable muslim dogs? Who but the US forced Israel to do so? The muslim dogs seem to believe that by repeatedly profaning America, we will respond by repeatedly doing stupid things like forcing Israel to give up Gaza OR forcing Serbia to surrender Kosovo to the albanian muslim dogs. Well...gosh...it seems to be working.
Finish the fence Israel, and build it without gates.
Agreed.
Hamas is talking about forming an army. If they want to turn from terrorism to conventional warfare, that will hardly lead to peace.
The author of this article obviously gets paid to lie. Yeah, it's a big victory for the people who are unwilling to accept the existence of Israel.
Unfortunately, this will be the United States State Department.....
this planet is already riddled with armies....
armies kill and break things....
this cold war could get hot....quick.
Imo, the only way a Hamas victory will be an opportunity for peace is if the two Pali factions have a civil war. Then we may see not only a chance for peace, but also their culture moving from the 6th century into the 21st century quickly...
Well, I can hope can't I?
5.56mm
isn't Jordan the only Arab nation to recognize the right of Israel to exist or is it two Arab nations recognize the right of Israel to exist...Jordan and Egypt?
Yeah, right. This article is the worst piece of crap I've read all week.
One of the parables of Jesus has it that the prudent ruler who sees that his army cannot match the other will come to terms. What bothers me is that Hamas lack prudence, nor do I expect them ever to gain that virtue. I am afrraid this will end badly.
I completely agree. Hamas is pulling on the horn of the devil, and the devil has a way of roaring just when one least expects it. When the shooting begins, the pallies will have to understand, and they (the pallies) probably do understand, this is what happens when you vote for a political party of death.
But the Hamas leader said the plan, which he justified using Islamic tradition, is a temporary machination to ease international and U.S. hostility toward his group in hopes of receiving financial assistance, explaining Hamas will not give up its goal of destroying Israel.
Watch them make a peace initiative... and watch the world fall all over them...
Clinton also suggested the West should be more open to eventual dialogue with Hamas, the radical Palestinian group whose election victory stunned the world this week and clouded the prospects of any resolution to the conflict with Israel.
"One of the politically correct things in American politics ... is we just don't talk to some people that we don't like, particularly if they ever killed anybody in a way that we hate," he said. "I do think that if you've got enough self-confidence in who you are and what you believe in, you ought not to be scared to talk to anybody."
"You've got to find a way to at least open doors ... and I don't see how we can do it without more contact," he said. Hamas might "acquire a greater sense of responsibility, and as they do we have to be willing to act on that."
Next year Hamas will receive the Nobel Peace Prize... with gullible fools like he and Jimmy Carter...bank on it.
this article rates one of the largest barf bag in Freerepublic history.
yep
Hamas is talking about forming an army. If they want to turn from terrorism to conventional warfare, that will hardly lead to peace.
Good. If they form an army, and act as if they are a state, then Israel can consider them as one, and bomb the h*ll out of them the first aggressive move they make. You can make war against other aggressive states. They wanted to be one, they will be treated as one.
They are huffing paint fumes BUMP!
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