Posted on 02/01/2006 10:09:49 AM PST by SirLinksalot
Buchanan defends foreign aid – for Hamas
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Posted: February 1, 2006 1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2006 Creators Syndicate Inc.
Ever since President Bush, sometime after 9-11, converted to neoconservatism, his Middle East policy has suffered from the triple defects of that subspecies of the Right: hubris, ideology and immaturity.
Neoconservatives see the world as they wish it to be, not as it is. Like teenagers, they act on impulse and rail against the counsel of experience. "Often clever, never wise," Russell Kirk said of the breed.
Repeatedly, Bush was warned by traditional conservatives that to send a U.S. army to occupy Baghdad would engender Arab rage and Islamic terror. Heeding the "cakewalk" crowd, he refused to listen. Three years later, we are trying to extricate a U.S. army from Iraq with the least possible damage to U.S. security interests.
Prodded again by neoconservatives, Bush declared our true goal had always been to democratize Iraq and the entire Islamic world. His second Inaugural resonated less of Reagan than of Rousseau:
So, it is the policy of the United States to seek and support the growth of democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world.
To advance the end of "tyranny in our world," Bush began to call for elections across the Middle East. Again, he and Condi were warned that if these people were allowed to vote their convictions, they might just vote to throw us out and throw the Israelis into the sea.
Now that elections have been held, what do the returns show?
Propelled into or toward power have been Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Iran, pro-Iranian Shiite zealots in Iraq, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, and Hamas in Gaza and on the West Bank.
Now, Condi, who denounced Bush's predecessors back to FDR for supporting dictators while preaching democracy in the Middle East, appears about to engage in a bit of hypocrisy of her own.
After insisting Hamas be included in the elections, Condi, stunned by the results and under pressure from Israel, has declared we will cut all aid to the Palestinian Authority if Hamas takes over the government, as Hamas was elected to do.
Bush agrees. Unless Hamas surrenders its weapons, abandons all armed resistance and recognizes Israel's right to exist, we will not give 10 cents to a Palestinian Authority that has Hamas as its head. Rice is said to be pressuring Europe to do the same. Unless Hamas remakes itself into a Mideast version of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Dr. King, we terminate aid.
Before adopting this knee-jerk reaction to an election we insisted go ahead, one trusts the president, this once, will think it through.
What is likely to happen if we proceed on such a course?
If we and the Europeans cut off aid, and Israel refuses to remit to the Palestinians the taxes they collect, the Palestinians will be put through hell for voting the wrong way. The Arabs will call us hypocrites who believe in elections only if they produce the results we demand.
And who could say they are wrong?
What will Hamas do? They are not going to disarm in the face of an Israeli military that has been killing Palestinians – collateral damage, of course – at four times the rate that Palestinians have been killing Israelis. They are not going to give up their trump card and recognize Israel's right to exist before they get a Palestinian state.
What will Hamas do? Hamas will accept the cut-off of aid, seek money from the Saudis and Iranians, do their best to keep the Palestinian people fed, clothed, housed and educated, and sacrifice for their people. And Hamas will fail. And when they fail, whom do we think will be blamed? When the Palestinian people have been broken because they voted the wrong way, whom do we think they will hate?
Let me propose another course. Put Hamas on probation.
For almost a year, Hamas has held to a truce with Israel and not engaged in attacks. Let America and Europe send word that if the truce holds, if Hamas does not attack Israeli civilians, if Hamas show its first concern is, as it claims, bettering the life of the Palestinian people, we will let the aid flow. But if Hamas reignites the war, we will not finance the war. We will terminate the aid.
Make Hamas responsible for continuing the aid. And make Hamas responsible for terminating it, if it comes to that.
Understandably, the Israelis are close to hysterical over the landslide for Hamas and are on a diplomatic campaign to have all donors end all aid to a Palestinian Authority dominated by Hamas.
But that is not in our interests. It is not even in Israel's interest. For it has been Israel's behavior, and uncritical U.S. support for that behavior, that produced this victory for Hamas. To continue on that road is to arrive at, literally, a dead end.
Bush has unleashed a revolution in the Middle East, and it is everywhere bringing to power Islamic fundamentalists. Either we deal with them, or fight them or get out of the Middle East.
We've rejected and toppled democratically elected governments before. The Nazis of Germany come to mind.
It's not just Buchanan.
I saw Wolfowitz ...of all people ...say something similar.
Damn...
Yes indeed, his logic would tell us we were wrong not to support Hitler, since he was elected in a fair and democratic election. How could we ever have opposed him using Mr. Buchanan's logic.
What an idiot! Hamas has already said that they won't stop the violence. Why should the Bush administration compound the mistake of allowing them in the electoral process -they expected Hamas to win only a few seats- by giving aid to a terrorist organization -Hamas- whose goal is the extermination of Israel?
The following are excerpts from an interview with Hamas leader Mahmoud Al-Zahar, which aired on Al-Manar TV on January 25, 2006.Mahmoud Al-Zahar: "We will not give up the resistance in the sense of jihad, martyrdom-seeking, sacrifices, arrests, the demolition of homes, and the uprooting of trees, at the same time, nor the shattering of the Israeli enemy's honor in all the confrontations - the war of tunnels and of security against the Israeli enemy, which ultimately led to its withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and part of the West Bank.
"In addition, we will teach them how we can have an industry that is independent of the Israeli enemy. We will gradually get all the laborers back [from Israel], after supplying them with job opportunities in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, where they will work in small and very small factories which will be independent of the Israeli enemy."
"Palestine means Palestine in its entirety - from the [Mediterranean] Sea to the [Jordan] River, from Ras Al-Naqura to Rafah. We cannot give up a single inch of it. Therefore, we will not recognize the Israeli enemy's [right] to a single inch. That is one thing.
"The second thing is that if the right of return is an individual right, neither Mahmoud Al-Zahar nor 'Abbas Zaki can relinquish it, because all these concessions will constitute a national catastrophe.
"The third point is that we can found a state on any piece of the land, and this will not mean we give up on any other part of the land."
Interviewer: "Condoleezza Rice has demanded that Hamas recognize Israel's right to exist. How do you respond?"
Mahmoud Al-Zahar: "Why should we recognize Condoleezza Rice... or Israel's right to exist? In this region we have faced Roman occupation, Persian occupation, Crusader occupation, British occupation - they are all gone. The Israeli enemy does not belong to the region. It does not belong to the region's history, geography, or faith. When you enter the land occupied in 1948, it is like entering an enclave. But when you go to Jordan, Syria, Saudi Arabia, or Egypt, you feel at home. It is your homeland."
"If today we are unable to win the conflict decisively, for reasons known to all, we must not pass on to our sons a disgraceful defeat by recognizing the Israeli enemy's right to exist, where it has no such right. Link
Buchanan's IQ is twice yours, I'm sure.
"We will gradually get all the laborers back [from Israel], after supplying them with job opportunities in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, where they will work in small and very small factories which will be independent of the Israeli enemy."
Hey Mr. Al-Zahar . . . Maybe you could answer a couple of questions for me: 1) what do you plan to make in these factories?; and 2) what kind of life are you folks going to have when you find that you can't compete with China, Bangladesh, etc. unless you pay yourselves 35 cents an hour?
Here's a piece of history--There was never an independent Arab state of Palestine before Israel was founded. So what makes Buchanan think the Palestinians are entitled to an independent state? Also, he's conveniently forgetting that one of the tenants of the Hamas groups is the Israel should be wiped off the face of the earth, and Jerusalem named Capitol of Palestine.
Pat Buchanan has shown his true colors, and they are ugly. He has proven himself to be a crank and crackpot unworthy of serious discussion or even respect. Conservatives of all stripes should shun him.
Let me put it this way... it's a mess.
Me too. He's still a nice guy and has great ideas at times, but me thinks Alzheimers is setting in. Shame.
SOT
What would you do with millions of Palestinian Arabs?
Pat Buchanan has shown his true colors, and they are ugly.
Have a look: Hamas history tied to Israel
It's official: Buchanan has completely lost his mind.
Actually it's more we didn't take him out. I still wonder, why?
we have to find a way to overcome the impact of these religious leaders.
Impact is a useful word, so many meanings. Impact maintenance, center of impact. If there are enough martyrs, individual martyrdom becomes meaningless.
We have to have the courage to get rid of killers and butchers like Saddam.
Any ideas?
Summary execution has always had a short/sweet ring to it. Works well on traitors, tyrants, deserters,and terrorists. While Private Slovic was the only deserter executed in WWII, there were 46 allied rapists executed/shot by firing squad. The farcical trial of Hussein is unnecessary.
The Palestinians should either live under Israeli rule or move elsewhere. They lived under British and Turkish rule and never behaved like this. And the Israelis treat the Palestinians better than most Arab governments treat their own people. And as for the content of the article you linked, it was a divide-and-conquer strategy that backfired. It doesn't make the Hamas worthy of support.
I've defended Buchanan before on national sovereignty issues (you've read my postings) and I even voted for him in 1992. But this time he's gone too far.
If they live under Israeli rule would they have voting rights? How do you imagine possible arrangement?
And as for the content of the article you linked, it was a divide-and-conquer strategy that backfired. It doesn't make the Hamas worthy of support.
Maybe not worthy, but in politics you must do what you have to do. The separation in my opinion is the best solution for Israel, because of demographics. If Palestinians have better standard of living they will have something to lose and they will have fewer children.
Buchanan left the reservation and stopped taking his meds ages ago.
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