Democracy Brings Hamas into Power

Given the situation on the ground for the Palestinian people you can’t be surprised by the out come of the recent election in Palestine. The elections giving the Hamas leaders much more responsibility for the way things are going to be in the future for the Palestinian people. Hamas will be held accountable to the Palestinian people as well as to the Quartet. The newly elected leaders of Hamas will have to choose in the manner they are going to bring about change in Palestine. The State of Israel as we known it today was established with the help of terrorists, some of who turn into political leaders of Israeli. Many people in their support of the State of Israel will deny there ever were acts of terrorists on behalf of Israel. Saying they were freedom fighters that were defending the Jewish homeland. Within political parties there are many different fractions that make up the party. This is true in the United State, State of Israel, and Palestine as well as in any other nation’s major political party. Defending the philosophy of any of the extremist’s fractions within a major party is difficult to near impossible with any degree of logic. The actions and reactions of the people and governments of Palestine and Israel are being closely watch by the international community of nations. Only by the Quartet applying equal presser to both sides for reform can peace come about. The position of the governments on both side need to be more transparent for the people and government of the world to see. This could be done by creating an official website for the government of Palestine and Israel to post their positions and responses concerning the Peace Process. This would create a platform of equal footing for both sides. Giving the people of the world a window into the Peace Process. My Blog http://www.globalcrier.blogspot.com/

Comments

Stephane Mot is right on one level

Submitted by bass on February 15, 2006 - 6:30pm.

The Palenstinian election results were pretty
predictable. Is it what the Bush Adminstration wanted
or were they too narrowly focused to see it coming?
The same thing will happen elsewhere. Will it be an
excuse to make war everywhere? Or, will it be a
convenient reason to return to isolationism, and save
lots of money. Think about it, cut off financial aid
to lots of countries, that sure will shrink the deficit.

Either way the election

Submitted by ahapxnct on February 15, 2006 - 8:06pm.

Either way the election played out, Israel and the US win in some way: do we get corrupt, bloated, ineffectual Fatah, or Islamic militant group/terrorists Hamas?

Actually, it could pose quite a problem for both if Hamas was to meet US/Israeli demands, because then Hamas will say "We did it, now let's get down to business negotiating a settlement"- which is the last thing Israel and the US want to do, especially given what happened at Taba. The "formaldehyde", as Sharon's aide Dov Weisglass referred to the Gaza disengagement, has already been applied to the peace process, and they certainly don't want that to change.

Until Hamas does that, though, the US and Israel will attempt to use it as a reason to isolate the PA and starve them of funds (and may well invent new pretexts to do so).

The fundamentals of Demokracy

Submitted by stephane mot on February 15, 2006 - 2:41am.

Last year, fundamentalists won in Iran and Palestine and fundamentalists scored as much as allowed in Egypt or Saudi Arabia.
A perfect output for the Bush doctrine : after all, fundamentalists won in the US the year before...
The Bush Administration don't want Hamas to change : they'll try to ostracize the organization as efficiently as they did with Arafat. Likud leaders also want Gazatopia to fail - expect more provocations before elections in Israel.

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Stephane MOT -
http://e-blogules.blogspot.com

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The Arab League’s Role with Hamas

Submitted by Global Crier on January 30, 2006 - 4:01pm.

The Hamas Charter of 1988 is very frightening when you read it, so is the Likud Platform of 1977, 1996. Statements made by the Likud leader Mr. Binyamin Netanyahu or the leaders of Hamas are very divisive and are undermining the peace process. Hamas has helped raise more money for Israel as well as helping the Likud party get elected into power. The Hamas Charter sounds like a fundamentalist Islamic cleric wrote it. The Likud Platforms sound like a Zionist Lawyer wrote them that graduated from an Ivy League University.

It is time for the Arab League to help resolve the Palestinian-Israeli Crisis. The role of Arab League should include the following.

1. Provide financial resources for the re-construction of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
2. Help the Palestinian government in moderating and communicating their official position with the Israeli government to the world.
3. Help to defuse the tension between the Arab nations and the State of Israel.
4. Become an active member in the Peace negotiation between the Palestinians and Israelis.

Only with the United States government putting more pressure on the Israeli government and the Arab League putting more pressure on the Palestinian government to come to agreeable terms. Making the position of the governments on both sides more transparent for the world to see. This could be done with an official government website dedicated to the Palestinian-Israel Peace Process. The website would create a level forum that everything could be put on the table by both nations for the people of the world to see.

My Blog http://www.globalcrier.blogspot.com/

resolution

Submitted by ahapxnct on February 15, 2006 - 4:26pm.

I certainly don't agree with Hamas' commitment to the destruction of Israel, but at the same time, isn't Israel tacitly committed to the destruction of Palestine? The plans Israel has for a settlement involve the cantonization of the West Bank, completely kicking Palestinians out of Jerusalem- a fragmented, economically nonviable "state" which amounts to measly partitioned scraps for the Palestinians, still subject to the humiliating, illegal apartheid wall Israel built on Palestinian land. I don't agree with that either, and don't see why we should be hypocritical about it.

In any case, I find it odd that you suggest that it's the Arab League's responsibility to help more in resolving the Israel-Palestine conflict. The Arab League's stated position is in support of UN Resolutions 242 and 338, the international consensus for a two-state settlement, which means security guarantees and recognition for Israel, and the territories Israel acquired by war (West Bank, Gaza, and Jerusalem) returned to a new Palestinian state- the "land for peace" principle. It's been voted on every year, and blocked every year, the vote usually ending up something like 160 countries in favor and the US and Israel against. If the US stopped supporting Israeli rejection of international law and Palestinian national rights, it would be solved very quickly.

Arab League Should Use the European Union a Model

Submitted by Global Crier on February 15, 2006 - 5:32pm.

If the same amount of American mass media coverage was given to every time the Israeli Defense Forces or an Israeli civilian killed an innocent Palestinian child as we do the suicide bombers. Then American people might know the truth to this conflict. Only by leveling the playing field will the truth be heard. One of the tools making the playing field level is the Internet. Each side has the ability to transmit and receive information global almost instantaneously. As the Palestinians are out gunned militarily by the Israelis so too are the Palestinians behind on the usage of computer technology and the Internet.

The Arab League should take a leading role in the humanitarian aid that is needed to rebuild Palestine. Starting with the Gaza the international community of nations should help rebuild and upgrade the infrastructure of Gaza. Using the Gaza as model for the West Bank and other deprived Arab communities of people. Every nation and region should have room for the communities of people who want the ways of the new world or of the old world.

Many people are at odds with the ways of their nation. It is managing these differences in a civilized manner that bring people and nations together in peace and times of trouble. It would be much better to bring about the needed changes in the world in a peaceful way rather than in war. This can only be done diplomatically using tools instead of weapons. Today the United States and the rest of the world do not have enough trained forces for these types of humanitarian missions.

For a fraction of the cost of what has been spent on war in the Middle East the needed changes could be made for the better creating more peace and security than any war ever could. Only by taking a sane approach to the problems will the needed changes come about. Israel is not the only problem in the Middle East they are just in the center.

Unless some of the wealthy Arab nations step up and take a leading role in solving some of the problems and issues confronting the poorer Arab people. There will be no end to the civil unrest in the Middle East. The Arab League should use the European Union as their model in trying to resolve some of the problems in the Middle East. Only by people and nations working together can the needed changes be made to bring peace about.

My Blog http://www.globalcrier.blogspot.com/

Well, I agree that if the

Submitted by ahapxnct on February 15, 2006 - 7:50pm.

Well, I agree that if the media covered the conflict fairly, Americans would have quite a different view- but I doubt that will happen until Israel stops being so strategically useful to the US. But is a new site about the conflict going to level the playing field? There are already quite a few good ones around for people who are interested in a view other than that presented by the New York Times or Fox News. Also plenty of excellent books, activist groups, etc.- I don't think it's so much levelling the playing field or getting more Palestinians online than it is activists doing something about it.

With regard to rebuilding the Palestinian infrastructure- yes, certainly the Arab League nations should help, but a bigger problem is to get Israel to quit destroying it first. Bulldozing homes, uprooting trees, preventing well digging, the wall, occupation of virtually all of Jerusalem- all are preventing the Palestinian economy from functioning well. And the best way to end these problems is not to ask the Arab League to increase investment but to settle the conflict, along the lines of the international consensus. I don't know what you mean about using Gaza as a model- it's a hellhole as far as I know, and the disengagement was little more than a diversion from Israel's West Bank settlement expansion. In any case, it's a model of what Israel would like to see in the future- Palestinians with nominal sovereignty, but with Israel maintaining the right to use force at will among other things.