Re: Hamas and History

sigh...more people who fear democracy and liberty and prefer  
malevolent dictatorships they can control.

regards,
-Lance

On Feb 4, 2011, at 11:13 PM, Peter Chattaway wrote:

> http://www.commentarymagazine.com/blogs/richman/388927
>
> Rick Richman - 02.04.2011 - 11:06 AM
>
> In “Hamas, the Brotherhood and Egypt,” the Wall Street Journal makes  
> a point similar to one I tried to make in my prior post: that the  
> 2006 Palestinian election, won by Hamas, is a cautionary tale for  
> those anxious to dismantle the Egyptian regime and hold elections  
> with the participation of the Muslim Brotherhood — and to do it  
> prior to the establishment of the institutions necessary for a  
> democratic process.
>
> The Journal writes that Hamas should never have been given  
> permission to participate in the Palestinian election:
>
>    [Condoleezza] Rice demanded that Israel accede to Hamas’s  
> participation in the vote, on the theory that “we have to give the  
> Palestinians some room for the evolution of their political  
> process.” Her State Department also argued that disarming Hamas was  
> a long-term goal, not a precondition to their political participation.
>
> But that is not quite the theory under which Secretary Rice was  
> operating, nor the time frame she anticipated for achievement of her  
> goal.
>
> Mahmoud Abbas was elected president in 2005, two months after the  
> death of Yasir Arafat, having run essentially unopposed, and the  
> U.S. was pressing him to meet the Phase I obligation under the  
> Roadmap — dismantlement of Hamas and its infrastructure. An  
> uncontested election gave Abbas no real mandate, however, and the  
> Bush administration hoped a victory over Hamas in a free and fair  
> election would give Abbas the legitimacy to do what Rice implied he  
> had privately assured her: that if Hamas refused to acknowledge “one  
> authority and one gun,” he would forcibly dismantle it.
>
> In the election, the Palestinians chose Hamas, and in hindsight it  
> was a historic U.S. mistake — compounded by the fact that the  
> cognoscenti blamed George Bush for giving the Palestinians a choice,  
> instead of blaming the Palestinians for the choice they made.
>
> But at least Bush and Rice had the excuse that it seemed, at least  
> to some, like a good idea at the time — and they did not have the  
> lesson of history to warn them against it. Those who are in a rush  
> to do it again a mere five years later — this time not in the Gaza  
> Strip but in the most important Arab country in the Middle East, not  
> with Hamas but with its even more dangerous parent organization,  
> simultaneously ignoring history while congratulating themselves for  
> getting on the right side of it, almost unanimous in their  
> certitudes — have no such excuse.
>
> They should pause and read Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to the  
> Knesset, “Whither Egypt.”
>
>
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