 |
|
The Kosher Gourmet by Megan Gordon With its colorful cache of purples and oranges and reds, COLLARD GREEN SLAW is a marvelous mood booster --- not to mention just downright delish
April 18, 2014
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Clarifying one of the greatest philosophical conundrums in theology
John Ericson: Trying hard to be 'positive' but never succeeding? Blame Your Brain
The Kosher Gourmet by Julie Rothman Almondy, flourless torta del re (Italian king's cake), has royal roots, is simple to make, . . . but devour it because it's simply delicious
April 14, 2014
Rabbi Dr Naftali Brawer: Passover frees us from the tyranny of time
Eric Schulzke: First degree: How America really recovered from a murder epidemic
Georgia Lee: When love is not enough: Teaching your kids about the realities of adult relationships
Gordon Pape: How you can tell if your financial adviser is setting you up for potential ruin
Dana Dovey: Up to 500,000 people die each year from hepatitis C-related liver disease. New Treatment Has Over 90% Success Rate
Justin Caba: Eating Watermelon Can Help Control High Blood Pressure
April 11, 2014
Rabbi Hillel Goldberg: Silence is much more than golden
Susan Swann: How to value a child for who he is, not just what he does
Susan Scutti: A Simple Blood Test Might Soon Diagnose Cancer
Chris Weller: Have A Slow Metabolism? Let Science Speed It Up For You
April 9, 2014
Jonathan Tobin: Why Did Kerry Lie About Israeli Blame?
Samuel G. Freedman: A resolution 70 years later for a father's unsettling legacy of ashes from Dachau
Jessica Ivins: A resolution 70 years later for a father's unsettling legacy of ashes from Dachau
Matthew Mientka: How Beans, Peas, And Chickpeas Cleanse Bad Cholesterol and Lowers Risk of Heart Disease
April 8, 2014
Dana Dovey: Coffee Drinkers Rejoice! Your Cup Of Joe Can Prevent Death From Liver Disease
Chris Weller: Electric 'Thinking Cap' Puts Your Brain Power Into High Gear
April 4, 2014
Amy Peterson: A life of love: How to build lasting relationships with your children
John Ericson: Older Women: Save Your Heart, Prevent Stroke Don't Drink Diet
John Ericson: Why 50 million Americans will still have spring allergies after taking meds
Sarah Boesveld: Teacher keeps promise to mail thousands of former students letters written by their past selves
April 2, 2014
Dan Barry: Should South Carolina Jews be forced to maintain this chimney built by Germans serving the Nazis?
Frank Clayton: Get happy: 20 scientifically proven happiness activities
Susan Scutti: It's Genetic! Obesity and the 'Carb Breakdown' Gene
|
| |
Jewish World Review
Jan. 30, 2006
/ 30 Teves, 5766
The Hamas victory is good news
By
Jeff Jacoby
| 
|
|
|
|
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Western reactions to the outcome of the Palestinian election last week mostly came in two varieties: highly
negative and decidedly undecided.
In the first category was Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who moaned that the Hamas defeat of Fatah was
a "very, very, very bad result." In New York, the Anti-Defamation League pronounced the results "a tremendous
setback for the region and for American interests."
But many others insisted that the significance of the election couldn't be known until Hamas decides whether or
not to abandon its foremost objective: the liquidation of Israel and its replacement with an Islamist dictatorship. In
the words of FBI Director Robert Mueller, "Hamas has a choice to make." It was a line echoed everywhere, from
the British Foreign Office ("It is up to Hamas to choose. We will have to wait and see") to the New York Times
editorial page ("Hamas has a choice between governing and terror").
Well, put me in a third camp: I think the sweeping Hamas victory is by far the best result that could have been
hoped for.
I say that not because Hamas is anything other than a blood-drenched terrorist group responsible for killing or
maiming thousands of innocent victims, but because its lopsided win is an unambiguous reality check into the nature
of Palestinian society. And if there is one thing that the West badly needs, it is more realism and less delusion about
the Palestinians.
Some of that delusion was on display at the White House on Thursday, when President Bush painted the
Palestinian election as a "healthy" and "interesting" exercise in civic reform:
"Obviously, people were not happy with the status quo," Bush explained. "The people are demanding honest
government. The people want services. They want to be able to raise their children in an environment in which they
can get a decent education and they can find healthcare. And so the elections should open the eyes of the old guard
there in the Palestinian territories. . . . There's something healthy about a system that does that. And so the
elections yesterday were very interesting."
Please, Mr. President. If a slate of neo-Nazi skinheads swept to power in a European election, would you say that
the voters were seeking "honest government" and "services"? Palestinians are not stupid, and it insults their
intelligence to pretend that when they vote to empower a genocidal organization with a platform straight out of
"Mein Kampf," what they're really after is better healthcare. Islamist extremism isn't needed to fix Palestinian
hospitals any more than Fascism was needed to make Italian trains run on time in the 1920s. If Palestinians turned
out en masse to elect a party that unapologetically stands for hatred and mass murder, it's a safe bet that the hatred
and mass murder had something to do with the turnout.
By the same token, Hamas's new duties are not going to turn it into a moderate group of diligent civil servants.
When violent Islamists win political power, their brutality and zealotry do not diminish. (See Khomeini, Ayatollah and
Taliban, Afghan). The notion that Hamas now has "a choice to make" is just another example of the delusional
thinking that is so pervasive when it comes to the Palestinian Authority.
In his remarks on Thursday, Bush went on to say that he didn't "see how you can be a partner in peace if you
advocate the destruction of a country as part of your platform" or "if your party has got an armed wing." Therefore,
he said, Hamas is "a party with which we will not deal." If that means that the Bush administration will shun the new
Hamas government as it once shunned Yasser Arafat, well and good. But why was Mahmoud Abbas treated any
differently? Like Hamas, Fatah — the PLO faction Abbas and Arafat co-founded 45 years ago — advocates Israel's
destruction in its basic charter. Like Hamas, Fatah has an "armed wing" — the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades — that is
guilty of horrific terror attacks. Fatah's emblem shows crossed rifles against a map of "Palestine" that depicts all of
Israel; on the Hamas emblem, the map is the same, but the crossed weapons are swords. The only important
difference between the ousted Fatah party and the incoming Hamas leadership is that for PR purposes the former
sometimes pretend to accept Israel's right to exist, while the latter is openly and nakedly committed to Israel's
elimination.
Yet that is exactly why the Hamas landslide is good news. It increases clarity and dispels illusion. It makes
it harder to wish away the unpleasant fact that after a dozen years of PLO misrule, Palestinian society is deeply
dysfunctional, steeped in hatred and violence. All but the willfully blind can now see that the Palestinian Authority is
no "partner in peace." Until it is decisively defeated and thoroughly detoxified, the Palestinian people will never
enjoy the blessings of liberty and decent governance. Ironically, the ascendancy of Hamas may have brought that
eventual outcome a little closer.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Jeff Jacoby is a Boston Globe columnist. Comment by clicking here.
Jeff Jacoby Archives
© 2006, Boston Globe
|
|
Columnists
Toons
Lifestyles
|
