Damn You, Democracy!

How many blue- or purple-fingered Hamas voters have you seen online today? Given our deep deep love of democracy, you'd think that bloggers far and wide would be posting numerous pix of happy Hamas supporters showing that they, too, are down with this voting thing. Yet, for some strange reason, I can't find any, save for a single photo on the NYTimes site (but then, what can you expect from that America-hating rag?). Doesn't Hamas' electoral victory further prove that President Bush's freedom crusade in the Middle East is right on track?

As I've said before, for upstanding Americans, there is the Right Kind of Freedom, and there's the Wrong Kind of Freedom. Hugo Chavez winning in Venezuela was Wrong. Evo Morales winning in Bolivia -- Wrong. And Hamas winning the majority of seats in the Palestinian parliament? Wrong, so very very Wrong.

Not that the US didn't try to steer Palestinian voters to vote Right. After all, we sunk some $2 million into the Palestinian Authority's coffers, another sign that Americans favor freedom (though only we are allowed to financially influence elections in other countries). But damn it, those Palestinians clearly didn't appreciate our altruism. Instead, they've handed the keys to a radical Islamic party. What does that say about their values?

Normally, I avoid most rightwing and related warblogs, simply because once you've read them, you've read them, and there's only so much monotonous kettle drumming I can take. But in the wake of Hamas' strong showing, I had to see what the Freedom Lovers were saying, and to a patriot they are pissed when not resigned to what some believe was an inevitable outcome. After all, the Palestinians are pretty much a terrorist race, and their electoral preference simply reinforces the fact. Roger "Hold On To Your Hat!" Simon opined, "I am glad Hamas won. Elections should reflect the will of the people and this one reflects the will of the Palestinians. Now we know." Ed Morrissey bluntly mused, "[T]he Palestinians should be judged by the choices they have made this week. They have chosen war and the annihilation of Israel over the two-state solution favored publicly (if not fervently) by Fatah . . .Clearly, the Palestinians want war, and they have made no secret of using their children and grandchildren as bomb fuses in order to perpetuate it." Cap'n Ed ended his post by fantasizing about Israeli-led ethnic cleansing, so his optimism for the region's future hasn't completely eroded.

When the Israelis voted in veterans of terrorist militias like Yitzhak Shamir, Menachem Begin, Benjamin Netanyahu and Ariel Sharon, men not only committed to war and territorial expansion, but also opposed to recognizing Palestinians as human beings, much less as equal negotiating partners, I don't remember many people writing that this proved that Israelis as a whole were devoted to state terrorism, or that Jews as a race reveled in war and endless bloodshed. And what about we fine Americans? Aren't we responsible, as a people, for re-electing Bush and thus endorsing his war and torture doctrine? There are plenty of people worldwide who believe this and think, should we get hit again by a terrorist attack, that we have it coming. But try saying that in the American media and see where it gets you. Yet when it comes to the Palestinians, few flinch when comparable arguments are made.

Amid these and other outbursts today, some rather relevant history is being studiously avoided. Much is being said about Hamas' past, but no one I've read is reminding us that Israel helped Hamas take its first serious steps as a political alternative to the PLO. Faced with a moderating Fatah that was calling for mutual recognition and mutual security guarantees, Israel, while continually rejecting these offers, began pushing and funding Hamas, which grew out of the Muslim Brotherhood, in an effort to weigh down the PLO's secular nationalism and hopefully drain some of its support in the territories (as a US government official put it to UPI's Richard Sale in this 2002 piece, "The thinking on the part of some of the right-wing Israeli establishment was that Hamas and the others, if they gained control, would refuse to have any part of the peace process and would torpedo any agreements put in place . . . Israel would still be the only democracy in the region for the United States to deal with"). This, combined with corruption in Fatah and its relocation to Beirut, worked incredibly well, as we now see. Factor in Hamas providing social services in some of the poorest areas of the territories, as well as being seen by many powerless and brutalized Palestinians as standing up to Israel, and what happened yesterday is really no surprise.

There are those, like former Saddam supporter Daniel Pipes, who are calling for Hamas' destruction, claiming that Hamas is the same as al-Qaeda and therefore must perish. Apart from the fact that al-Qaeda is not a fixed political/religious party that runs candidates in open elections, and that unlike Hamas, which derives what power it has directly from its own people, al-Qaeda is parasitic, as seen in Afghanistan and Iraq, attempting to destroy Hamas would be largely impossible, and would result in a massive death toll, given its deep support in the territories. Plus, it would lead to more terrorism, which death cultists like Pipes would welcome since he could then call for more violence against the Arab/Persian world. As it stands, Hamas has declared that it will continue to honor the cease-fire it negotiated with Israel in February 2005, so long as Israel does the same. Why would you attack someone who is holding up their end of a cease-fire? Again, in Pipes' case, the answer is obvious.

How yesterday's Palestinian elections will ultimately shake down is anybody's guess. The Palestinians remain caged inside the West Bank and Gaza while surrounded by an Israeli military that has superior firepower. Much of their population are unemployed and live in abject poverty. That they went to the polls in such large numbers shows that the desire for some kind of political say hasn't been extinguished, but it has been seriously sharpened. Hamas isn't going away, and if one seriously wishes that its members moderate their views and take a political path, then perhaps calling for Hamas' violent extinction isn't the best tactic to employ, especially when it comes from Americans. Given our heavy role in grinding Palestinians into the dirt, we've said enough as it is.

MUST READ: I don't want to oversell this, but if you find extreme political stupidity at all humorous, then you cannot pass up this howler by Debbie Schlussel. So good that FrontPage carried it today. What better endorsement do you need?