Counter-Intuitive: Hamas Victory Leads To Peace?
According to this NY Times article, a number of Israelis believe Hamas’ victory is extraordinarily clarifying.
Key grafs:
Because now we see the real face of the Palestinians,” said Mr. Schmidt, 56, a computer engineer from Haifa who considers himself neither on the left nor the right. “From their vote we can understand their theory to destroy the state of Israel is not a theory but a fact.
“So,” he said, in a conclusion that may not seem immediately logical to outsiders but was repeated again and again in interviews here, “I think it is the best chance for peace. I think Hamas can understand there is no way to destroy the state of Israel and will take a course to peace.
“Hopefully.”…
Another Israeli in the story anticipates an “accelerated” civil war between Fatah and Hamas (see my posts on this topic from earlier this week, here and here):
The general thought was that, at least in the short term, the results were worse for Palestinians than for Israelis. For one, nations friendly to Palestinians may have trouble dealing with Hamas or giving it money. There is also the real possibility of factional fighting, already scattered in southern Gaza.
“There is going to be a big explosion between Hamas and Fatah,” said Joseph Brenner, 58, a gardener sitting with friends in Rabin Square. “It’s good for Israel. And God is the director. We didn’t have to do anything. God did all the work for us.”
Here are some thoughts (via the Houston Chronicle) on the problems Hamas faces when it assumes control of the Palestinian Authority.
Key grafs:
A looming question is whether the responsibilities of government will modify Hamas’ stance toward Israel, and toward the United States and Europe, from whom the Palestinian Authority receives crucial financial support.
There also are questions about whether Hamas — popular for its social welfare work, running towns where it has won local elections but lacking experience in national administration — will have the competence and resources to deliver government services, especially when it is shunned by the Israelis, Americans and Europeans, who call it a terrorist organization.
As I said in one of the earlier posts, Hamas can run clinics which gain them propaganda points, but are they prepared to “fix the potholes”?
I sincerely hope this is a positive development for Israel - in the sense that it should now be impossible for liberals within Israel and in the West to minimize the danger Israel faces and the evil intentions of Israel’s adversaries. Perhaps we will now cease forcing our definition of “peace” upon Israel with meaningless peace accords. Israel should be allowed to deal with terrorism any way it sees proper, and not be constrained by us in ways we would not even allow ourselves to be constrained.
Comment by E. T. Page USN 71-78 — 1/28/2006 @ 4:22 pm
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Pingback by Flopping Aces » Blog Archive » Hamas Will Form Terrorist Nation — 1/28/2006 @ 7:43 pm
““So,†he said, in a conclusion that may not seem immediately logical to outsiders but was repeated again and again in interviews here, “I think it is the best chance for peace. I think Hamas can understand there is no way to destroy the state of Israel and will take a course to peace.” So it’s kind of like Nixon going to China?
Comment by DRJ — 1/28/2006 @ 9:08 pm
Though it was a great tactical and strategic mistake, Hitler had to take on Russia. It was part of his philosophical doctrine that living room for Germany was needed, and it was waiting to the east. Hamas reason for being seems to be the destruction of Israel. To repudiate that would be to deny themselves a reason for living. If Hamas were to accept Israel they would no longer BE Hamas.
Comment by Tim Deters — 1/28/2006 @ 9:24 pm
There’s something about bullies, though Hamas is more than a bully, when they are given authority and the top job it shocks them into doing better. It takes a while, but sooner than later they realise the ball is in their park and they can’t walk away from it. They can no longer be the bully and lead too, it’s one or the other. In business places they usually leave so they can go back to bullying, which is their game. Hamas will have to put up or shut up. Give them time.
Comment by Jim Martin — 1/28/2006 @ 10:00 pm
“A looming question is whether the responsibilities of government will modify Hamas’ stance toward Israel” Puh-leeze. This question “looms” only the minds of the self-deluded. Hamas has taken every opportunity that has presented itself to forcefully reiterate its fundamental reason for existence - the annihilation of Jews and Israel.
Comment by Gary Rosen — 1/29/2006 @ 12:28 am
This link - http://lnweb18.worldbank.org/mna/mena.nsf/0/F192A5DA7D266F048525694700278825?OpenDocument - is very instructive about the PA’s economy. It’d be fascinating to watch Hamas try to keep up its rhetoric against Israel while so dependent on it for jobs, for instance - if it weren’t so deadly serious. I’m waiting to see which nations particularly in Europe will find a way to turn a blind eye to Hamas’s fundamental nature, and the Palestinian people’s mandate for it, though I suspect the tack they take will be the easy “They didn’t know what they were voting for - they were just protesting Fatah” one.
Comment by Jamie — 1/29/2006 @ 2:18 am
Mussolini made the trains run on time. Hitler put all of Germany to work building Volkswagans. The old Germans would say, “Hitler was a good man, until 1939.” The problem is that sewers can be repaired but you can’t expect a leopard to change its spots.
Comment by Nicole Tedesco — 1/29/2006 @ 3:06 am
What is amazing to me is the Liberal MSM opinions that point to Bush’s failure on this. When it was the track that liberals had supported: Bush pressure for Israeli concessions, and liberal support for Arafat’s machinations, that failed.
Comment by pettyfog — 1/29/2006 @ 6:52 am
There is, of course, the other sure road to peace. How much was Israel’s hand stayed by the insistance of America and Europe that with Arafat’s Fatah in place that there was a legimate government to treat with? With Hamas clearly a terrorist organization America and Europe will not have the ability to hold back Israel if Hamas begins a campaign. One suspects that the IDF has the name and address of every known Hamas leader as well as plenty of special warhead TOW and Hellfire.
Comment by Quilly Mammoth — 1/29/2006 @ 7:38 am
In the Mideast for generations, CONTEXT has been key. In PA domestic terms, we know all about Hamas. But on an institutional level, even terrorist thugs would prefer victory to defeat (vs. personal “martyrdom” [sic] in diseased jihadi costume). This means that Iran and Syria are key to Hamas, thus to PA bellicosity. Alas for Prophetologists, Lebanon, Iraq, and by a stretch the Afghans too, have lowered their Banners of Allah, preferring madrassi subversion via Riyadh’s Wahabi kleptocrats. One loud squeak out of Hamas, and either Iran and Syria pull on their tick-infested beards to aid the Cause, or they do not. If they do, first Hamas and then the other two will quite rapidly go down together. You doubt my word? Remember Eisenhower to Mao T’se-tung in 1953: Retreat behind a DMZ or you will die. Even Stalin couldn’t trump that one. So, to Teheran: Lay your nuclear eggs on anyone, anyone at all, and we will not ask questions. You will become a radioactive beacon for ten thousand years, and any further disturbance on your part –no “investigation,” no exculpatory tribunals endlessly convened– will light up Mecca and Medina in addition. That too will be The Will of Allah, because isn’t everything? If your child-molesting Prophet’s God disposes, who are you impious frauds to say Him nay? Bullies are cowards. Hamas is a bully, and far worse. That means they are worse than cowards: Traitors to their own Cause, who send others out to die, but fear to stick out necks themselves. How disreputable! Let ‘em eat camel pie, with buzz-fly sauce. Hamas attack as a Government, when its Chief Creeps’ own lives hang in the balance? We don’t think so.
Comment by John Blake — 1/29/2006 @ 10:34 am
In other words, is Hamas akin to the Likod (which rose from the fringes of the Israeli right to bring peace with Egypt and Jordan) or akin to Nazi Germany (which used democracy to murder six million Jews)? I suspect what the international community will do in the next month will make a difference in the outcome.
Comment by Ronny Max — 1/29/2006 @ 12:57 pm
Wasn’t it Eisenhower who said that if a problem was intractable, perhaps it would help to enlarge it?
Comment by JSAllison — 1/31/2006 @ 8:58 am