In which Dajji gets up on her soapbox, and not for the last time...
So, if you've been watching the news, or reading the news, or listening, or corresponding through ESP, or whatever your particular preference, you probably know that Hamas won the elections in Palestine yesterday. And that the international community took this opportunity to have a major flip-out.
"Yipes!" said Our Glorious Leader, On Whom No Aspersions Can Ever EVER Be Cast, "Democracy... who'd have thunk it?" He got this bemused expression on his lovable little face (NSA, this one's for you!) and said encouragingly that while we always support those who choose their own leadership, we might object to said leadership when it disagrees with us . And we might be tempted to say, cut off foreign aid. And stop negotiations. And not recognize the government at all. But we love democracy! Yay!
But see, here's the thing: the people of Palestine did not wake up on Election Day and go unilaterally ballistic, decide all of a sudden that the calm, nationalistic, secular approach of Fatah had failed, and to do away with the state of Israel. Fatah has been screwing up for a while now. For years and years, the situation on the ground in Palestine, for the average Palestinian has not improved; in fact, it has gotten worse. Oslo was supposed to be the magic bullet, after the first intifada, but after all that, nothing. Unemployment is sky-high, the refugee camps are a nightmare, with no end in sight. As far as the average person can tell, the negotiations haven't worked, except to enrich the few at the top of Fatah while the people on the bottom starve.
Meanwhile, Hamas provides social services, especially in Gaza, one of the most crowded places on earth. These people didn't vote for suicide bombers; they voted for food, and doctors, and jobs, and an end to corruption. Hamas didn't campaign that they were going to blow Israel off the map; they campaigned that they were going to clean up the government and stop people from dying in the streets so much. When your kids are getting shot at every night, you could honestly give a damn about grand and glorious ideologies of right-to-exist.
The worst mistake the world could make is to isolate Palestine right now. Cut off foreign aid (not that we give them that much in the first place) and you give them one more reason to become desperate. This was the government they elected; if you negotiate with them, you force them to become pragmatic, which a majority of the population wants anyway. Make real progress towards a just peace, and chances are, the next election will go better for everyone.
PS: one more thing: we won't negotiate with a party that has 'an armed wing'?? Mr. President, have you met the NRA? Allow me to introduce you sometime. Also the IDF, I hear, is a great group of guys. Little on the militant side, but what the hell....
"Yipes!" said Our Glorious Leader, On Whom No Aspersions Can Ever EVER Be Cast, "Democracy... who'd have thunk it?" He got this bemused expression on his lovable little face (NSA, this one's for you!) and said encouragingly that while we always support those who choose their own leadership, we might object to said leadership when it disagrees with us . And we might be tempted to say, cut off foreign aid. And stop negotiations. And not recognize the government at all. But we love democracy! Yay!
But see, here's the thing: the people of Palestine did not wake up on Election Day and go unilaterally ballistic, decide all of a sudden that the calm, nationalistic, secular approach of Fatah had failed, and to do away with the state of Israel. Fatah has been screwing up for a while now. For years and years, the situation on the ground in Palestine, for the average Palestinian has not improved; in fact, it has gotten worse. Oslo was supposed to be the magic bullet, after the first intifada, but after all that, nothing. Unemployment is sky-high, the refugee camps are a nightmare, with no end in sight. As far as the average person can tell, the negotiations haven't worked, except to enrich the few at the top of Fatah while the people on the bottom starve.
Meanwhile, Hamas provides social services, especially in Gaza, one of the most crowded places on earth. These people didn't vote for suicide bombers; they voted for food, and doctors, and jobs, and an end to corruption. Hamas didn't campaign that they were going to blow Israel off the map; they campaigned that they were going to clean up the government and stop people from dying in the streets so much. When your kids are getting shot at every night, you could honestly give a damn about grand and glorious ideologies of right-to-exist.
The worst mistake the world could make is to isolate Palestine right now. Cut off foreign aid (not that we give them that much in the first place) and you give them one more reason to become desperate. This was the government they elected; if you negotiate with them, you force them to become pragmatic, which a majority of the population wants anyway. Make real progress towards a just peace, and chances are, the next election will go better for everyone.
PS: one more thing: we won't negotiate with a party that has 'an armed wing'?? Mr. President, have you met the NRA? Allow me to introduce you sometime. Also the IDF, I hear, is a great group of guys. Little on the militant side, but what the hell....
posted by Dajjimeg at
11:12 AM
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