Moonage Political Webdream

David Bernstein over at Volokh pens on the Hamas victory in Palestine:

Meanwhile, in my view, the gloves are off. If Hamas doesn’t recognize Israel (and, more important, renounce terrorism) right away, I can’t see any reason why Israel wouldn’t be perfectly within its rights to destroy all PA government buildings, given that they are now the assets of a terrorist group that demands Israel’s destruction. There may be practical reasons (let Hamas implode on its own accord), but Israel has no reason to treat Hamas as a legitimate government. You say they were elected? So if Hamas runs a terrorist state bent on its destruction Israel should refrain from treating it as an enemy because it’s an elected terrorist government bent on Israel’s destruction? Please. By that logic, the U.S. shouldn’t have responded to the Nazis declaration of war.

I know he wants to elaborate more later, but I’ve got some opinions right now.  A big part of the problem in Palestine IMO has historically been a power struggle not with Israel, but between fractious terrorist organizations.  To sell their cause, they rallied their people behind destroying Israel.  The keep their power, they attacked each other.  This created basically nothing but total instability and chaos in the entire Palestinian region.  If you’re an Israeli leader, who do you deal with?  Which problem do you address first?  Neither Fatah nor Hamas ruled the entire area.  If you dealt with Fatah, Hamas attacked.  If you dealt with Hamas, Fatah attacked.  Get the picture?  IF, and that’s a HUGE IF, Hamas can solidify power, THEN Israel actually has something it can deal with.  IF, another HUGE IF, Hamas does not feel military and political pressure from within, they can feel confident in running a "country" and dealing with external issues as opposed to never-ending internal power struggles.  IF, the last and most important HUGE IF, Hamas does not feel they need to scare their citizens to death to keep them unified, they’ll have no compelling reason to rally their people with the slogan of "death to Israel".  Hamas has been a terrorist organization, but that doesn’t mean they have to continue being one.  With the motivation to be one removed, hopefully they’ll remember their roots and realize that terrorism always, and I mean ALWAYS, bites the hand that feeds it.

I’m not willing to condemn the Palestinian people for electing Hamas.  I’m also not willing to condemn Hamas in it’s newest form before they’ve had a chance to prove one way or another whether they can restore civility to the region.  And, just as I am with Iraq, I’m not willing to put a timeline on it.  I’ll judge by their actions with the bias that their history merits.

Technorati Tags: International Issues

Tags: International Issues

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