The Palestinian Authority and Hamas
I'm taking a short break from reading to watch some news clips online. I'm intrigued by the irony of the events in the middle east. Let me explain (warning--this might get confusing!).
Can you believe the irony in the Palestinian elections, pushed forward by American pressure, that brought to power a party it is illegal for the American government to work with. Moreover, the Palestinian people elected a government that will surely refuse to cooperate with Israel, thus making the unilateral actions of the Israeli government Palestine’s best hope for autonomy, yet insuring the Israeli people will elect a government that will end all those unilateral actions. The Palestinian people rejected a government because it was unable/too corrupt to provide basic services, yet elected a government in danger of forfeiting way more than half of its civil resources (in foreign aid from the US and others including, you guessed it, Israel). And how strange is it that an organization pledged to non-recognition (destruction) of Israel won an election to lead a government that was given authority by the very agreement that recognized Israel in the first place? Crazy.
But really, I'm interested in what our government will do next. Obviously, people have been quick to either cry terrorist or draw parallels with Sinn Fein and the IRA and the PLO/Fata, saying that the realities of responsibility will rein in Hamas. But there's a huge difference between those days and our post-911 world that has been so ineloquently divided into rigid categories of terrorist and non-terrorist (I'm a non-terrorist in case you were wondering).
Really, I hope Bush decides to give Hamas the benefit of the doubt, not because I think they deserve it, and not because I think they will magically transform into a rational partner in peace and stability, but because the minute we withdraw our resources, we render ourselves irrelevant to the Palestinian situation, just like we are in Cuba.
(I'm a non-terrorist in case you were wondering)
That makes me sleep better at night.
Really, I'm pretty much in agreement w/ you on this one. I find the whole situation kind of perplexing. Obviously I don't enjoy seeing death and destruction on either side, but I also know this conflict started with Ishmael and Isaac several millenia ago. I don't know that anything anyone does or doesn't do is going to magically end it.
Very interesting post.
Re: Sinn Fein and the PLO I was talking about this very phenomenon with someone at work this morning. He cited the Quebecois Block as another example of a group whose original, more radical agenda was watered down when they acheived some power and a position at the table.
More generally, I think it's really ironic how a number of U.S.-spurred democratic elections are bestowing power to groups that the U.S. government publicly touts as enemies (e.g. 75ish percent of those elected in the Iraqi elections being more radical/fundamentalist leaning). Proclaiming democracy as God's intention for the world, combined with previously decrying the very groups that these democratic elections have granted power produces a super-complicated American position. If truly free elections were held in other currently U.S.-friendly places like Saudi Arabia and Egypt, there is little doubt that the elected governments would be extremely anti-American. Lots of U.S. government commitments-- not to deal with terrorists, to do everything possible to bring democracy to create free nations, etc.-- are producing paradox-filled policy. This is going to be interesting.
I appreciate the fact that the results of these elections cannot possibly be construed as results jerry-rigged by American manipulation.