Hamas and Violence

(First posted late January 2006)

As soon as the spectacular election victory
by Hamas was broadcast to the world, the
condemnations came flooding in:
From America-Israel, United Kingdom, the EU,
even little Denmark, came with one pathetic
voice the message that Hamas must renounce
violence, must recognise Israel, must accept
the Road Map etc etc, at once attempting to
bludgeon Hamas into Fatah but, of course,
Hamas is not Fatah, that is the whole point.

All the Western leaders said that democracy
and violence are incompatible -
and they should know! Excuse me!
The West's illegal wars of aggression against
Afghanistan and Iraq and Israel's decades-long
daily trampling on the Palestinians' most basic
rights - all this, and much more, carried out by
nations which are technically democracies!!!

Instead of condemning the results we should all
applaud Hamas for somehow having been able
to convince the Palestinians that voting was
worth doing, for somehow having channeled that
huge reservoir of pent-up frustrations and rage
into the political process, and remember those
elections took place under conditions about as
far from normal as can be imagined:
Under Israel's continued illegal and barbaric
occupation - how Hamas did it I do not know
but they succeeded and we should all give
them great credit for that.

Can Hamas deliver?
One must hope so. They must deliver.
They have of course built up an enviable
reputation for fair dealing and honesty at the
local level where for years they have provided
educational and medical services in the refugee
camps, as well as offering heroic resistance to
the occupation, and, in stark contrast to the
Fatah top people, who live in protected
compounds and are driven in limousines,
the Hamas leaders live, eat, work and pray
with their voters - that alone gives them
enormous strength and credibility.
But they have no experience of
real government.

Hamas, I wish you all the best, keep clean,
stay pure, be true to your principles and,
inshallah, you will succeed.

And, by the way, every time Israel and the West
call you terrorists unfit for government, remind
the world in a loud voice that the modern state
of Israel was created at least partially in response
to bombings and other acts of pure terror by
people wanted by the british secret services, 2 of
those later becoming prime minister of Israel:
Yitzak Shamir and Menachem Begin.

The West wanted democracy and got it:
Now shut up and put up with the results
you hypocrites!!