Want a responsible Hamas? Let it achieve responsibility through real elections
Tuesday, January 24, 2006 at 6:12PM EDITORIAL: “Palestinian Democracy: What to do when terrorist win elections,” Wall Street Journal, 24 January 2006, p. A20.
OP-ED: “Regime Change in Palestine?” by Khaled Abu Toameh, Wall Street Journal, 24 January 2006, p. A20.
This has always been the warning of the regional experts: if we promote democracy in the Middle East, we’ll just end up with religious extremists in power.
This assumption forgets two realities: 1) those striving for power act differently than those who’ve achieved it (sometimes they act worse, sometimes they act better); and 2) most founders of countries start out as rebels and terrorists (as the members of the British Parliament reminded me when I spoke there a couple of years back, they still consider George Washington to be a master terrorist).
The question on Hamas isn’t whether they used terror. They did—like crazy. So did Fatah.
The question is, Is Hamas a fundamentalist group whose main aim in gaining power is to disconnect Palestine from the corrupt, outside world? Or, more to the point, to rub out Israel—it’s version of the corrupt, outside world?
If it learns to love power, and Palestine’s ability to exist on its own, the trade-off on Israel may not be so inconceivable.
I know, I know. Hard to imagine. But I haven’t seen a revolutionary party yet that didn’t lose something with power—their goals, their common sense, whatever.
If and when Hamas wins, it won’t just be that the population is desperate. It will be because it outperforms Fatah as a provider of social services a desperate population needs desperately. And because it’s campaign focused, according to Abu Toameh, on corruption, nepotism and anarchy.
And that, my friends, is democracy in hard times and hard places.
Reader Comments (3)
I just sent an "ask Tom" question on this subject the other day. I suppose I didn't need to do that as it was probably just a matter of time before you would hit that subject. Didn't the entrance of the IRA into politics eventually lead to a disarmament?
You have to love President Bush's press conference today. He might as well have read out this post to the press, the message was that similar. The press wanted a denunciation of Hamas and they didn't get one even after prodding repeatedly. What they got was a denunciation of violence and independent militias. If Hamas grows up, they'll replace Fatah, but only if they lay down their guns. Hopefully, Hamas will be smarter about these things as the Irgun was half a century ago during the Altalena affair.
If Hamas integrates its militia into the PA armed forces, they'll have grown up and have no armed wing outside the normal armed forces that the PA has had for years. They'll control those armed forces because they'll control the government so there will be no shame. The US can keep the aid flowing and we'll hopefully move forward to a better situation both in the wider world and between Israel and Palestine.
"But I haven’t seen a revolutionary party yet that didn’t lose something with power—their goals, their common sense, whatever."
Nazis, Communists, Italian Fascists. They may have lost their goals and common sense along the way, but they also did a huge amount of damage, both internally and externally.