A rchive Date
[ 28-01-2006 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Palestine ]
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[http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Columnists/Jacobs_Mindelle/2006/01/28/1415251.html
Palestinians choose savages
By MINDELLE JACOBS
Sat, January 28, 2006
The Palestinians have messed up so many opportunities to build their own state that it's tempting to conclude they value victimhood over statehood.
It's been more than five years since Yasser Arafat walked away from an Israeli proposal that would have given his long-suffering people a country.
Instead of offering a counter-proposal, he launched an intefadeh that has resulted in death and misery for both sides and virtual economic collapse of the Palestinian economy.
The latest catastrophic setback is the overwhelming victory of Hamas in this week's Palestinian elections.
The Palestinians rejected the corruption-riddled Fatah party, which has been in power for decades, only to embrace a terrorist group dedicated to Israel's destruction.
The enormity of the paradox is stunning. Yes, the Palestinians voted in free elections. But they chose a party that will not only take away their freedoms but will trample any chances of peace into the dust.
With whom is Israel expected to negotiate now? Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has been a bit of a lame duck since he's been unwilling to disarm the militants in his midst, but at least he appears committed to the peace process.
Hamas, on the other hand, doesn't even pretend to support talks with Israel.
"We consider Israel to be an enemy, not an ally," Hamas leader Mahmoud Al-Zahar said during a televised debate with a Palestinian Authority official that aired last Sunday. "We will not negotiate with Israel," he declared flatly. (Thanks to the Middle East Media Research Institute for the invaluable translations.)
One of the Hamas candidates in Wednesday's election was a woman who boasted that three of her sons died while engaging in terrorist activities against Israel.
"I am proud and honoured to be a terrorist for the sake of Allah," she said in a TV interview last month, adding she's willing to lose all 10 of her sons to terrorism.
"(Israelis) may live under the banner of the Islamic state. That is the future of Palestine that we are striving towards," she explained.
The great irony is that the Palestinians have democratically elected a party that has no intention of respecting the rights of a neighbouring state.
For that matter, Hamas doesn't give a hoot about the freedom of its own people, points out Aurel Braun, a University of Toronto professor of international relations.
Hamas is dedicated to the most extreme forms of Shariah law and religious intolerance, he says.
"They are in many respects similar to the Taliban."
The Palestinians have the right to elect whoever they want as leaders, of course. But they shouldn't be surprised if the world's democracies turn their backs on them.
Canada, the U.S. and the European Union should sever all relations with the Palestinians and cut off funding, Braun says.
"We have a right ... to express our revulsion at the choice that they have made," he says.
Stephen Harper is right that a true democracy must renounce terrorism. The Palestinians must decide whether they want to be international pariahs or part of the civilized world.
As Braun notes, there's more to democracy than an election. It's also about the rule of law and respecting other countries. Until the Palestinians acknowledge that, statehood will continue to elude them.
Meanwhile, with terrorists winning formal control next door, Israel should continue its strategy of unilateral disengagement from its neighbours.
The Palestinians have chosen a band of savages to lead them. Now they must live with it.
E-mail Mindy Jacobs at mjacobs@edmsun.com.
Letters to the editor should be sent to mailbag@edmsun.com.
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