Jimmy Carter is right. The United States,
Israel and the European Union ought to stop favoring Fatah over Hamas.
Carter is correct for reasons other than those he gives. Favoring the
one Palestinian gang over the other obscures that, with respect to what
counts, there is little difference between these temporary rivals. In
their capacity and intention to foster a civil society in the
Palestinian Authority, Fatah and Hamas are indistinguishable. Hamas, if
anything, is less corrupt. Which is one reason the “Palestinian People”
elected these Islamic jihadis last year as their legitimate
representatives.
The Israelis advised against holding the
elections; they knew what they’d get. Bush would have none of it. At his
insistence, the “Palestinian People” voted with a vengeance, giving
Hamas a majority in all but two of the 16 districts in the
West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Hamas has merely asserted its monopoly over force in Gaza, in the style
to which the inhabitants of the Palestinian anarcho-terrorist
territories are accustomed.
In the fall of 2005, and in anticipation of
the triumph of democracy in Gaza, the “Palestinian People” had demanded
Israeli settlers dismantle their menacing hothouses, where
export-quality flowers and produce were cultivated. When these were
destroyed—when the only people to have ever produced anything on that
arid land were evicted—Gazans turned to honing their homicidal,
home-grown industries with renewed verve.
Bush is not much of a people’s person.
Ultimately, democracy à la Dubya translates into “the will of the
people” only if that will coincides with Dubya’s. To use the Brechtian
refrain, Bush has decided to dissolve the people (that elected Hamas)
and elect another (that supports Fatah). The latter he calls “moderate
Palestinians,” whom, he says, form a majority in the PA.
When it comes to deviancy, Bush is nothing if
not broadminded. The last terrorist attack (sorry, “resistance”) Fatah
took credit for was on the 29th of January this year. Fatah’s al-Aqsa
Martyrs Brigades killed three people by suicide bombing in a bakery in
the southern city of Eilat. There were
hundreds before that. Article 12
of Fatah’s
Constitution enunciates the aim of achieving the “[c]omplete
liberation of Palestine, and eradication of Zionist economic, political,
military and cultural existence.” Article 17 states that “Armed public
revolution is the inevitable method to liberating Palestine.”
Lest there be any more confusion about the
exaggerated rift between the assorted Palestinian Black Shirts, by the
Telegraph’s telling, the kidnapped BBC journalist Alan Johnston is being
held by “a criminal clan which has ties to both Hamas and Fatah.” Hip to
the Hamas-Abbas deadly dance, DEBKAfile’s hardened military
analysts have predicted an impending reconciliation. Abbas will
establish another unity government that accords Hamas its proper place
in the PA. This is why Abbas’ new cabinet consists of “nonentities,”
such as a retired, 80-year-old Jordanian. This is also why strongman
Muhammed Dahlan, hated by Hamas, will be removed and replaced with the
Hamas-friendly Jibril Rajoub.
The cunning Abbas is simply consolidating his
street cred with the most fractious (and extreme) faction on the block:
the “Palestinian People.”
Cross over into Israel proper and it’s like
night and day. It’s hard to believe the civilized Israeli society is the
one routinely condemned by the
UN, subject to more investigations by it than any other country,
barred from committees on which Syria and Saudi Arabia serve; and
expected to transfer its territories and capital city to the savage
society adjacent to it.
Indeed, Palestinians have responded to their
historical challenges by never missing an opportunity to miss an
opportunity, as Abba Eban tartly observed. Or, put plainly, by breaking
everything around them. How have Jews responded to their near
annihilation? By building a democracy in the desert. With the permission
of the international community, they purchased land in their ancient
homeland, dried swamps, developed industries, planted citrus groves and
built cities. Before long, the Jewish State was able to boast of
world-class intellectuals—scientists, engineers, and Nobel Prize
laureates—good schools and universities, a superb symphony orchestra,
hard-left humanitarians who agitated for the enemy, and writers who
wrote not of the joys of killing and dying, but of the delights of life
and love.
When the atrophying societies in the
neighborhood launched wars against them, Israelis picked up their
weapons and fought back. Then they went back to building stuff. Before
“occupation” and after it—never was there a time in the chronicles of
the Jewish settlement when terrorists did not infiltrate its borders to
kill civilians. Israelis simply buried their toddlers and teens, and
pushed on. Their society hasn’t dissolved. Differences continue to be
settled democratically. Israeli children are not taught to hate. Israel
hasn’t produced refugees; it has assimilated them. It doesn’t rely on UN
relief agencies for food and medicine; Israelis make their own. A large
illegal immigrant population clamors to work in Israel. And Warren
Buffet recently chose to invest $4 billion in Israeli industry. It’s his
first major investment outside the US.
Societies are only as good as the
individuals of which they are comprised. And individuals are only as good as their
actions. Overall, Israeli society
is superior to Palestinian society because, like America, it is peopled
by individuals who make possible a thriving civil society. Yet to Bush,
the latest chaotic chapter in the annals of the M.O.P.E (Most Oppressed
People Ever) is an “exciting moment.” It has inspired in him visions (or
hallucinations) of “two states living side by side in peace." Bush’s
appetite for destruction must be even healthier than that of the
Palestinians.
©2007 By Ilana Mercer
WorldNetDaily.com
June 22
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