Hamas wins Palestinian election...

[Spazmogen]

Hamas wins Palestinian election...

This should screw up Mid-Eastern relations for years to come.

I have nothing against anyone over there, but many people in power in the US government do. Hamas is considered a Terrorist organization by the US Government.

Hamas' militant wing is bent on the destruction of Israel.

It will be interesting to see if Hamas' political wing can keep the militant wing under control.

If it can, will the countries of the world recognize the elected government?

It would be an impossible line to walk for US foreign policy NOT to recognize the will of the Palestinian people.

And if Iran lends it support to the elected government...

This will be an interseting 2 weeks.

[LoneWolf]

This development is a very frightening one to me. And currently, I see a lot of political statements that appear to contradict each other, what with Hamas talking about negotiating with Israel, but still firmly committing to their refusal to ever acknowledge Israel as a nation.

I also look at the Palestinians with a bit of sadness. I agree that the ruling Fatah party often seemed to lack teeth, and I'm not surprised by claims of corruption and nepotism. But voting Hamas in looks to me to be voting for the much worse of two evils. It makes me think that many Palestinians don't want a resolution that involves peace with Israel; that they may want a homeland, but they might wish to have one that has no Israel next to it, even if Israel were to accede territory it currently occupies in an attempt for peace.

I guess I can sum it up one way:

[dodecahedron]

Hamas' militant wing is bent on the destruction of Israel.

It will be interesting to see if Hamas' political wing can keep the militant wing under control.

this is a wrong conception.
there is no distinction between 'militant' and 'political' wing.
there is only one Hamas and they want to wipe Israel out. including slaughtering me personally and my wife and kid.

[LoneWolf]

Hamas' militant wing is bent on the destruction of Israel.

It will be interesting to see if Hamas' political wing can keep the militant wing under control.

this is a wrong conception.
there is no distinction between 'militant' and 'political' wing.
there is only one Hamas and they want to wipe Israel out. including slaughtering me personally and my wife and kid.

I agree, it isn't like Sinn Fein and the IRA (though at one point, that wasn't much better than Hamas). The "political" side of Hamas still believes in the destruction of Israel...which is why I find it odd that they're even talking about having "discussions". It sounds to me (at least right now) much like they are talking out of both sides of their mouths to appease the UN and others...but the history of Hamas' actions show what matters the most, and that is a history of violence and terrorism.

I wouldn't bet the Gaza strip that this election will result in a transformation similar to that of Ireland. Between this and Sharon's stroke, I fear the worst.

[Spazmogen]

I was thinking exactly of Sinn Fein when I posted earlier.

On the other hand, I read that Bush and Rice are saying they will not even speak to Hamas at all until they renounce violence. Which is not likely to occur.

Wasn't Arafat a terrorist before he tried politics? Yet the Americans spoke to him often...


Perhaps the bombings will stop for a while. They have to actually form a government and try and run the place. The citizens won't accept anarchy as a form of government.

It will be interesting to see how the other Arab countries handle relations with them.

Here's IRAN's reaction.

[LoneWolf]

Arafat headed the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization) which was a terrorist organization, at least by US and Israeli standards (though the Palestinians might have used Ronald Reagan's line "One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter" as a reply, not that I would agree with that in this case). I think we were willing to deal with Arafat though because he gave at least lip service in renouncing Palestinian violence against Israel, though I don't believe he ever had the power to bring Palestinian terrorism to justice.

The Palestinian citizens may not accept anarchy, however, what about a government that declares that Israel has long been the root of all Palestinian problems, and now is the time for all countrymen to gather arms against them? One might consider this a far-fetched and certainly worst-case scenario, but it isn't impossible. It would be unlikely to succeed if fought by military standards, as the Israeli armed forces contain some of the best trained troops in the world, and the Mossad is still one of the better intelligence organizations. In theory though (I'm just playing this out as a "War Room" situation) it could become a nasty guerilla war. What if Palestine were to gain the sympathy of Iran, or perhaps Syria as well?. An ugly nightmare of a scenario. The geopolitical situation in Irelandwas problematic, but IMO this has the potential to be worse, and that's not eveing going into the potential US and UN involvement in such a situation.

I'm of course being doom-and-gloomish about this, and my statements are very premature. I sincerely hope that the new Palestinian ruling body is made up of "men of reason", who value peace more than pride. That's what I'm praying for.