Hamas's Mistake?
At least one commentator thinks Hamas erred by staging an armed coup in Gaza:
"Hamas already mostly controlled Gaza. It is hard to imagine what gains it can reap from its 'victory.' But it is easy to see the losses. Fatah, and the government of its leader Mahmoud Abbas, will be able to restore their strength in the West Bank with the eager assistance of virtually the whole outside world, while Gaza will be shut off and denied outside aid far more strictly than during the past year. Israel will retaliate against shelling with a freer hand. Egypt will tighten its border. And Hamas has in one swoop negated its own supreme achievement, namely winning a majority in Palestine's 2006 parliamentary elections. Until now, Hamas had a powerful argument: how can the West demand democracy and then boycott the winners? But now it is Hamas itself that has destroyed Palestinian democracy by staging an armed coup. Its democratic credentials have gone up in the smoke of its own arson."
Well, I don't know. I'm not familiar with too many people who truly believed that Hamas was committed to democratic institutions to begin with, and I doubt that protecting democracy is high on Hamas's list of priorities either. But I don't particularly care whether the violent seizure of power in Gaza was bad for Hamas. It was certainly bad for the Palestinian cause at large -- a fact their self-proclaimed leaders no longer seem to care about.
Comments (5)
The question whether it's good or not for the Palestinians is the wrong question. It has always been the wrong question.
The real question is: Will Hamas's success advance the true agenda---the destruction of Israel.
The same question pertains to Lebanon. The issue is not: Is ____ good for Lebanon, or is ____ bad for Lebanon? What's good, or bad, for Lebanon (or Lebanese)---just like what's good, or bad, for Palestine (or Palestinians) is a total non sequitur.
The endgame will be Israel's destruction, and if the strategy means that Lebanon must suffer---that Palestinians must suffer---to achieve that glorious, God-driven goal, then their suffering, virtuous as it must be, creditable as it must be, must occur. The stakes are too important to let mere suffering get in the way (though one will play the human tragedy gambit to the hilt).
(Of course, if Palestinians do suffer, all the better for them, since the world's coffers will continue to flow to alleviate their suffering---all in the grand effort to achieve THE glorious goal. The Lebanese, alas, are not so lucky, unless they happen to be Hizbullah supporters, since "we are all Hizbullah now." But at least, one may begin to understand why Lebanon must pay the---patriotic---price that Iran and Syria have ordained.)
One wonders why at this juncture, the point even has to be made....
Posted by Barry Meisiln | June 25, 2007 9:05 AM
Posted on June 25, 2007 09:05
Barry makes a great point. To those "True Beleivers", the end justifies whatever means they use.
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