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On the Hamas Win

   30 January 2006, lunch time

I linked to a story on Hamas winning the Palestinian election a few days ago, and didn’t really say much more on the topic. Sunny had the following to say:

The peace process has just taken an u-turn and the Palestinians have made it crystal that they don’t give a damn about the peace process. You can’t negotiate with these folks in good faith.

Sunny’s opinion is inline with what I have heard on the news, either from political analysts or from world leaders. Now, I assume that if Fatah won the election then the peace process would be on course to come to an amicable solution. (If not, then there is really no point lamenting a Hamas win.) Now, I don’t live in Palestine. Neither does Sunny. Neither does George Bush, or any of the leaders of the EU. The people who do live there seem to be of the opinion that Fatah is not getting much done. Hamas won the election because Fatah has been ineffectual so far, at least in the eyes of the only people whose opinions matter on this subject, the Palestinian people. That Fatah could be removed from power without a civil war is a good thing. In the past Canadian election we saw that Canadians were sick of the Liberals and voted someone else into office to replace them; no one complained that this was a failure of democracy. If you can’t live with the results of an election, why bother supporting democractic institutions in the first place?

Of course, everything I just said hinges on Hamas shutting up about wanting to destroy Israel. That country isn’t going anywhere. Both sides need to learn how to get along.

Politics | Current Events