Mariner
Active Member
Hamas winning this election... but I have to agree with canavar that our prime value being democracy, we need to try to make this piece of democracy succeed.
After all the IRA's political "wing" has long been a recognized piece of Northern Irish politics despite its terrorist connections. Or consider the ANC, which went from terrorist organization to ruling party in South Africa.
"Once a terrorist organization, always a terrorist organization" simply isn't true. Perhaps once recognized as the leadership, Hamas will act in a mature manner and not condone or commit terrorism--unlike the PLO, which was never able (or willing) to completely stop it. Hamas has more credibility among the Palestinian people--so its likelihood of success is greater.
There's plenty of blame to go around, but the Palestinian people certainly have some legitimate gripes. A large number were pushed off the land they had farmed for centuries when Israel was created. A much larger number (750,000) were scared away by Israeli terrorists such as Ariel Sharon--whose terrorism preceded any Arab terrorism towards Israel. Surrounding Arab countries then rejected the Palestinians, seeing them as weak for having no home and for having not fought back hard enough (in their view).
Palestinians aren't terrorists--or even anti-Semitic--by nature. There was no bad feeling towards Jews in Palestine when Israel was first created; the bad feelings came later. While I don't condone their terrorism (or that of the ANC, IRA, or Reagan's "Freedom Fighters"), I can understand where their anger comes from. The only reasonable way out is for their anger to be channelled into legitimate institution-building--elections, a democracy, self-government, and a chance to return to being the intelligent, gentle people that they once were. I hope it works.
By the way, nearly all of my Jewish friends (mostly liberal physicians) would agree completely with what I have just written, although an orthodox Jewish friend told me last week, when I asked about her feelings about this, "We had a prior claim to the land. It's in the Bible." So it goes in the birthplace of three religions. If only they could have been born a little farther apart!
Mariner.
After all the IRA's political "wing" has long been a recognized piece of Northern Irish politics despite its terrorist connections. Or consider the ANC, which went from terrorist organization to ruling party in South Africa.
"Once a terrorist organization, always a terrorist organization" simply isn't true. Perhaps once recognized as the leadership, Hamas will act in a mature manner and not condone or commit terrorism--unlike the PLO, which was never able (or willing) to completely stop it. Hamas has more credibility among the Palestinian people--so its likelihood of success is greater.
There's plenty of blame to go around, but the Palestinian people certainly have some legitimate gripes. A large number were pushed off the land they had farmed for centuries when Israel was created. A much larger number (750,000) were scared away by Israeli terrorists such as Ariel Sharon--whose terrorism preceded any Arab terrorism towards Israel. Surrounding Arab countries then rejected the Palestinians, seeing them as weak for having no home and for having not fought back hard enough (in their view).
Palestinians aren't terrorists--or even anti-Semitic--by nature. There was no bad feeling towards Jews in Palestine when Israel was first created; the bad feelings came later. While I don't condone their terrorism (or that of the ANC, IRA, or Reagan's "Freedom Fighters"), I can understand where their anger comes from. The only reasonable way out is for their anger to be channelled into legitimate institution-building--elections, a democracy, self-government, and a chance to return to being the intelligent, gentle people that they once were. I hope it works.
By the way, nearly all of my Jewish friends (mostly liberal physicians) would agree completely with what I have just written, although an orthodox Jewish friend told me last week, when I asked about her feelings about this, "We had a prior claim to the land. It's in the Bible." So it goes in the birthplace of three religions. If only they could have been born a little farther apart!
Mariner.