The Majority are militant.

Voting for Hamas versus Fatah is not necessarily an indication of support for terrorism. It can be seen as a vote for Hamas' social services and against Fatah's governmental corruption. As we know in our own country when it comes to voting - all politics is local.

 

[sarcasm]I guess that decides it. Because the Palestinians voted for Hamas, the whole of the Middle East supports terrorism because the Palestinians represent the whole Middle East region. And this makes all negative stereotypes about Middle Easterns, and why don't we throw in Arabs and Muslims as well, true. Why are we hesitating to nuke 'em all?[/sarcasm]

 

Some people will keep their heads in the sand until they are chopped off by the sword of allah.

 

Militants on our side don't exactly help the situation.

 

Quoted from the article linked by Bunyon:

It would appear that your source agrees with Ken.

1. The Palestinians did not vote for Hamas for their terror platform which has led to much of their own suffering. They voted for social reforms and against the corruption of the old time Fatah Party. They voted to change the status quo.

2. Hamas will not concern itself as a political entity with negotiations with Israel, or even with foreign policy in general. They are the party which will work for a better life for the Palestinian People, which is what they campaigned as the party of reform. They are, however, open to allowing other parts of the government which are not related to Hamas to deal with diplomacy.

3. Hamas will either implement radical human rights and democratic reforms for their people or will soon become political pariahs just as the Fatah Party did this election.

4. Hamas will, in the short run, claim that this is because of their terror campaigns and the reward for terror. This will ring hollow to average Palestinians who are simply looking for a better life and to live in peace. Hamas will, at this point, do one of three things:

* Get voted out
* become a tyrannical society much like Germany (this vote kind of reminds me of Germany in the early part of the 20th century).
* Be thrown out by force and crumble under the weight of their own oppression.

5. This also demonstrates another reason why I have been less than impressed with the mediocre foreign policy work of Rice in the Israeli / Palestinian peace process. I hope that she will come to her senses and start listening to us uninformed neo-cons like Sharansky and myself who state that you should never give them anything without something in return. It is called reciprocity and thus far, we have not seen very much of that from the Palestinians and seen no real consequences for terror, This sends the wrong message. If Condi is really serious about achieving peace in Israel, she will demand reciprocity before anymore concessions are made or even anymore talks are held.

Joseph Botwinick

 

Huh? What are you talking about, Ken? You lost me here.

Joseph Botwinick

 

Some people, Joseph, have advocated simply going in and carpet bombing Iran - right now - thousands of dead children notwithstanding. Or they are advocating taking our Syria - right now - thousands of dead children notwithstanding. They appear to have no interest in trying to work things out without violence and horrific loss of lives - including American lives.

It's sad when people who are so adamantly anti-abortion in the United States because they regard abortion as the killing of a child also don't seem to value much the lives of children in other countries.