something missing - reply to DP column on current Palest "election"

Submitted by ron thompson (United States), Jan 25, 2006 at 16:59

Please - not so fast in implicitly conceding that what's going on in the Occupied (i.e. by Palestinians) Territrories is an election in a meaningful or responsible use of that word.

Ever since the days of the Grand Mufti in the 1920's the Palestinians have reacted murderously to any fellow Palestinians
who spoke of a genuine peace or acceptance of the Jews during the Mandate years, or of the Israelis after the establishment of the State of Israel.

As pointed put by Netanyahu in his unfortunately forgotten 1993 book Israel: A Place Among the Nations: Israel and the World,
and others, the Arabs in Palestine may have killed more of their own who were wiling to make peace with Israel over the decades than they have killed Jews.

Who can imagine that any Palestinian who got up today and said that he accepted the existence of Israel, accepted that there could be no large-scale 'return' of Palestinians to that state, and was willing to negotiate a two-state solution with territory on something less than the pre-1967 borders would posibly remain alive for more than a matter of hours. So it seems irresponsible and actually reckless to concede that anything like a genuine election or a meaningful democratic event has taken place in the West Bank and Gaza.

Just because many will make the dangerous argument that if Hamas wins, then the West has 'no choice' but to acccept that a terrorist group has gained legitimacy and must be dealt with, it is unwise to concede that a genuine election has in fact taken place.

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