But what about...

Submitted by David Hodges (United States), Jan 27, 2006 at 11:56

Thank you for this article, which is the best to come out since the Palestinian elections.

There was one thing that worried me about it though, and that is isolating the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority. It seems to me like we're in a Catch-22 here. I don't think the US or EU should recognize the government in any way, either diplomatically or by giving it funds. But at the same time, the Hamas government is clearly going to consolidate power, turn the Palestinian territories into radical Islamicstan and orient Palestinian foreign policy (or whatever it is) toward the Arab and Iranian oil rich states -- and that will be perfectly fine with most of the Palestinians. I fear that the Hamas-led government is going to radicalize, remove any remaining checks and balances that it might get from Western pressure and remake itself as the Lebanon circa-1980 on the West Bank. Who or what are going to stop it? Are the marines going to come in and demand elections? Are the Israelis going to overthrow the PA and demand a new one to be put in place?

I think that this moment and this election are clarifying and that however miserable the past 50 years have been for Israel, the next 50 have the potential to be disastrous.

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