In other news, you may have heard that elections took place and the Palestinian people decided that Hamas, a known terrorist organization, was the right choice to lead them. Where Hamas will lead them seems to be the question of the day around here. Whereas everyone watching the election believed that Hamas wouldn't win a majority of seats in the parliament, leaving the Fatah party (of which Mahmoud Abbas, the current president, is a member) in power, it turned out that Hamas swept the election, winning approximately 76 of the 132 seats available.
The debate here in Israel for a while was whether or not to allow voting in East Jerusalem by absentee ballot as long as Hamas was on the ballot. The argument raged for weeks. Eventually, Israel allowed a limited number of absentee ballots to be cast.
It's a sticky situation worldwide, prompting our own shining example of leadership to step up to the mic and say a few words. Bush stated that the U.S. would not deal with Hamas unless it renounced its call for the destruction of Israel. Oh yeah, and he also told them to stop being terrorists. He's not happy that they won, but now that they have, it would be dangerous and politically damaging to do anything but shout hooray and point at what he claims is another instance of western-inspired democracy at work. It's funny, I can't recall the last time the Ku Klux Klan was allowed to register a candidate for president...
There is obviously a lot of info I'm leaving out, so feel free to look it up on your own and post a comment or two.
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Politics make us sad. Post more about food.
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PS - Allright, that was a copout response.
I can only hope that with proper representation, the Hamas party will truly honor their own request for a ceasefire agreement with Israel in favor of more diplomatic negotiation. They now have a voice, so it could stand to reason that less violent avenues could be explored.
And I fear that US-based media outlets are continuing their trend of black-and-whiting the parties involved. "The Hamas are terrorists" and "The Fatah party is riddled with corruption" seem to be the most recent of oversimplifications in just about every article I've read.
I'm going to stand firm in my belief that there is no true evil in the world, but only dedicated difference of opinion. Terrorism is a last resort for those who have no say in issues close to their value system. With the tremendous Palestinian support for the Hamas party, we can only hope that the militant faction is a radical offshoot rather than a component fundamental to its operation.