Hamas won the election in the PA yesterday. By all accounts, it was a clean election but there were only two choices: the corrupt and incompetent Fatah; and the murderous terrorists of Hamas. Hamas' win shows just how recalcitrant and anti-Israel the Gaza populace is, thereby negating the concept of a "partner for peace". The Hamas win also means that the accountability gap is sealed: no more Mahmoud Abbas claiming that he cannot control the "militants" in Gaza because they are from Hamas. Any attacks on Israel means that Hamas is responsible (and Israel should hit back HARD). And the international community cannot logically contend (although it will) that the "militants" and the Hamas ministers in government are not connected.
Emanuele Ottolenghi sees that potential bright side:
There will be no excuses or ambiguities when Hamas fires rockets on Israel and launches suicide attacks against civilian targets. Until Tuesday, the PA could hide behind the excuse that they were not directly responsible and they could not rein in the "militants." Now the "militants" are the militia of the ruling party. They are one and the same with the Palestinian Authority. If they bomb Israel from Gaza — not under occupation anymore, and is therefore, technically, part of the Palestinian state the PLO proclaimed in Algiers in 1988, but never bothered to take responsibility for — that is an act of war, which can be responded to in kind, under the full cover of the internationally recognized right of self-defense. No more excuses that the Palestinians live under occupation, that the PA is too weak to disarm Hamas, that violence is not the policy of the PA. Hamas and the PA will be the same: What Hamas does is what the PA will stand for.
No comments:
Post a Comment