Death by unintended consequences

Hamas is in a pickle.

Look at it from their point of view: There they were, happily plotting their future as the minority party in the new Palestinian government, drawing up plans to divert international aid into their terror-funding bank accounts, thinking up new and ever-more-devastating terrorist acts to embarrass and castrate the majority government of Mahmoud Abbas and his corrupt, double-talking Fatah party. Ah, bliss.

And then, just when everything looked perfect, they won the elections outright.

Whoops.

Western governments are trying as hard as they can to explain that the Palestinians voted for jobs and health care, not for the destruction of Israel. But Hamas is unable to take the hint and play along with the fiction that would permit continued international financial aid. These people are nothing if not honest. They said they stand for the total destruction of Israel, and they mean it, and they're not going to stage the old Yasser Arafat tap-dance -- a conciliatory speech for the English-speaking world, and nuclear rhetoric for the home folks. It's nuclear rhetoric for everybody. They stand for the destruction of Israel, they're in an alliance with the almost-nuclear Iran, which also stands for the destruction of Israel and is funded by sixty-dollar-a-barrel oil, and they're ready to rumble.

What a headache for the Western governments. Now they have to do something.

Fortunately for the Western governments, Hamas now has a state, or something very close to it. That means their trademark bombing of Israeli civilians, once considered a stateless act of terrorism that can't be helped, could now be considered an official act of war that must be answered.

Oh, posh. Just when things were going so well for them.

Israel has already said it is thinking of withholding all the tax revenue that funds the Palestinian government, and the U.S. Congress certainly isn't going to be signing any checks made payable to Hamas, not in an election year. Imagine telling Americans who are waiting in line at the airport with their shoes in their hands that you're taking money out of their paychecks to help Hamas form an independent state. Last one out of the Capitol, turn out the lights -- oil is going to $100 a barrel and we have to save where we can.

So here's the choice for Hamas: double-talk or die. Either they have to pretend they don't favor the destruction of Israel, or they have to form a military alliance with Iran and take on Israel, the United States, Britain, Germany, Italy, and maybe even France. Russia and China may side with the Palestinians, but there's nothing in history to suggest they will spend a nickel to help them, let alone participate in a Third World War to save their sorry Hamases.

So maybe the news is good. Maybe the end of illusion is a useful starting point for a real solution.


Copyright 2006


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