Democracy is the worst form of government that exists

How’s the rest of that quote go? Oh yeah, besides all of the others. One need only look at the recent elections in Palestine and Israel to confirm that sentiment. The world was shocked to learn that the Palestinians had elected a terrorist group to majority in Parliament. And now the world is confused by what the Israeli populace is saying with the results from yesterday’s elections.

Of course you could really argue that we aren’t talking about a true democracy in either case. Last time I checked when a nation maintains different rights for its citizens depending on their ethnicity we call that an apartheid regime, not a democracy. And the same holds true for an “authority” which is as corrupt as any government in the world has ever been.

Personally I found the most shocking thing about Hamas’ recent ascension to political power was the fact that it took so long. While the rest of the world looks at Hamas as simply a terrorist organization the truth is, as usual, more complicated than that. Hamas has always been incredibly popular among the Palestinian people. They have been providing much needed social services, schools and medical aid to the Palestinians people for years. They accomplished things that the Palestinian Authority was either too corrupt or too incompetent to achieve. And when you’re a group that has been shit on worse than any other in the world for the last 50 years or so, you’re grateful to anyone who is one your side. And of course Hamas embodies the struggle against the much hated “Zionist occupiers” as they like to call them. Oh yeah, and they convince young Palestinian men to strap explosives to their chest, walk into crowded Israeli areas and blow everyone they can to pieces.

But when Israel decided to marginalize Yasser Arafat they played into the hands of Hamas. Most people speak of the Palestinians as if they are on homogenous group with one clear mindset and focused set of goals. As a reformed Muslim I can tell you if there is anything Muslim’s are not, it’s organized, either politically or socially.

Believe it or not, Yasser Arafat and the PA represented the moderate wing of the Palestinian viewpoint. The extremists, yeah that’s Hamas. Mahmoud Abbas, Arafat’s interim successor, never really seemed to resonate within among the Palestinian people. He was always seen as the handpicked choice of the Israeli’s and the US and only present because those powers had decided that Arafat was no longer a partner in the peace process and not worth negotiating with. There was only one group capable of filling the power vacuum once Arafat finally died, and that’s what we see today. It could have been the moderates, but not once they proved to be useless.

The truth is this was all a forgone conclusion much earlier than that. Yitzhak Rabin’s murder in 1995 should go down in history as the most successful political assassination since Archduke Francis Ferdinand was killed by a Serbian nationalist and the world plunged into war for the first time. Looking back from our vantage point it’s clear that the peace process died with Rabin, and I guess that was the point.

Afterwards the Israeli populace could never seem to decide if they wanted to make peace or wage war. Every election swung from one political extreme to another. Bill Clinton, Ehud Barak and Yasser Arafat did come awfully close to accomplishing something magical in Camp David, but not as close as some would like to believe. The media likes to say that Arafat walked away from 97% of what he was asking for. They of course neglect to mention that the 3% included Jerusalem and the Temple Mount as well as the fact that the Palestinian “Right to Return” was a non-starter with Ehud Barak. But Arafat never could make that final step, he was able to recognize the state of Israel, but never cement his place in history by making a lasting peace.

But in retrospect, now that Israel has decided to unilaterally draw it’s own borders, the Palestinians will get less, much less. And since the al-Aqsa Intifadah started the Palestinians have found a way to counter the deplorable treatment they’ve been receiving that attracts the attention of the world. When it was just a bunch of Palestinian kids throwing rocks at tanks no one seemed to care too much about their struggle, but once they started turning themselves into human bombs and terrorizing their occupiers everyone took notice.

Palestinians of course look at this as the height of hypocrisy. Of course Hamas is a terrorist group, but there is no definition of terrorism that you could manage to write that wouldn’t also include the Israeli government. They are in violation of more UN Security Council Resolutions than Iraq ever was, and it’s only because the US exercises it’s veto power constantly in their favor that they haven’t been declared a terrorist nation. When they launch missiles into civilian neighborhoods because they know a certain “high value targets” are in the area and civilians die, they call it collateral damage. When Hamas sends suicide bombers to blow up civilians its terrorism. What’s the difference again? The rule of law stop being applied a long time ago.

This of course makes the moral high-ground position of Israel and the US that they don’t negotiate with terrorists all the more absurd. Who else are you going to negotiate with? They’re the ones you’re at war with, if you want peace of course you have to negotiate with them. If they stopped being terrorists, there’d be nothing left to negotiate. It’s the only card they have to play and they’re not going to stop until they have something worth stopping for.

There’s so much blame to pass around in all of this I don’t know where to even start. And that’s sad for me because I’ve learned I really like blaming people. But I think the British are a good a place as any to begin. Yeah the Holocaust was terrible, but did you really think the people that we now refer to as Palestinians would be ok with being kicked out of their land? Stupid Balfour Declaration.

And what about all the other Arab nations? Why couldn’t you just have taken in the Palestinian people when they became homeless? Then they wouldn’t have had to live in tents for the last 50 years and maybe they wouldn’t be so pissed off. Come on, you have lots of land and money, help a brother out. But no it was more politically expedient to have the Palestinians living in squalor and misery so you’d have a card to play against Israel.

Or maybe it was Abraham’s fault. You just have written a clear and concise will. The people of my son Isaac get this side of the yard and the people of my son Ishmael get this side. See, no more bickering. Now go and play nice.

Really like everything else, it’s God’s fault. Chosen people, huh? Holy Land, eh? Milk and honey, you say? That all seems to have turned out to be a great idea. I’m still trying to imagine there’s no religion, I hear it’s easy if you try.

Maybe by some miracle Ehud Ohlmert and Ismail Haniya can find a way to work together for peace despite all their rhetoric to the contrary. Who knows, Nixon did go to China after all. But I don’t think that’s where the smart money is at. So for the foreseeable future Palestinians will be killing Israelis and Israelis will be killing Palestinians. And one day I’ll have to explain to my kids why these two groups of people hate each other. And that truly breaks my heart.

As much as it pains me to say it, I think my friend Scott might have the right idea. We should just nuke the whole Middle East and turn it into one big glass parking lot. You can still drill through that stuff and it’ll be so much easier to find the oil that way