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I agree with Jidoe that if anyone were able to disarm/control the hardliners from commiting violent acts, that Hamas would be the only ones able to do so. They may choose to have some sort of peace with Israel but I really cannot see Hamas moderating their views. Only time will tell which path they choose.
One thing about the reporting on the Hamas election victory that makes me want to spew forth the proverbial 'technicolor yawn', is that virtually every single report includes "....a victory for the group Hamas, an organization considered to be a terrorist group by the US and Israel...." Considered to be an terrorist organization!!! Is there a shred of ambiguity in whether or not Hamas IS a terrorist organization?
Also... Jidoe. Do you think that this will almost guarantee that Bebe will be your next PM?
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ROFL!
At his current state, Netanyahu can't win anything. He's a schmuck and everyone knows it.
Personally, I like his economics beliefs and agenda, but as a prime minister, he's a very dangerous person.
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What do you mean by dangerous?
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Netanyahu has proven to be a horrendous liar and being disloyal to his own people (be it the people who have chosen him or the leaders of his party).
There is a problem with a leader that builds his existence with lie upon lie - that's the reason Barak crushed him in the 1999 elections and that is the reason Olmert will crush him in the upcoming elections.
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Wow. That is really interesting about Netanyahu. He comes off really well in the American media.
I've seen him numerous times on both of the news shows I watch (Hardball and O'Reilly Factor... one lefty show and one righty).
He seems extremely educated, rational, and he speaks english superbly well.
But I guess things like disloyalty and dishonesty really wouldn't be apparent on a US news program.
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The title of the article that Jidoe proposes is “In the Mideast, a step back”. Step back from where? Was it ever a step forward? Let us position ourselves on that moment when out of altruism, the US, Russia, the EU and the UN get together to make the roadmap for peace. A summary of the three stages or steps of the roadmap can be found at
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/rls/22520.htm.
Step 1: Ending Terror and Violence, Normalizing Palestinian Life, and Building Palestinian Institutions. This step has not happen, neither the violence from one and the other side has finished, neither the Palestinian life has improved.
Abbas was all right a “more pragmatic negotiating partner” as “most reasonable people have recognized”. The Palestinian Authority was on the corner of the ring being hit over an over and Abbas kept the mouth shut at each hit. Palestinians have not only voted Abbas out of power, in my opinion they have voted against this barren, unsatisfying, unsuccessful diplomacy. Diplomacy has not worked well for the Palestinians in the last years: they have not got any territories back (the Gaza plot was just a joke), their standard of living has got deteriorated and instead Israel has become stronger. What will Hamas strategy be? Nobody knows, we are just conjecturing. However, I believe most Palestinian people think that there is nothing to lose in trying something else.
The emphasis made over the fact that Hamas was born to destroy Israel is just pure political rhetoric like all the politics around the Palestine-Israel conflict. The sentence roadmap for peace keeps resonating in everybody’s words when talking about Hamas. The next political move of the West is to make Hamas as the responsible for the collapse of their little cute peace roadmap, and so save face.
In reality, neither Hamas, nor Palestine has the power to destroy Israel and will do not get into an open war with Israel for obvious reasons. So the motto “destroy Israel” is just pure fanfare. Perhaps Hamas has to learn a bit more about rhetoric. A good example of rhetoric can be found in:
On the 24th of January, the current Israeli Prime Minister Olmert said that Israel cannot exist without control over Jerusalem. In only one sentence he destroyed the whole roadmap for peace, as Jerusalem is one of the key factors in the conflict. He did not say “we are going to kick the ass of the Palestinians from Jerusalem who have lived here for centuries, and impose our law and perhaps put some little illegal wall around the areas that we like”. So although the result will be the destruction of the roadmap for peace nobody is pointing at him.
For more detail refer to:
http://www.globalsecurity.org/milita...0124-voa03.htm
Personally I do not expect much positive development towards a fair solution of the conflict on the following years… but hey! In the land of so many Gods, there is always a place for faith.
Salimar
