Do As I Say, Don’t Do As I Do:
George Bush and Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas are meeting today. These guys have a lot in common: both are representatives of a minority faction desperately holding on to power any way they can; both are doomed to fail in their political goals. Both Men have ascended to power riding the backs (and pocketbooks) of extremist organizations within their own countries. Both men are hated by a majority of citizens within and without their regions of influence.
Among a variety of subjects, Mr. Bush will try to convince Mr. Abbas to allow candidates from Hammas into the government. Hammas, as you know, is the premier hate group within the Palestinian controlled territories. The sole purpose and the reason for being of Hammas is to abolish the Israeli State with as much bloodshed as possible.
President Abbas has tried, so far unsuccessfully, to pacify Hammas in order to fold them into whatever future there may be for Palestine; Hammas refuse to be marginalized. Perhaps they understand that to compromise their untenable position is tantamount to failure. Extremism cannot compromise.
That Mr. Bush thinks Hammas is just a bunch of good-old-boys is evident of his pressing for inclusion. This is like wanting American senators to represent the neo-Nazi movement. Based upon the usual “America is Best” hyperbole, the assimilation of Hammas is, as is most of Mr. Bush’s policies, fatally flawed. For billions of people worldwide, America is not “Best.” If that were the case we wouldn’t have to force democracy at gunpoint in trouble regions. See yesterday’s post on Liberia as example.
America should leave Israel to deal with its own solution. This cannot possible be as murderous, infantile, and crude as America’s ongoing War on Terror.™ Until and unless we learn to clean up our own transgressions, we have no place forcing a leader of a depressed people, a leader of a small population of extremists, to follow our lead.
Now, if we would only stop selling guns to the Palestinians…
October 20th, 2005 at 3:10 pm
dude
no buddhist writes about hammas like that. and i agree with you that they may ultimately only want israel destroyed with as much bloodshed as possible but you know when someone says all jews are this way or that way, you know they don’t know what they’re talking about and in your writing you imply that palestinians, who may be different than those in hammas, don’t exist or aren’t significant. did you visit their territories while you were in eretz israel?
mr. tuttle
October 22nd, 2005 at 7:33 am
Mr. Tuttle.
Thanks you for your comment. Obviously, I get few enough. As for what Buddhist write about, I have indeed found few who address Israeli politics. I’m no expert there, either, so perhaps I should shut up, but as a blogger I found many fun-to-read blogs that are not written by experts, that’s the beauty of blogging.
Did we visit the territories last summer? No. We drove past them, and we saw the clear signs of economic need. Hammas, as you may be aware was founded by Western charity funds, contributions from many nations including our own, and they have used that to foster hatred and to provide weapons instead of nourishing thier people. Thanks you, Yasser Arafat.
My comments, marginally Buddhist as they are, are aimed at the global mentality of extremism, which is getting a strong grip on America as well. This is the problem I am trying to shed light upon.