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February 3, 2012
Edmund Sanders : Israeli official says Iran is creating missile that could reach East Coast of US
Victoria Kim: Immigrant-smuggling ring used black drivers to avoid racial profiling
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Reza Kahlili : Ex-CIA spy in Iran's Revolutionary Guard: What Obama doesn't grasp about striking deals with Tehran
Tina Susman: For woodchuck rescuer, every day is Groundhog Day
February 1, 2012
Brian Bennett: US officials see increasing threat of domestic attack from Iran
Emily Brandon: How to Take Advantage of New 401(k) Fee Disclosures
January 31, 2012
January 30, 2012
Paul Richter and Ramin Mostaghim: Misreading Teheran's limits -- deadly and economically devastating as they may be -- is a risk administration, Europe seem willing to take
Suzanne Bohan: Warning: Nap-deprived tots missing more than sleep, study finds
Meg Handley: Banks Revamping Rewards Programs to Woo Customers
January 27, 2012
Caroline B. Glick: Obama: Of course I intend to prevent a nuclear holocaust . . . in a few months
Yochonon Donn: In liberal New York City, fervently-Orthodox Jews may soon be getting a district to call their own
Jeannine Stein: An inflated ego and thinking you're 'all that' doesn't just make others sick of you, it can make you ill
Katy Hopkins: New budget rules may affect how much money you get for college
January 26, 2012
Ed Koch: To the New York Times, calling for the murder of Jews by those capable of having their incitement taken seriously isn't news
Jeannine Stein: Mental illness struck one in five U.S. adults in 2010: Report
January 25, 2012
Richard Simon: House passes two bills endorsing the use of religious symbols at military memorials
Fred Weir: Putin: Multiethnic Russia cannot survive as a US-style 'melting pot'; must find its own way
Susan Johnston: 5 Sneaky Coupon Strategies Consumers Should Watch Out For
January 24, 2012
Carol Clark: The price of your soul: How your brain decides whether to 'sell out'
Caroline B. Glick: America lost most in 'Arab Spring'. Sadly, many voters still don't grasp the extent
Warren Richey: Drug criminal scores win in GPS ruling from conservative-leaning high court
Erika Bolstad: Black conservatives gather to talk about gaining strength
January 23, 2012
Melissa Dribben: Jewish voters to play a key role in Florida's Republican primary
Jordan Rau: In quest to grow, Catholic hospital system will announce this morning its break from church
Ali Safi: U.S. envoy gives Taliban terms for peace talks
January 19, 2012
January 18, 2012
January 17, 2012
Frank J. Gaffney Jr.: No-kidding red lines: U.S. response to an Iranian nuke may be bluster, but Israel's won't be
David G. Savage: They sued their principals after slandering them online --- now the cases are headed to the Supreme Court
David Francis: Where to Invest in 2012: With stocks expected to rebound, opportunity abounds for investors
January 13, 2012
Ben Lynfield: Israeli lawmakers move to annex Jewish Judea, one museum at a time
Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz: Thriving through touch: Gentle massage helps older people with low mobility improve in mind and body
January 12, 2012
Warren Richey: Landmark Supreme Court ruling a 'resounding win' for religious groups
Warren Richey: Supreme Court says no to new rule on eyewitness testimony
John Fauber : Statins found to raise diabetes risk in postmenopausal women
Katy Hopkins : Consider This Before You Pay for an Online Degree
The Kosher Gourmet by Joseph Erdos: This mushroom and barley soup has an intense -- almost nutty -- flavor that mixes robust with Middle East. It has creaminess without cream
January 11, 2012
Shari Roan: Millions of atrial fibrillation sufferers at risk for devastating, but preventable, stroke
Tom Hussain: Pakistan -- recipient of more than $21 billion in civilian and military aid -- speeds pursuit of Iranian pipeline, defying US
David G. Savage: High court signals it won't be loosening TV's 'indecency' rules
Stephen Ceasar: Oklahoma's Islamic law amendment can't go into effect, court rules
January 10, 2012
Reza Kahlili: From an ex-CIA spy: US must exploit new split in Iran's Revolutionary Guard
Karen Kaplan: Study: Nicotine replacement products ineffective when used in real-life situations
January 9, 2012
Michael Doyle: Put through legal hell over dream home, couple fought back hard --- all the way to Supreme Court
January 6, 2012
January 5, 2012
Tom A. Peter: Taliban talks: In administration's push to negotiate with terrorists, was a key hurdle overlooked?
Pete Spotts: Time cloaking: How scientists opened a hidden gap in time
Karen Kaplan: Teens aren't too old to boost their IQ, study finds
January 4, 2012
Scott Baldauf: Islamist terror group giving Christians living in north Nigeria days to flee
Howard LaFranchi : An accelerating covert war with Iran: Could it spiral into military action?
January 3, 2012
Tom A. Peter: Release several Taliban leaders from Guantanamo Bay; give them headquarters as confidence-building measure?
Elaine Woo: Thomas T. Johnson, L.A. judge who ruled that Holocaust was a fact, dies at 88
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Jewish World Review
Feb. 2, 2006
/ 4 Shevat, 5766
With Hamas win we should express relief rather than anxiety
By
Victor Davis Hanson
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Unexpected. Terrible. Inevitable. Everyone has a particular take on
the dramatic Palestinian election victory of Hamas.
Right-wing cynics of American support for Middle East democracy say
that we got our just desserts for our naive idealism. How foolish to
ever believe that such tribal people might vote themselves a
responsible government!
"Be careful what you wish for," smug leftists chime in. But they
harp that the Bush administration is hypocritical in lamenting the
results. After all, how can the United States advocate democracy and
then back away when it doesn't get pro-Americans?
Others hedge that the Hamas victory hardly means consensual
government as we know it given the Palestinians' lack of an
independent judiciary, free speech or habeas corpus.
There is even less consensus about the future. Pessimists point to
the German elections of 1932 and 1933, which mainstreamed the Nazis
and allowed them to seize power and destroy the very democratic
machinery that had given them their legitimacy. Next, will the
Muslim Brotherhood come to power in Egypt and end reform ("one
election, one time"), once we force the Mubarak dynasty to accept
free and unfettered voting?
The more optimistic always counter with the example of Nelson
Mandela's once-outlawed African National Congress. Those former
militants evolved beyond terrorist attacks on the white apartheid
government to become the ruling government of South Africa.
Israelis, too, are divided. Liberals there assume that Hamas must
turn moderate, once it is forced to clean sewers and fix electrical
cables rather than shoot guns off in the street when it doesn't get
its way.
Conservatives there are oddly just as serene, but make a different
argument: Now there will be no phony talk about a "militant" wing of
Hamas or a duplicitous Palestinian Authority complaining that it
can't control renegade suicide bombers. No, as legitimate
representatives of the Palestinian people, Hamas can at last lead
their brave jihdadists in an open war against the vilified Jews. As
in 1967 or 1973, let the battlefield adjudicate their warriors'
future.
Yet there is one constant to all the bickering over the Hamas
victory: Democracy, even in the violent Middle East, brings a
certain clarity, and with it, at last, honesty.
Hamas can either renounce its charter principles or follow
them by quite openly taxing its people to raise money for more
suicide bombing brigades. As an Islamic state, it can craft sharia
law and an open alliance with a similarly theocratic Iran, enjoying
both the short-term benefits and global downside of
such an Islamic axis. Nor do such anti-Western radicals need to
accept hundreds of millions of dollars in infidel American and
European largess.
Here in the United States, we should express relief rather than
anxiety. None can accuse America of propping up right-wing puppets
that do our bidding. We not only supported the elections, but also
subsidized them. So now, with perfect consistency, we can accept
Hamas' victory, but keep our money and distance from such creepy
characters.
What we are witnessing are the aftershocks of the removal of Saddam
Hussein and the messy democratization of the Middle East. These
ensuing tremors have left pro-American autocrats in the Gulf and
Egypt and hostile dictators in Syria, Libya and Iran trembling.
The upheaval is as dangerous and unpredictable as it is honest,
since at last America has a consistent Middle East policy: We will
encourage free and open elections, but need not always be friends of
the subsequently elected governments.
We are in a new age in which the failed realist policy of
bankrolling autocrats who pumped oil and kept away communists has
run its course. The old slurs about American imperialism and
CIA-engineered coups can now be put to rest. The Middle East will
need to get a life and move beyond the stale half-century-old
blame-America rhetoric that we propped up some corrupt Saudi royal
in the 1940s or ruined an Iranian reform in the 1950s and
thus forever set them back.
In the meantime, the U.S. must itself adapt to the new honesty, as
we encourage the democratization of the Middle East and, for the
foreseeable future, the likely emergence of grassroots anti-Western
Islamic governments. First, we must pull our fingers out of the
crumbling dikes of autocracy and cease giving any money to the
corrupt status quo (such as the Mubarak dynasty). Such funds only
encourage the sense of victimhood on the part of rival Islamists and
give them anti-American ammunition in the elections to come.
Second, we must turn to more oil drilling at home, energy
conservation, nuclear power, and, most importantly for our
transportation needs, methanol and ethanol production. Only then can
we cease sending billions of petrodollars to the Middle East that
warp its economy, subsidize otherwise failed ideologies and promise
that the next arms race will turn nuclear. So by all means, let them
all vote and elect whomever they want and let a confident
United States hope for the best and prepare for the worst.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Victor Davis Hanson is a classicist and military historian at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. Comment by clicking here.
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