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Hamas' strange ally - you've got three guesses. Okay, only one guess
When hooded Hamas terrorists cut their way through the Gaza Strip last week, executing rival Fatah gunmen and their families in the streets, shooting their way into hospitals and public buildings, they found an ally in former U.S. president Jimmy Carter. Speaking at a human rights conference in Ireland, Carter said the West should be more supportive of Hamas, and the refusal by the U.S. to acknowledge their legitimacy was "criminal" -- considering the fact Hamas had won the last Palestinian "election." But Carter didn't call Hamas criminal, though they are in fact a criminal organization in the U.S., Canada and most other democracies, and anyone with a TV set could clearly see that last week. But in Hamas --which is the Arabic acronym for Islamic Resistance Movement -- Carter saw what he called "superior skills and discipline" to the Fatah gunmen it killed. It is hard to argue with Carter's observation Hamas has superior skills, a result of Iranian weapons and training. But Carter isn't terrified or repulsed by the violence; he's in awe of it and thinks the West should support it. It's hard to imagine such a man ever led the free world. It becomes easier to understand when one learns his Carter Center receives tens of millions of dollars from Saudi Arabia. The Gaza Strip is now what Afghanistan was like under the Taliban. Non-Muslims beware -- the tiny minority of Christian Arabs in Gaza has already been brutalized, and their church desecrated. And any moderate or liberal Muslims -- especially any women who don't want to retreat to medieval submission -- had better leave or hide. The city is now a terrorist base camp, like Afghanistan was until 2001. But instead of being a thousand miles away from its targets, it's on the other side of a 30-foot fence from Israel. Watching Hamas butcher its fellow Palestinians, one can only imagine what they would do to Israelis if they had the chance. Hamas' victory over Fatah means the terrorist threat against Israel and the West is more urgent, and under the direction of Syria and Iran. But it is only worse than Fatah's rule by a degree of intensity. Fatah -- also known as the PLO -- is no liberal force. The name Fatah is an Arabic acronym, too, that means "conquest." It is, to paraphrase Carter, simply less well-disciplined -- its officers spend as much time embezzling foreign aid as they do plotting attacks. The West's response to Hamas' takeover of Gaza has been to prop up Fatah, and to open the spigots of aid to it again. Perhaps they ought to read Fatah's constitution, conveniently available in Arabic and English on its website. Article 12 calls for the "eradication of Zionist economic, political, military and cultural existence." In case that's not clear enough, Article 17 explains that "Armed public revolution is the inevitable method to liberating Palestine." There's not much difference between Fatah and Hamas, except Fatah enjoys the perks of diplomacy and foreign aid as it conducts a terrorist war. For nearly 20 years, Fatah has had a strategy of a phased attack on Israel -- getting what it could by negotiation, and using suicide bombers for the rest. Hamas is Fatah in a hurry -- forget the phases. Life in Gaza is far worse under Palestinian rule than it was under Israeli rule. That won't stop the Carters of the world from praising Hamas and blaming Israel. Posted by: gromky 2007-06-25 |
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