WHEN THE U.S. INSISTS ON DEMOCRATIC ELECTIONS - THEY CAN'T BITCH ABOUT WHO GETS ELECTED...

The Face of Hamas...

From: DEBKAfile
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas asks radical Hamas terrorists to form a new government after its apparent shock victory at the polls...
January 26, 2006

The defeated Fatah was slapped down in maneuvers for participation in a Hamas-led coalition. Fatah PM and his cabinet quit when early results gave Hamas a sweeping 70-75 seats in the 132-seat Palestinian legislature. The first Hamas statement: Negotiating with Israel and recognition are not on our agenda. The armed struggle will continue.

Hamas control of Palestinian government is a regional earthquake that will bring the Muslim Brotherhood into power by the ballot for the first time in Middle East history. President George W. Bush says he will not deal with Hamas unless the organization renounces its commitment to fight for Israel’s destruction. In Gaza, in answer to a question on policy, Hamas operative Mohammed Rantisi, whipped out the late Yasser Arafat’s motto:

We shall hold talks as though there is no terror and wage terror as though there are no talks. Other leaders reject negotiations, recognition of Israel or laying down arms.

In view of this election upset, some Palestinian sources predict a long wait for final results amid attempts at manipulation, which the Hamas will fight tooth and nail. The Palestinian election sets back critically the underlying objective of the US-led global war on terror: denying terrorists territorial strike bases and keeping them on the run - as manifested in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

For Israel, allowing the Hamas terrorists to take part in the Palestinian election - after its takeover of the Gaza Strip – was a fatal blunder. It is now condemned to dealing with the Damascus-based Khaled Mashal and Mahmoud a-Zahar in Gaza, now holding the whip hand in Ramallah. Behind them lurk sponsors and mentors such as Mahdi Aqaf, leader of the radical Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas’s parent body, and Sheikh Qardawi, the Qatar-based television preacher. While speaking out against suicide bombers for Western targets, this influential radical ardently advocates Muslim martyrdom for the sacred purpose of killing Israelis.

The peace strategy acting Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert outlined in his policy address the day before the Palestinian election is passé; it was built around negotiations with Abu Mazen and a Fatah regime in Ramallah. He failed to consider the possibility of having to face up to a Palestinian negotiating partner that takes its orders from Cairo, Qatar, Damascus and Tehran.

 Soccer Dad blog:

...Even if one argues with naive hopefullness (as I heard last night on the news) that Hamas ran its campaign by emphasizing good governance how do you explain Fatah's popularity running a convicted terrorist at the top of its list? The problem isn't Fatah or Hamas, the problem is the people who elected them. The Palestinians have overwhelmingly voted for terrorist groups. There is no getting around that.

By focusing on Hamas, it gives reporters an opportunity to sidestep what Fatah represents. But that just means that there's a big problem with the premises of the peace process. Is there really a critical mass of support for peace with Israel? Or has the introduction of Yasser Arafat and the PLO to Gaza and Ramallah radicalized the Palestinian population to a degree that peace is now impossible as things stand?

In other words perhaps the debate shouldn't be about how to treat a Palestinian government that includes Hamas but how to treat any Palestinian government.

If the ascendancy of Hamas forces the world to take another look at the Palesitnians and demand finally that their aid money, independence and statehood is dependent on their abandoning terror and dreams of destroying Israel perhaps some good will come of this. Unfortunately there's a real chance that, instead, the world will choose to sanitize Hamas, just as it did the PLO, and force Israel to deal with those who still wish that it did not exist...

This is one more reason to do whatever it takes to destroy any attempt to develop nukes in Iran! The US position must be that all aid from this country and the countries of the European Union be cut off until the Palestinian leadership recognizes Israel's right to exist and agrees to engage in an honest peace process. 

Hayam blog:

It was a mistake to permit Hamas to compete in elections. Like al-Qaeda, Hamas should be destroyed, not legitimated, much less courted.  [Shtender]

THE DEMOCRATS NEED CINDY SHEEHAN LIKE THEY NEED ANOTHER TAPE FROM OSAMA!

This woman has a right to speak about anything she thinks - but Democrats need to distance themselves from her. She's poison - stupid poison.

It wasn't bad enough that she has shot from the lip and blamed all our imperialist blowback in the Middle East on Israel. And she's called the Irish "war criminals" for allowing US military aircraft to land for refueling at Shannon Int'l. Airport. Now she's spewing from her pie-hole about the only bright spot in the history of the Democratic Party (and the country) in the past 15 years - one of the best presidents of the 20th Century - BILL CLINTON!

CHEESES! With a self-absorbed dingbat such as Cindy being linked by the media and in the minds of the uninformed masses with the Democratic Party, we might do well to win in New York and Massachusetts. Here's her rant (from an interview with some Irish dude) - cited in Wonkette:   

"And about Bill Clinton . . . . You know, I really think he should have been impeached, but not for a blow job. His policies are responsible for killing more Iraqis that George Bush. I don't understand why to rise to the level of being president of my country one has to be a monster. I used to say that George Bush was defiling the Oval Office, but it's been held by a long line of monsters."

Cindy, O Cindy! Just STFU!

WHO WAS THAT LADY I SAW YOU WITH?
(That was no lady - that was DADDY!")
From The Fix @ Salon: 

Michael Jackson has been spotted in public again at a shopping mall in Bahrain, this time sporting dress usually worn only by women: a veil, a black robe called an abaya and gloves.

Ezra Klein has this:

Welcome to the “new” economy. It’s new because you’re not in it.

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