The Goverment They Deserve

There's a lot of hand-wringing today about the landslide victory the terrorist group Hamas won in this week's Palestinian election. That this is cause for major concern relative to peace in the Middle East is obvious. But, it also will be clarifying.

The Fatah Party controlled Palestinian politics for four decades--a period of time in which terrorism increased dramatically while government officials enriched themselves at the expense of their people. Poverty and desperation is Fatah's legacy; but, until now, it has successfully blamed Israel for their woes. Fatah leadership had the cycle of violence down to a science: whip the people up into a frenzy, then blame the predictable attack on "militants" from Hamas who simply needed to be reigned in.

The evidence of Fatah's failure is incontrovertible. Now Hamas has an opportunity to prove its leadership. How will Hamas perform? No one knows. But, by winning, they have to govern. They will not be able to hide behind Fatah if they attack civilian targets in Israel. As this article points out, the "militants" are now one and the same with the Palestinian Authority. Thus, any attacks will no longer be seen as terrorism, but as an act of war.

Cliff May expands on this point:

But here’s why it’s also clarifying: In the past, when there were terrorist attacks against Israel, Yassir Arafat could denounce them in English in the morning and celebrate them in Arabic in the afternoon. Hamas will not have that luxury. Henceforth, Israeli leaders should respond to every terrorist attack not as though it were a crime committed by a few isolated fanatics that the Palestinian Authority somehow did not manage to stop in time. Henceforth, Israeli leaders should respond to terrorist attacks as acts of war. In other words, their response should be forceful. It should make it clear that those who inflict death and destruction will pay a very steep price.