It's Your Election. Vote Hamas If You Want.
The NY Times reports,
“Tzipi Livni, the Israeli justice minister and a close party ally of the prime minister, Ariel Sharon, told Israel Radio that the government would not try to hamper the election, scheduled for Jan. 25, if Hamas took part. “It is not in Israel’s interest” to try to intervene in the election, she said. “It is in the Palestinian interest that Hamas takes part in elections.”
I agree with Tzipi Livni, Israel shouldn’t interfer at all in the “election”. I do think that Israel should however lay all of its cards on the table and make it abundantly clear that if Ham ass is elected in any capacity, the bombing will start as soon as the votes have been counted.
You can take it to the bank, just as pulling out of Gaza didn’t end the daily barrage of missles from Gaza into Israel, that a so-called government led by ham ass would do nothing to stabilize the area and for sure would not bring peace and safety to Israel.
Further, if the US, UN, Europe, Asia etc etc etc don’t like any of Israel’s responses, they can collectively go pound sand up their arses!
My understanding of the reason Israel won’t interfere in the Palestinian election, is because Washington won’t support it. Don’t forget, Israel is the paid whore of the US, whose reason for existence is to police the oil-rich Middle East. If Israel were to refuse to do the bidding of the US and Britain, sand is exactly what it would be pounding up its ass.
Something like 1 in 6 Palestinians recieve a humanitarian service from Hamas. This is the only reason why they stand a chance in the election, but a lot of Jews have been trying to use their popularity to paint Arab Palestinians as bloodthirsty sub-humans who don’t know what is good for them. Now, I think everybody knows where I could go with this, but I won’t. Instead I’ll say that if Israel wanted to influence the elections they wouldn’t even have to resort to corruption. They could get the US to support the PLO, financially, while simultaneously pressuring it to use that money to provide for its people. It is my firm belief that most Palestinians aren’t bloodthirsty, they’re foodhungry. A little infrastructure, an economy, a bearable everyday existence: give them something to lose and violence will, maybe not stop, but at least lose a lot of support.
Beth, the US already supports the PA (and various Palestinian NGOs) to the tune of between $200-$300 million annually. The figure would probably be higher if not for the fact that a condition placed on aid to NGOs was that they would not use the money for terrorism – a pledge amny of them refused to make
Eyal, by “support” I mean more than just throwing money at the problem for the sake of appearances. Money can be misused; things like medical training can’t really. I’m talking about collaboration between the US, Israel, and the Palestinians on engineering projects that make sure that money is going into things like hospitals and roads instead of guns, or wose, pockets. People don’t resort to terrorism when they feel invested in their society.
Oh, yeah, Zipi Livni, she’s a respected… a respected member of Israel’s… Israel’s parliament….
Just took me a while I couldn’t stop laughing. Sorry.
Zipi Liheeheehee – wait maybe if I pinch myself and knit my brows… Zipihipiyipeeee…..
Sorry. Can’t do it. I’ll leave it to you diaspora Jews to take Zipi Livni seriously… or any other Israeli pol pontificating about the Palestinian elections. As if anyone will listen to them.