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• Thursday, March 2, 2006 05:01 AM

  Snake and the Rat

  While Ms Cobban extols the virtues of Hamas as a political force, she misses the main point of the Palestinian democratic experiment - the choice between the snake and the rat. Hamas is the snake - deadly and ruthless in its determination to achieve a "victory" for it's people but clean in its dealing with the world. Fatah has become the rat, the consumer of the Palestinian tax and aid funds through corruption, featherbedding and just plain thievery while at the same time maintaining an ability to hold on to its power through political flexibility. With only a choice between the old and corrupt and the new and the clean, the Palestinians have rolled the dice and hoped that the new can at least clean up the current civil mess in their society while at the same time not bringing down Armageddon on their heads.

  The situation now comes down to "wait and see" - to see if Hamas can collect the garbage and spread the taxes around to the benefit of the local population without at the same time turning the territories into Tabibanstan Light. They need money and funds and at this time with the EU (and maybe Iran) being the only one with deep pockets willing to toss money their way, the question is will they bide their time and not provoke an all out war with the Israelis through a renewal of military or suicide attacks. I certainly hope that everyone will just suck up their breath and see how this plays out for at least a few months. Sometimes responsibility can sober even the headiest of ideologies.

  I would suggest watching the behavior of Hamas toward the supporters of Fatah and the other political Islamic parties in Palestine as well as toward the Christian Palestinian population remaining in the territories. If they move on these groups and try to establish an Islamic orthodoxy, then you might as well write them off as a serious alternative. If they behave well, then perhaps they can also deal with the Israelis too.

  The paradigm of democracy that pulls views toward the center works when the voting parties are not constrained by militias that "enforce" their views - win or lose. I just wish that more people would realize that while democracy is the best hope for this area - because the people there truly want to run their own lives - until a nation state there can be strong enough to suppress the militias and just have a central army, these difficult choices - Snake or Rat - will continue to be the only show in town.

  —Ironclad Read Ironclad's other letters
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