Soccer Dad

More Democratic than America

In a positive review of the recently concluded Palestinian municipal elections, the Washington Post reports in "Election Season Opens for the Palestinians":

"Now, it is a festival for us to have these elections," said Razem, 36. "We are in a party now -- the Islamists and the others."

Inside the green-draped party office, Noryman Mustafa, 28, a native of Brooklyn, N.Y., who lives in Abu Dis and whose husband was running on the Islamic Reform Bloc ticket, said she had found the campaign to be "totally different" from those she experienced in the United States -- "maybe there's more democracy" here.

Then the reporter tells how the Islamists plan to fix potholes and get the trains running on time.
And of course the Islamists are the good guys here. This is the first election since 1976:

Elections for local councils were last held in 1976, and the winners have mostly retired or been forced from office over the intervening years, replaced by Fatah appointees whom many Palestinians regard as ineffective or corrupt.

Now the Islamists who will be more responsive to the people's needs are running and they will win but:

Four candidates on the local Hamas-aligned slate were arrested two weeks ago and remain in jail, prompting complaints from supporters of the Islamic party that their chances at victory had been undercut.

Those Islamists, so devoted to fair play. Well there's one teensy problem:

Ahmad Ayyad, candidate No. 3 on the Islamic bloc's slate, ran down a list of what he considered to be Abu Dis's most pressing needs: new roads, services for women, public parks, a central slaughterhouse that would abide by health codes.

His full beard signaled his affiliation with a radical Islamic movement that rejects the existence of Israel, but Ayyad also sounded like a garden-variety grass-roots policy wonk who said he wanted to "bridge the gap between the citizens and the local authorities."

Rejects Israel? No problem he's really just a cuddly policy wonk!

In case you're willing to accept the view recounted earlier that the Palestinian population is more democratic than the American population, read Jay Bushinsky's "Summary executions, lawlessness have become routine:

It was midnight in the West Bank city of Ramallah where the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat spent the final years of his stormy life.

Out of nowhere, a squad of gunmen appeared in Manara Square with an unarmed 20-year old civilian in tow. They stood him up, took aim and opened fire. His bullet-riddled body was discovered at dawn by unfazed pedestrians.

Summary executions are par for the course of the so-called Palestinian Revolution. The victim this time was accused of informing on two members of Hamas and Fatah who were killed by Israeli troops in Betunya, a nearby town.

The Palestinian police, whose West Bank headquarters are in Ramallah, did not intervene when the suspect's death sentence was implemented without a preliminary trial or benefit of a defense attorney.

This is but one example of what Bushinsky reports is widespread. His harsh words for those who turn a blind eye to it are important:

The Palestinian Authority, which is being touted by Israel's government, the European Union, Russia, the United States and the United Nations as the nucleus of a West Bank-Gaza Strip state, not only is unable or unwilling to uphold the rule of law within its tentative domains, but also lacks the moral stamina to condemn these violations of human rights.

This brings to mind the arrogance and short-sightedness of the world's self-styled diplomats and statesmen who advocate dubious solutions to the problems of nations other than their own -- solutions that fail the test of time and generate new crises for generations to come.

Finally Bushinsky asks:

Can President Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair, the West's most outstanding and outspoken proponents of a Palestinian state adjacent to and at peace with Israel, be sure that their political protege will live up to their expectations? Can they be sure that Palestinian nationalism and above all, irridentism (yearning for the terrain that has comprised Israel since 1948) will not transform it into a source of constant friction rather than peaceful coexistence?

He answers:

Maybe it would be better if they bowed out and let the peoples of the Middle East work out their own problems, albeit by bearing in mind the realities of their respective military capabilities and regional balances of power. That would make more sense than allocating $6 billion to the Palestinian Authority (an idea broached in a New York Times editorial) immediately after the Jan. 9 election of a successor to Arafat on condition that it stamp out terrorism, something it just cannot (or will not) do.

What Bushinsky points to is not trivial. The 1976 elections marked a turning point for Israel. Israel's hands off approach allowed Fatah a foothold in Judea, Samaria and Gaza. The Fatah candidates replace pro-Jordanian politicians. Is Israel (and the West) allowing a further radicalization under the guise of free elections by giving Hamas a greater voice?
Crossposted on Israpundit and Soccer Dad.

Posted by SoccerDad at December 26, 2004 04:30 PM | TrackBack