Wednesday, March 8, 2006
Hamasian realism states that Israel give Hamas anything they want, then they can consider peace.
MEMRI TV: Hamas Leader Khaled Mash'al Expounds upon "the Realism" of Hamas
...Hamas is realistic. It says to the international community: You talk about the 1967 borders - by all means, make Israel declare that it will withdraw from all the Palestinian lands occupied in 1967, including Jerusalem, that it will accept the right of the refugees and the displaced to return to their lands and property, that it will dismantle the settlements, destroy the separation wall, and release all the prisoners and detainees. Since you believe in it, pressure Israel to do this, and then demand that the Palestinians and the Arabs take serious steps. Then we will be ready to take a serious step that will lead us to true peace. That's realism...
Get real.
That quote, "The government is a means and not the end," by the way, is very illustrative of a basic principle of non-Western political parties. As I mentioned in a comment at Augean Stables:
...It is a mistake to confuse political parties spawned in Fear Societies with those spawned in Free Societies. In the West, political parties function to electioneer, govern and propagandize (a part of governing) — in that order. In the Arab Middle East, they function to dominate, rule and indoctrinate. Any political party which originated or siezed power during a Fear phase must be held suspect...
Mash'al's quote is illustrative of the point. Hamas's taking of power is viewed as a means to further their goals, which may or may not be the same as providing what's desired by the mass of their people. And where it is not, they are not above any means (including dragging them out in the street and shooting them as collaborators) to ensure that it becomes so.
