Polarization: Good for you

So Hamas won the 'election'. By a landslide. Yesterday I said it doesn't really make any difference, but I might be wrong in one respect: Hamas is a group of murderers that will offend a slightly larger audience than any of the other groups of murderers, like Fatah, Islamic Jihad, Al-Aqsa, etc. It will be that much harder to pretend that these are people just like us, who just need a country of their own, a job and good plumbing before they become reasonable and let the Jews live in peace.

Polarization. If there are two opposing sides, instead of a compromise (which requires consent from both sides), it enhances the contrast, forces those involved to take sides, leaves no middle ground.

What is good about the Hamas victory is this: Hamas is the same as all the other Arab terrorist gangs, but WITHOUT THE MASK. Their objective is no different from that of the PLO (aka PA, aka Fatah, aka Arafat gang) but they pretend nothing else. For whatever reason, they do not act like a political party, a peace partner, a reasonable representative of the Arabs, a plausible government.

They want to kill Jews, they want to eradicate Israel, they want worldwide Shariah, and they say so loud and clearly.

It really is kind of refreshing.

The people who are most likely (but that is only in a relative sense) to take notice of the permanent and unchanging desire of the 'Palestinian' people to destroy them are the Israeli's. And as luck would have it, elections are coming soon, and, luckier still, Ariel Sharon will not be taking part. I wondered recently if there was a man who could lead Israel back on track, to sovereignty and freedom.
Hal Lindsey has this to say:

I know of only one leader in Israel who has the kind of understanding of Islam and the courage and strategy to deal with them. His name is Benyamin Netanyahu.
...
Two events changed the whole political landscape in Israel, not to mention the world's. First, Ariel Sharon had his tragic stroke. Second, Hamas was elected to power in a truly free "democratic election."

This last event shocked even the most liberal-minded peacenik dreamer in Israel. Now most of Israel realizes that the only hope to survive is to bring in a leader who will not give anything to "terrorists because he knows it only emboldens them to attack more and gives them power over the few Palestinians that might not want to use the jihad option."

It is my sincere prayer for Israel that they elect Mr. Netanyahu as their next prime minister. I can't see anyone else doing what needs to be done.

I hope he's right. Both about the Israeli's being shocked, and about Netanyahu being the right man for the job.

A person who still doesn't get it is Emanuele Ottolenghi of National Review:

[Hamas] will have to show their true face now: No more masks, no more veils, no more double-speak. If the cooptation theory — favored by the International Crisis Group and by the former British MI-6 turned talking head, Alistair Crooke — were true, this is the time for Hamas to show what hides behind its veil.

Maybe there are two Hamas's in the world. The one I know does not hide behind veils. They never employed double-speak. That was the PLO.

If they bomb Israel from Gaza — not under occupation anymore, and is therefore, technically, part of the Palestinian state the PLO proclaimed in Algiers in 1988, but never bothered to take responsibility for — that is an act of war, which can be responded to in kind, under the full cover of the internationally recognized right of self-defense.

Really? All the world will suddenly look the other way, or even agree, when Israel takes action against Hamas, only because it is now nominally the new 'government'? Talk about wishful thinking!

No more excuses that the Palestinians live under occupation, that the PA is too weak to disarm Hamas, that violence is not the policy of the PA. Hamas and the PA will be the same: What Hamas does is what the PA will stand for.

If Hamas wished to play this game like Fatah did before them, they could: There are plenty of other terrorist gangs that can be blamed for violence against Israel, giving Hamas plausible deniability. But Hamas was elected exactly FOR its straightforwardness, its honesty. The Arabs love them for it. They will not hide, but be brazen about their actions. They will invite retaliation. They know the muslim part of the world will cheer them on and support them, and the rest of the world will restrain, condemn and block Israel as they always have.

Democracy is an expensive word for mob rule. Here's a good example of that:

Democracy is meaningless if all the people voting are bloodthirsty barbarians:

Hamas now will have to show to the Arab world that an Islamic party that wins a democratic election — everyone’s nightmarish scenario — is not as bad as it seems. For now, the Palestinians have chosen an Islamic option over a secular one. Let them have it. Let them enjoy life under Sharia. It is their choice — that is what self-determination is about — and we must respect it

Wrong. In this sense there is no difference between the 'governments' of Iraq before 2003, the current regime in Iran, and a Hamas PA. They are a threat against all Western countries, against Israel in particular, and THEY AIM TO BE A THREAT. The fact that they were democratically elected makes them WORSE enemies, not lesser.

We must NOT respect it. We must be extremely wary. We must take them at their word when they tell the world what their goals are. And we must act with extreme prejudice when they show any sign of acting on their intentions.