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Hamas Victory Exposes the Hypocrisy of Western Democracy
By Latheef Farook February 27, 2006
The victory of Palestinian resistance movement Hamas in the democratic elections, to the Palestine Authority Legislature in January 2006 exposed the hypocrisy of the Western claim, even by all Western standards, to introduce democracy to the Middle East.
Hamas captured 76 of the 132 seats and won a clear majority defeating the mainstream Fatah which dominated the Palestinian politics since the 1960s. It was the verdict of Palestinians who exercised their democratic rights in one of the most peaceful elections in the Middle East 's history shattering the Israeli claim of being the sole democracy in the region.
Over the years, Islamically oriented Hamas, legally registered in Israel in 1978 by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin who was killed in 2005 by Ariel Sharon's forces when he came out of the mosque after his morning prayer, came to be known for its integrity, discipline, sincerity and commitment to the cause of the oppressed and poverty stricken Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank living under Israeli occupation.
But Fatah on the other hand, which became a one man show under its late leader Yasser Arafat has been known for its corruption and inefficiency marked by its failure to achieve any progress in talks with Israel in ensuring the rights of Palestinians and their independence. In the midst of the Hamas election
victory there emerged reports that around US$700 million, meant to help the impoverished Palestinians, was stolen from the Fatha administered PA coffers. In this connection 25 officials were arrested and 10 more officials who fled the Authority were to be extradited.
Thus the political changes taken place in the Palestinian territory was a healthy development to bring Hamas closer to mainstream politics for building a state as Hamas has clearly indicated, in its election manifesto, its willingness to live in a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders and thus dropped its call to destroy Israel.
If the US and Europe were sincere in their claim to introduce democracy to the Middle East , this was a golden opportunity to demonstrate their claim. They could have helped Hamas consolidate their democratic achievements and guide them towards genuine peace talks to end the Israeli occupation and oppression and bring the two sides together.
But unfortunately, that was not the agenda of Israel , US and Europe . They do not want Palestinians to enjoy the fruits of genuine democracy which they think is the exclusive privilege of the West. All that they wanted was to introduce the type of democracy which they meant for Afghanistan and Iraq – invade, bomb, destroy infrastructure, kill hundreds of thousands of civilians, destroy families and thereby the society and then install a puppet regime in a sham election.
Here, in the case of Palestinian territory, there was no such need for invasion as it was already under Israeli occupation and subjected to all sorts of oppression besides economic deprivation. Therefore they decided to use financial aid to throttle the Hamas dominated PA even before it assumed office as the Authority heavily depend on foreign aid for its days to day affairs.
They didn't waste time .They quickly ganged up to crush Hamas at any cost and bring back to power the corrupted and secular Fatah, known for compromising Palestinian rights to the benefit of Israel. And they were quite open about it.
In a swift move, the Zionists and the Zionist controlled US and Europe together with the Arab dictators aligned with them ,to bring tremendous pressure on Hamas demanding the renouncement of violence and the recognition of Israel . But there was no such demand on Israel to end the occupation of Palestinian lands and stop its atrocities there. Even Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak insisted that Hamas should recognise Israel .
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas too joined hands with these forces to crush the Hamas administration even before it was formed. The outgoing Fatah dominated PA passed laws providing sweeping powers to Mahmoud Abbas, who appointed his loyalists to control the Palestinian media. Abbas even suggested that he would conduct peace talks with Israel through the Palestine Liberation Organisation rather than the Palestinian Authority - a move aimed at sidestepping a Hamas-run government in peace talks. But in keeping with their age old tradition of using, when required, and throwing them out once they outlive their usefulness; Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said Mahmoud Abbas has become "irrelevant" following Hamas' victory.
They went into action instantaneously. As expected, the Western media described Hamas' victory as a “political earthquake” and unleashed a campaign to discredit Hamas and frighten the world, as if Hamas was about to unleash a wave of terror.
Stating that Israel will not negotiate with a Palestinian government that includes Hamas members, Acting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert suspended the transfer of US$45 million, some say it should be US$53 million, in tax and customs revenues it collected in January 2006. The tax revenues Israel collects on behalf of the Palestinians, are a main source of funding for the Authority's budget used to pay 140,000 government workers including 60,000 security officers.
The PA is the largest single employer in the West Bank and Gaza and one in every three Palestinian families relies on the salaries of the PA employees. The Authority runs the health services employing 13,000 and the education ministry with a workforce of 40,000. The Authority was unable to pay contractors for hospital food, equipment and medicine for the past three months while the education sector faced equally worse crisis in their efforts to provide its already limited education services for Palestinian children.
They also provide pensions to retired employees and unemployment insurance scheme for workers who lost their jobs due to Israeli border closures and other restrictions within Israel . All of these programs may now be discontinued, along with a range of other government projects such as infrastructure development and poverty-relief measures.
With the unemployment estimated at more than 30 percent in Gaza and 20 percent in the West Bank while half the population lives under the poverty line and a looming humanitarian catastrophe wage payments have already fallen into arrears.
Blocking payment under such desperate circumstance is certainly a heartless move towards inflicting more sufferings upon the entire Palestinian people and punishes them for failing to bow to US and Israeli dictates. This was also a broader message to the people of the Middle East .
With reports of Saudi Arabia promising US$20 million and Qatar pledging US$13 million to help the Authority tide over the situation, President Bush dispatched Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to the Middle East to pressure countries there to ensure they do not make up the funding shortfall. She was also in London to meet with UN, Russian and European leaders as the so-called "Quartet" of would-be international peacemakers evaluated the Hamas victory and tried to decide their next move.
The United State and Europe together provide about US$900 million to the Palestinians each year, the bulk of which is earmarked for reconstruction projects in the impoverished Gaza Strip and West Bank .
With the regional and international pressure building up, Hamas leaders took to the airwaves sending out a moderate message.
"Don't be afraid, we don't want to throw them into the sea”, said the prime minister designate Ismail Haniye, who explained that they were not looking for a war, not initiating war and not even interested in a circle of violence. If Israel withdraws to the 1967 borders, then we'll establish peace in stages."
Israel and the US publicly justified their financial embargo against the PA on the grounds that Hamas is a terrorist organisation which cannot be dealt with unless it meets a series of demands.
But what the world has forgotten and what President Bush may be ignorant of is, is that Zionists were the godfathers of terrorism in the Middle East and it was Zionists who used violence as the sole weapon to drive out Palestinians from their homes to establish the state of Israel in their lands.
Just to cite few examples, though the never-ending list is too long, Zionist terrorist gang leader Menachem Begin massacred more than 250 innocent civilians in the village of Deir Yassin to frighten and drive out Palestinians from their homes. He was elected prime minister of Israel and was also awarded the coveted Nobel Prize.
Yitzhak Rabin, wanted for his crimes by the then British Mandatory authority which offered 10,000 Sterling Pounds for any one who submit alive or dead, was elected prime minister of Israel and the human rights champions in US and Europe accepted him and helped the Zionist state.
Israel 's own Kahane commission found Ariel Sharon guilty of involvement in the massacre of more than 2,000 Palestinian civilians in Lebanon 's Sabra and Chatila camps. He too was elected prime minister of Israel and was given a free hand by the US and Europe to kill Palestinians almost on a daily basis, demolish
their homes and cultivable lands besides grabbing Palestinian lands to set up settlements for Jews imported from all over with the American tax payers' money. President George Bush rolled out the red carpet to receive him in White House as “a man of peace”.
This is the history of Israel , and its leaders have emerged from a documented history of crime, conspiracy, deception and violation of all established norms and laws. And these are the Zionists who describe Hamas, which took to suicide bombings to highlight the sufferings of their people, ignored by the whole world ,now refused to deal it.
What the world has forgotten and Israel wanted to hide is that it was Israel financed and built up Hamas as a "counterweight" to the PLO.
In fact, peace is the only thing Israel always dreads, as it prevents them from implementing their designs in their road towards greater Israel which includes remaining Palestinian territory. This is what is going on in the Palestinian territory now with the US and European support, and the world is watching the dissolution of Palestine .
As pointed out by Jennifer Loewenstein, a Visiting Research Fellow at Oxford University's Refugee Studies Centre; “For those who haven't noticed, Israel opposes a two-state solution. It has been doing everything in its power to prevent a Palestinian state from emerging and will continue to do so as long as it can count on the complicity of its powerful friends and on abundant popular indifference. Under such circumstances, it is incumbent upon ourselves to ask why Hamas has therefore been ordered - by Israel and its same powerful friends - to accept “the two-state solution” especially when, unlike Israel, it has stated clearly and repeatedly that it would accept a Palestinian state on the lands occupied by Israel in the 1967 war, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. Indeed, all of its key spokespeople have said this: Zahar, Haniye, Meshal, and Yassin and Rantisi before they were murdered.”
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