BCT Editorial – 1/31/06

This page was last updated on February 12, 2006.

People power; Editorial; Beaver County Times; January 31, 2006.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject editorial.

“Democracy in the Middle East brings terrorists to power in Palestine

“The people of Palestine have spoken, and what they had to say was not what many in the West wanted to hear.

“In what can only be described as a stunning victory for terrorism, the radical Islamic party Hamas won 76 out of 132 seats in the Palestinian legislature. Fatah, the former ruling party that was headed by the late Yasser Arafat, will have just 43 seats when the legislature convenes.

“At one level, the rebuke of Fatah of was of its own doing. Many Palestinians saw it as inept and corrupt, and its shortcomings could no longer be overlooked once Arafat -an icon for the cause (rightly or wrongly, overwhelmingly the latter) - was out of the picture. (Check out ‘How Arafat Destroyed Palestine’ in the September issue of The Atlantic for some idea as to how corrupt Arafat and Fatah were.)

“While Arafat and his cronies were frittering away their built-in advantage by being more interested in building their personal fortunes instead of building a viable state, Hamas was out in the streets helping Palestinians by providing basic services Fatah couldn’t or wouldn’t deliver.

“At the same time, Hamas conducted a terrorist campaign to destroy Israel, and its leaders have made it quite clear that they still see the destruction of the Jewish state as their mission.

“The Bush administration is in a tough spot because it has been championing democracy in Afghanistan and Iraq as a way of bringing representative government to the Middle East.

“Well, it got democracy in the Middle East last week, and with a vengeance. Terrorists - real ones - now have power in Palestine.”

[RWC] This editorial is stunning in the ignorance it displays. From the beginning, this election pitted two terrorist organizations, Fatah and Hamas, against each other. As most of the mainstream media, the Times apparently treats Fatah as something other than a terrorist group. Remember, the terrorist Yasser Arafat was the Fatah leader until his death in 2004. Fatah and the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade are effectively the same organization. Since 2002 alone, al-Aqsa killed more than 50 people in Israel via suicide bombings. How many people do you need to kill to qualify as a “real terrorist?”

To claim that Fatah is not a “real” terrorist organization is an exercise in denial. Why? Lest we forget, Arafat and his Fatah Party were the darlings of the Clinton administration. I’ve seen reports that Yasser Arafat visited the Clinton White House more frequently than any other foreign “dignitary.” I can’t vouch for the accuracy of this claim, but I recall a lot of Clinton/Arafat photo ops at the White House. Remember the picture of Arafat reaching to shake the hand of Israel PM Yitzhak Rabin?

“Perhaps Hamas will moderate its ways now that it has power, or Palestinians will realize what a huge mistake they have made and vote the terrorists out of power in the next elections - if there are any. Once in control, Hamas might find out its likes power just as much as the despots in Syria, Egypt and Saudi Arabia do.”

[RWC] Palestinians vote terrorists out of power? To the best of my limited knowledge, there are only two parties in Palestine and both are terrorist organizations. Remember, these are the people who took to the streets and cheered the 9/11 attack.