The world was greeted with a big surprise when Hamas won its landslide victory.  Most individuals and governments expected Hamas to make inroads, but no one, not even Hamas itself, expected them to form the government.  The first reaction was an emotional and political tremor that rippled around the world.  

Such a major political earthquake could easily lead to a tsunami of warfare and bloodshed that could drown the entire region.  The President of the United States responded by saying he would not talk to a terrorist organization, and threatened to pull all funding from the new Palestinian government. Pulling funding would be a collective punishment on all the people, even those who did not vote for Hamas. What is particularly galling is that in the very next breath, Mr. Bush claimed that what occurred in the Palestinian election was a good thing, because it shows the democratic process really does work.  So, according to the president, the democratic process is a “good thing,” yet if he does not like the result of that process he will starve the people who live in that area. 

Most of our Megillah family is aware of my general impression of President Bush, but I always believe in fairness. In this case, I must acknowledge that the U.S. is caught in a damned if we do and damned if we don’t situation.  It has been the position of the U.S. not to negotiate with terrorist groups long before Bush took office.  However, the Palestinian elections were a direct result of intervention by this president, despite the advice to let things rest for a while before rushing the Palestinian people to the polls.  He was warned that Hamas was going to make major gains in the government, and that this might not be a good time to push for such elections.  He gambled on a strict timetable, and he lost. 

If President Bush holds to his word and cuts off all financing to the Palestinians, other Middle East countries that are extremely unfriendly toward the west will happily pick-up the financing on their own.  Nothing would please Iran more, for example, than to take a major hold on the Palestinian people and government and use them as an inexpensive club to beat the west with.  It seems the European Union is taking a much wiser course.  By putting Hamas on notice they can watch and evaluate every development very carefully. If things start to go too far in the wrong direction, then funding can be used as a spigot to fine tune policy. This gives Hamas the chance to gain some experience in governing, while remaining under the influence of the west. 

 Hamas has never governed, and they must be given some time to contemplate and face reality.  They are now responsible for supplying local services to their residents and citizens, and if they fail, they will have no one to blame but themselves.  Now that they are in power, they might recognize the need to change their ways, and to renounce their position of “driving Israel into the sea.”  Let’s face reality; they know they could not accomplish such a hostile goal and they have nowhere near the power to drive Israel anywhere.  Now that they are they official government, with actual responsibility, they have a reason to quit the hyperbole and get down to the business of helping to establish a state for their people and live as peaceful neighbours.  It is always easier to take hard-core and dangerous positions when you do not actually have the power to do anything about it. 

Not having a crystal ball, I do not know if anything I say will come to pass.  But I sincerely believe we now have an opportunity to finally give the enemy a chance to change their ways.  I am not suggesting appeasement, but just a fair chance to do something constructive for their people.  By driving them into the arms of our stronger enemies, we only add fuel to an already raging fire, which is sure to end in nothing less than continued death and destruction.