Say what you want to about Mark Steyn's logic regarding the crisis in Gaza this week. You'd be wrong. Not only because in parsing over the shredded hairs of exactly how much influence the "terribly unhealthy strain" in Palestinian culture has on your average Gazan citizen, you fundamentally miss the point -- that it takes more than a handful of fundamentalist zealots to create a bloody crisis that has lasted the better part of a half century. To accomplish such sweeping monopolization of global diplomatic resources requires a citizenry and culture that affords the fundamentalist zealots the legitimacy and lenience of a proper civilization without the constraints of actual standards.
Most commentators I've heard over radio and internet have carefully hedged any denunciations of the actions of Hamas with caveats that exempt the non-militant Gazan citizenry from condemnation for the atrocities done in their midst. But, aside from my own obvious biases, something about this trend was vaguely unsettling and in a delightful irony, I have terrorist apologist Khaled Mouammar from the Canadian Arab Federation to thank for bringing the salient point into focus while participating in a debate panel on John Oakley's show yesterday morning.
In his rush to excuse the constant rocket bombardment of Israel from the Gaza side, and offer a rebuttal to the characterization of Hamas as a terrorist organization, he more than oncedeclared vociferously that Hamas was duly elected in a democratic election, to represent the citizens of Palestine on the world stage.
And he's right. In fact, they swept to victory in an overwhelming majority with a voter participation of 77%. I would consider that amply worthy of acknowledgment ofHamas as the legitimate representation of the Palestinian citizenry as a whole.
It does, however, call into question those well-meaning caveats which carefully separate the militants from the citizens ostensibly caught in the middle. After all, when the Hamas Charter openly declares their primary motivation in these terms... "There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors."...what democratically minded sane individual would vote for such a party without at least tacitly supporting their actions?
And with their electoral win being so overwhelming and definitive, wouldn't it also be fair to say that apropos the international declarations of solidarity in the wake of 9/11, the Palestinians in effect cast their ballots in a solid declaration to the world that "We are all terrorists now"?