Hamas - The West's hypocrisy on democracy
U.S. President George W. Bush has called on Hamas to renounce violence and recognize Israel's right to exist, but he refuses to call on Israel to renounce state terrorism and the illegal occupation of Palestine.
tehrantimes: Last month, in the freest and fairest election ever held in the Arab world, the Palestinian people passed their verdict in favor of the Islamic Resistance Movement, better known by its Arabic acronym Hamas, which contested the elections as the Movement for Change and Reform. They delivered Hamas a phenomenal mandate of 74 of the 132 seats in the Palestinian Legislative Council against the Western-backed Al-Fatah's 46.
All hell broke loose in Western capitals after the Hamas victory. Out of utter confusion, frustration, and panic, every foolish reason was proposed to explain the incredible victory.
Hamas's 'unexpected' success sent seismic tremors across the Atlantic Ocean. The U.S. president reacted by saying, "I have made it very clear, however, that a political party that articulates the destruction of Israel as part of a platform is a party with which we will not deal".
And his junior partner in Europe, Tony Blair, commented, "Of course, we recognize electoral mandates, but equally, people have to be clear that we only do business with those who renounce terrorism. That is a clear distinction: do people support terrorism or do they not?" Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi lamented, "It is a very, very, very bad result". German Chancellor Angela Merkel showed the stance she plans to take when she refused to meet with Hamas representatives during a visit to the region.
Through the sheer manipulative power of the Zionist lobby, Hamas was declared a terrorist organization by the European Union and the United States after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Out of 1.3 million eligible voters, 77.7 percent thronged the polling stations in Hebron, Nablus, North Gaza, Tulkarm, Jenin, Gaza City, Bethlehem, and throughout the occupied territories to express their opinion, creating scenes which are not often seen in the so-called democracies of the West. This shows that Palestine has the region's most vibrant civil society.
However, instead of appreciating such a spectacle of democracy, in which the Palestinians have shown a superb sense of political consciousness and foresight by ousting Fatah from government offices that were riddled with ineptness, nepotism, cronyism, and corruption and bringing honest and clean Hamas to power, the West tried to undermine the Islamic movement's glorious triumph. Biased Western media outlets have made efforts to sully the reputation of the Islamist organization, using the bigoted language of the Israelis to portray a false image of Hamas members.
Hamas fielded qualified candidates like doctors, engineers, pharmacists, academics, and teachers and new, moderate leaders such as Ghazi Hamad, the editor in chief of Al-Resalah newspaper, and Christian candidates like Hussam Al-Taweel. The Palestinians, who were sick and tired of seeing top Fatah officials building lavish homes for themselves, driving luxury cars, giving jobs to relatives and friends, and unfairly awarding building permits, embraced the new political force, not only in Muslim areas but also in Christian areas like Bethlehem, where Hamas won two of the four legislative seats. Read more
tehrantimes: Last month, in the freest and fairest election ever held in the Arab world, the Palestinian people passed their verdict in favor of the Islamic Resistance Movement, better known by its Arabic acronym Hamas, which contested the elections as the Movement for Change and Reform. They delivered Hamas a phenomenal mandate of 74 of the 132 seats in the Palestinian Legislative Council against the Western-backed Al-Fatah's 46.
All hell broke loose in Western capitals after the Hamas victory. Out of utter confusion, frustration, and panic, every foolish reason was proposed to explain the incredible victory.
Hamas's 'unexpected' success sent seismic tremors across the Atlantic Ocean. The U.S. president reacted by saying, "I have made it very clear, however, that a political party that articulates the destruction of Israel as part of a platform is a party with which we will not deal".
And his junior partner in Europe, Tony Blair, commented, "Of course, we recognize electoral mandates, but equally, people have to be clear that we only do business with those who renounce terrorism. That is a clear distinction: do people support terrorism or do they not?" Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi lamented, "It is a very, very, very bad result". German Chancellor Angela Merkel showed the stance she plans to take when she refused to meet with Hamas representatives during a visit to the region.
Through the sheer manipulative power of the Zionist lobby, Hamas was declared a terrorist organization by the European Union and the United States after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Out of 1.3 million eligible voters, 77.7 percent thronged the polling stations in Hebron, Nablus, North Gaza, Tulkarm, Jenin, Gaza City, Bethlehem, and throughout the occupied territories to express their opinion, creating scenes which are not often seen in the so-called democracies of the West. This shows that Palestine has the region's most vibrant civil society.
However, instead of appreciating such a spectacle of democracy, in which the Palestinians have shown a superb sense of political consciousness and foresight by ousting Fatah from government offices that were riddled with ineptness, nepotism, cronyism, and corruption and bringing honest and clean Hamas to power, the West tried to undermine the Islamic movement's glorious triumph. Biased Western media outlets have made efforts to sully the reputation of the Islamist organization, using the bigoted language of the Israelis to portray a false image of Hamas members.
Hamas fielded qualified candidates like doctors, engineers, pharmacists, academics, and teachers and new, moderate leaders such as Ghazi Hamad, the editor in chief of Al-Resalah newspaper, and Christian candidates like Hussam Al-Taweel. The Palestinians, who were sick and tired of seeing top Fatah officials building lavish homes for themselves, driving luxury cars, giving jobs to relatives and friends, and unfairly awarding building permits, embraced the new political force, not only in Muslim areas but also in Christian areas like Bethlehem, where Hamas won two of the four legislative seats. Read more
posted by exoplanet at 8:10 AM
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