Tannishblog

George Bush and Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas are meeting today. These guys have a lot in common: both are representatives of a minority faction desperately holding on to power any way they can; both are doomed to fail in their political goals. Both Men have ascended to power riding the backs (and pocketbooks) of extremist organizations within their own countries. Both men are hated by a majority of citizens within and without their regions of influence.

Among a variety of subjects, Mr. Bush will try to convince Mr. Abbas to allow candidates from Hammas into the government. Hammas, as you know, is the premier hate group within the Palestinian controlled territories. The sole purpose and the reason for being of Hammas is to abolish the Israeli State with as much bloodshed as possible.
President Abbas has tried, so far unsuccessfully, to pacify Hammas in order to fold them into whatever future there may be for Palestine; Hammas refuse to be marginalized. Perhaps they understand that to compromise their untenable position is tantamount to failure. Extremism cannot compromise.

That Mr. Bush thinks Hammas is just a bunch of good-old-boys is evident of his pressing for inclusion. This is like wanting American senators to represent the neo-Nazi movement. Based upon the usual “America is Best” hyperbole, the assimilation of Hammas is, as is most of Mr. Bush’s policies, fatally flawed. For billions of people worldwide, America is not “Best.” If that were the case we wouldn’t have to force democracy at gunpoint in trouble regions. See yesterday’s post on Liberia as example.

America should leave Israel to deal with its own solution. This cannot possible be as murderous, infantile, and crude as America’s ongoing War on Terror.™ Until and unless we learn to clean up our own transgressions, we have no place forcing a leader of a depressed people, a leader of a small population of extremists, to follow our lead.

Now, if we would only stop selling guns to the Palestinians…