If your goal is to destroy Israel, I guess it only makes sense

...to elect Hamas to be in charge of your government. It's a lot easier to use the tax money of all your citizens to arm oneself and train terrorists than trying to organize all those charitable pancake breakfasts and meat raffles to try to raise money.

Shockingly, Israel and the US aren't particularly excited about this exercise of democracy:

Israeli army chief Dan Halutz told a conference there was a "big potential for an escalation with the Palestinians" after the election though he did not link this directly to Hamas or offer an explanation.

Israel has said it will not discuss statehood with any Palestinians until groups like Hamas are disarmed, a process that is meant to start under the U.S.-backed "road map".

Hamas has said it will not give up its weapons.

Israel has not met its own road map pledge to freeze settlement building.

The prospect of Hamas doing well in the election is also problematic for Washington.

Having prodded Israel to clear the way for free elections, the Bush administration is confronted with the real possibility that a group on Washington's terrorism list would win an official role in a new Palestinian government.

Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist groups announced a cease-fire, known as a "tahdia", on January 22, 2005, but have still engaged in terroristic activities in Israel. The United States has spent 2 million dollars on the down-low to try to boost the popularity of the Palestinian Authority in these elections, known popularly as "the lesser of two evils."

WunderKraut's Two Cent Update:

My Mom, of all people, asked me if I heard what ex-prez Jimmy Carter had to say about Hamas? No, I had not heard. So I looked it up. Great, just great.

Via Little Green Footballs:

Carter told CNN in an interview that although Hamas were “so-called terrorists,� so far “there have been no complaints of corruption against [their] elected officials.�

He conceded that “there is an element within Hamas who deny Israel’s right to exist,� but compared the current situation to negotiations with the PLO, which was still outlawed as a terrorist organization during his presidency.

He drew an additional comparison with Menachem Begin’s rise to Israel’s premiership in the seventies. “The Irgun, to which Begin belonged, was also characterized as a terrorist organization,� he noted.

Hey Jimmy! Go back to building houses! Jackass.

posted by Feisty at 12:37 PM

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