I am stunned that the a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.startribune.com/commentary/story/1267828.html">Star Tribune would publish a propaganda piece for a terrorist organization. No, I am not speaking of al-Qaeda, but Hamas. This is sickening. If I were a subscriber to the Red Star Tribune I would cancel my subscription. As it is, I check out the online edition only, therefore no subscription to cancel.
The commentary piece is by a Palestinian named Ahmed Yousef, and he has a lot to say about how it is America's fault that things are lousy for the Palestinian people.
The Palestinian National Authority apparently joins the list of elected governments targeted or toppled over the past century by interventionism: nations that had the courage to take American rhetoric at face value and elect whomever they would. No doubt some in Washington persist in the fiction that the United States is following a "road map" to democracy for Palestinians, just as others believe the Iraq war has been a sincere exercise in nation-building. Neoconservative strategists have miscalculated, however, and Hamas is stronger than ever.
Hamas is a terrorist organization. Although they are not international in nature, they have used terrorist attacks against Israel for decades, suicide bombings have become the weapon of choice for Hamas, murdering children and the elderly. When Israel retaliates by eliminating their terrorist thug leaders, they cry "foul."
Some critics raise the red flag of "Al-Qaida" and say that Hamas and parliament are a stalking horse for Salafi jihadists. I defy them to demonstrate one instance in which Hamas' military structure has struck against any force outside the theater of the occupation. The struggle has always been against the Israeli agenda of ethnic cleansing and conquest. Hamas is a movement of Palestinian liberation and nationalism -- Islamist, yes, but in the sea of contending faiths that is the homeland, where is the sin in loving one's creed?
Al-Qaeda like? Iffy, but certainly a "stalking horse for Salafi jihadists' is a fair assessment, although they are more public than "stalking."
As for the "military structure" of Hamas, if they really were a legitimate military, they would stop targeting school buses and shopping malls and focus on strictly military targets. However, they are nothing but a bunch of cowardly terrorists bent on murdering innocents.
This guy falsely claims that Israel is carrying out an "agenda of ethnic cleansing and conquest." If this were true, there wouldn't be any Palestinians for Israel would have succeeded at that already. Instead, the Palestinian population continues to grow faster than the population of Israel.
Further, it is the Palestinians, through organizations like Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, and others that have been pushing an agenda of ethnic cleansing against the people of Israel. Israel has had to deal with mortar, rocket, and suicide bombings nearly everyday for the last six or seven years.
Palestinians want, on their terms, the same thing Western societies want: self-determination, modernity, access to markets and their own economic power, and freedom for civil society to evolve. Those who warn of "failed states" and "Hamastan" as a breeding ground for terrorism forget where blame for failure belongs -- at the feet of the American administration, which has chosen to isolate the elected government.
The Palestinian people could have achieved their goals of self-determination, etc. decades ago. They could even achieve such today, immediately, if they had the leadership and the will to live in peace with their neighbors. However, the majority has been unwilling to accept a two-state solution, and many who claim they support such, are merely talking out of the sides of their mouth. This includes Hamas.
And they blame us for their problems, when it is clearly something they are in total control to achieve, or, as they have chosen, flush down the toilet.
The Bush administration never intended to honor the outcome of fair and transparent elections in the occupied territories. The embargo, designed to punish the electorate for its choice, was the first step toward crushing new democratic institutions. The second has been to find collaborators for the American agenda and to supply them with advisers, funds and weapons for their campaign of destabilization. The final step will be to truncate Gaza from any proposed Palestinian state and make it a de facto prison for all "undesirable" aspects of Palestinian nationalism. This will culminate in provocations designed to trigger a military response from Israel, which will "justify" a war on Gazans. This would be tragic for all concerned, and the international community, especially the Arab League, must not allow such an outcome.
The U.S. rightfully cut of support of the Palestinian Authority as it is run by a terrorist organization dedicated to the destruction of a close ally, Israel. The American people should not be expected to have their tax dollars, money that I work hard to earn, handed over to a pack of murdering thugs. If the Palestinian people had chosen to elect leaders instead of terrorists, things would be different. And that is the bottom line: Palestinians need leaders, real leaders, who are willing to step up to the plate and actually lead their people to peace and prosperity, rather than down the road of terrorism and destruction.
I guess I should not be surprised that the Red Star Tribune would publish this piece of tripe. The editorial staff of the Red Star Tribune, and other newspapers across the country seem to think that terrorists are the good guys, while America is the bad guy. They must be deranges.
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Hamas Israel Terrorists
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