Not just a citizens, but as a country as well. Our mantra is to go about spreading democracy wherever we may roam. But the moment you use that democratic right to vote in someone we don’t like, we turn around and tell you we wont deal with you? Bullshit. The Palestinian people voted. The winners of that vote are the duly elected officials of the Palestinian government. Whether we like it or not.
Jonathan Steele of the Guardian Unlimited made the same point:
Hamas’s triumph in Wednesday’s Palestinian elections is the best news from the Middle East for a long time. The poll was a more impressive display of democracy than any other in the region, outstripping last year’s votes in Lebanon and Iraq both in turnout and the range of views that candidates represented.
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Today’s priority is to accept that Palestinians have spoken freely. They deserve respect and support.
Technorati Tags: Palestine, election, hamas, Palestinian
About Shane Ede
Its cool that you support democracy. However lets be straight, I don’t support or recognize who they elected because they openly advocate violence against Israel and us. Their officials suggest that they should attack the US as well as Israel.
As stated by Israels government I will only recognize them if they denounce violence and terrorism in their name (Which they refuse to do I might add). I don’t think it’s an unreasonable request.
We expect the same basic standard from all other countries in the world and we hold them to the same candle. We still refuse to recognize Cuba’s government and we won’t deal with North Korea either for good reason. North Korea has known death camps for political dissidents that are on par with the camps Hitler maintained in the attrocities they commit. Cuba shoots people in the street for disagreeing with the government.
Just because they were legitimately voted into power doesn’t legitimize a government in the international community. What makes a government legitimate is that it respects the sovereignty of our nations and treats its people at least reasonably well (Think Chinda here). Hamas does not respect the sovereighty of Israel or the United States. They advocate violence against both countries and as such they loose their rights to participate in the international community. Think of it as edicate for governments… if a government is rude their are dismissed from the party.