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The Price of Democracy

Seeded on Thu Jun 1, 2006 10:22 AM EDT
Read ArticleArticle Source: Arutz Sheva News Briefs
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Seeded by Yaakov
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Many in the Arab world are critical of the US, Israel and European countries for ostracizing and imposing sanctions on the new Hamas-led government. Their claim is that they are punished for using the democratic process to elect a government. However, the very opposite may be true.

President George Bush may have underestimated the importance of tribalism, authoritarianism, the power of radical religious Islam, decades of repression and the lack of democratic traditions in the Arab Middle East, but for their part, the Hamas-led Palestinians have failed to fully comprehend the consequences of democracy. While democracy holds leaders accountable to those who elect them (or should), it also holds those who elect such leaders accountable for their decision. Had the Palestinians possessed a better understanding of democratic concepts, they would have realized that the West has accepted their choice of Hamas as the legitimate expression of their will, and is now responding accordingly...By electing Hamas, the Palestinians freely voted for an organization committed to the destruction of another nation in defiance of any and all international laws...They have turned their failed state over to terrorists and by so doing, they have created an even sorrier mess for themselves. Now, they are paying the price.

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Gideon Polya

The core argument of this article is based on (a) racist abuse, (b) bigotry and (c) falsehood - as best illustrated by the following quote: "The fact that the Palestinians have freely chosen to be governed by terrorists does not mean that the West is obligated to support their decision. As Diana West has written: "They (the Palestinians) are not voiceless victims," as are the Darfurians or the Rwandans. They knew exactly what they were doing when they overwhelmingly elected an Islamic government. When Secretary Condoleezza Rice says, "Hamas's policies and actions should not deprive the Palestinian people of their legitimate humanitarian needs," one can legitimately ask, "Why not? They elected Hamas!""

(a) "governed by terrorists" is obfuscating, implicitly racist abuse that hides an appalling reality revealed by the following statistics (variously derived from the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the UN) as of mid- 2006, 1,133 Israelis and an estimated 5,144 Palestinians (including 952 children) have been killed since September 2000. From UN data, the post-1967 avoidable mortality (excess mortality) in the Occupied Palestinian Territories totals 300,000 and the post-1967 under-5 infant mortality 183,000 (of which 90% has been avoidable) - as compared to 2,178 post-1967 Israeli terrorism deaths (Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs figures) (for detailed documentation see: http://globalavoidablemortality.blogspot.com/ ).

Who are the terrorists? The article implies that only violent Arabs, Muslims or Palestinians are terrorists. Were the French, Dutch or Italian Resistance, or the Jewish, Serbian, Polish, Lithuanian, Byelorussian, Ukrainian and Russian partisans also terrorists in WW2? What about Israeli "state terrorism" as revealed by the above horrendous figures?

Sensible people committed to PEACE object to terrorism, whether evil, indiscriminate and counter-productive "non-state terrorism" by the victims of racist imperialism or the horrendous "state terrorism" of racist imperialists (the post-invasion avoidable mortality in the Occupied Palestinian, Iraqi and Afghan Territories presently totals 0.3, 0.5 and 1.8 million, respectively, and the post-invasion under-5 infant mortality 0.2, 0.4 and 1.4 million, respectively - evidence of gross violation of the Geneva Conventions by Israel, the US, the US-led Coalition and complicit NATO countries).

(b) the comment that the Palestinians "knew exactly what they were doing when they overwhelmingly elected an Islamic government" has the false and bigoted blanket implication that "Islamic" elements are "bad". Islamophobia and Anti-Semitism are two sides of the same coin.

(c) remarkably, even Dr Condoleezza Rice (a WOMAN and YET complicit in the horrendous, war criminal passive genocide, mass infanticide, and mass paedocide of nearly 2 million Iraqi and Afghan infants) concedes that the Palestinian people have "legitimate humanitarian needs". The shocking UN-derived figures quoted in (a) above indicate that Israel is GROSSLY violating the Geneva, Human Rights and Rights of the Child Conventions and the CORE VALUES of Israel's bank-roller America ($2.6 trillion to Israel since 1956) in its Declaration of Independence (specifically the equality of all men and their inalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness) - READ THEM:

UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (2005), Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War (1950) (especially Articles 55 & 56, see: http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/92.htm );

UN (1948), Universal Declaration of Human Rights (see: http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html );

UNICEF (2006), Convention on the Rights of the Child (especially Article 6, see: http://www.unicef.org/crc/ and http://www.ohchr.org/english/law/pdf/crc.pdf );

Congress (1776), Congress, July 1776, American Declaration of Independence (see: http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/document/ ).

    Reply#1 - Fri Jun 2, 2006 10:41 PM EDT
    Yaakov

    Don't you ever get tired of copying and pasting?

      #1.1 - Sat Jun 3, 2006 2:02 PM EDT
      Yaakov

      And just to address your comments on a more general level (ie: the same comments that you enter just about every time I see your name on Newsvine):

      Calling someone a terrorist has nothing to do withoverall numbers of casualties. I have seen these statistics quoted time and time again, but without any context. Numbers by themselves do not mean anything. However, everyone today (other than the perpetrators of such acts) agrees that it is fair to call a group of people "terrorists" if their modus operandi it to blow up civilians in a bus or cafe for the sake of inciting terror. I know that you do not see it that way, but you are in the vast minority.

      And all that the statement: "Palestinians knew exactly what they were doing when they overwhelmingly elected an Islamic government" implies is that when they voted for Hamas, they knew they were voting for an organization devoted to the destruction of Israel. This is not implying anything about the Islamic religion as a whole.

      While you are quoting figues about US aid to Israel (also known as an investment in an ally, something that the US is entitled to do, and something that Israel has put to good use) regarding "humanitarian needs" in Gaza - why don't you quote some statistics regarding how many hundreds of millions (if not billions) of dollars in foreign aid the PLO has burned in the last fifteen years?

        #1.2 - Sat Jun 3, 2006 2:09 PM EDT
        Reply
        Dennis M Wright

        What's your solution here Gideon? What should Israel do now in order to be just and fair to the Palestinians? What should the US do? What should Europe do?

        You're not at a loss for words when dwelling on the negative (so far as Israel is concerned at least - Palestinian atrocities have seem to have got under your radar). So, what positive suggestions do you have?

          Reply#2 - Sat Jun 3, 2006 6:11 PM EDT
          Gideon Polya

          Dennis M Wright - I thoroughly approve of your very good questions - but before I reply let me say that Palestinian atrocities have NOT "got under (my) radar" - as made quite clear in my COMMENTS above, Palestinian "non state terrorism" atrocities have killed 1,133 Israelis since September 2000 and 2,178 post-1967. To paraphrase what I said, "Sensible people ... object to non-state terrorism ... and to state terrorism ... (post-invasion avoidable mortality in the Occupied Palestinian Territories totals 0.3 million and the under-5 infant mortality 0.2 million ... contravention of the Geneva Conventions)." The ACTIVE and PASSIVE killing and traumatizing must stop NOW.

          (a) "What's your solution here Gideon?" - INTERIM peace with justice is possible NOW in a way that grants Israelis secure access to ALL of the Holy Land and unilateral defense of all of Palestine. A suggested interim peace plan would involve the following: 2 states; return to 1967 borders; militia disarmament; joint provision of airport-level total security; interim defense of the Holy Land by Israel alone (they would presently accept nothing less); human rights guaranteed for all; racism, bigotry and incitement illegal; reconciliation; secure access by ALL to ALL of the Holy Land.

          If anyone has a better INTERIM peace plan to stop the killing NOW, then they should urgently suggest it in the interests of peace, justice and reconciliation.

          (b) "What should Israel do to be just and fair ...?" It is obliged as an Occupier to observe the Geneva, Human Rights, and Rights of Child Conventions - including provision of security; indeed international law would demand (short of withdrawal from illegal occupation) the essence of my INTERIM peace plan outlined above. Thus simply one UN-derived statistic demands urgent action, specifically that the "annual under-5 infant death rate" in the Occupied Palestinian Territories is (2003 estimate) 0.51% (over 4 times that in the contiguous Occupier, Israel of 0.12%).

          (c) "What should the US do? & (d) What should Europe do? - They should insist on Israeli observance of umpteen UN resolutions for withdrawal from Arab lands and Israeli observance of the Geneva, Human Rights and Rights of Child Conventions; they should at the very least insist on immediate INTERIM peace with justice involving AT LEAST the fundamental elements in (a) - or indeed on a BETTER scheme acceptable immediately to everyone as an INTERIM "peace with justice" plan to stop the killing and traumatizing NOW.

          (e) What (other) positive suggestions do you have? Fundamentally possible approaches to "ZERO SUM GAME" problems such as Israel/Palestine/Holy Land situation (or for that matter, the horrendous First World/Third World/Spaceship Earth problem) are illustrated by the "2 prisoner problem" (should they "rat" on each other, do nothing or cooperate?). The solution (found in all kinds of analogous human and more general biological situations) involves the 2 parties trying to OUTDO EACH OTHER IN KINDNESS and COMPROMISE. Classic examples of such requisite solutions by (a) "thinking men" and (b) "non-thinking nature" are, respectively, (a) the "Heilige nacht/Holy night" spontaneous unofficial Christmas armistices on the Western Front in WW1, similar "unofficial" policies of not shelling hospital etc facilities in the rear - and indeed, ultimately, the Geneva Conventions; and (b) co-evolution of homeostasis (balance) and sustainability in carnivore/herbivore, predator/prey, pathogen/target attack/defence mechanisms (e.g. lions/zebras, the common cold/initially Western humans, introduced myxomatosis virus/Australian rabbits etc).

          In the Israel/Palestine/Holy Land situation (a) "doing nothing" will continue to cause about 1,000 violent Palestinian deaths each year and about 200 such Israeli deaths as well as a huge annual AVOIDABLE mortality of utterly innocent Palestinian infants of about 2,300 i.e. about TWICE the total of violent deaths on both "sides". Unfortunately, since the victims are overwhelmingly Arab, the intrinsically racist Israeli, US and European Establishments are (rhetoric aside) content with the present situation - after all, some 5,000 Israelis die each year from cigarette smoking-related causes. Indeed, seen in this light, the Israeli and US "War on Terror" is an immense LIE that permits illegitimate territorial and/or hegemonic occupation at horrendous cost of human lives. (b) Making things worse for Palestinians is even more morally unacceptable - indeed there is the real prospect of the current 4 Palestinian "ghettoes" of Gaza, "Samaria", East Jerusalem and "Judaea" becoming even more squeezed with a final ethnic cleansing occurring if the water supply - already illegitimately constrained - is finally turned off and millions of Palestinians are told to "leave or die". (c) The "outdoing each other in kindness" solution has been mathematically proven and has been shown empirically to work in a variety of human and non-human contexts.

          Thank you Dennis for your sensible questions. I do hope that all readers will approach my humane suggestions in the same sensible spirit of "what can decent people do?" Peace and reconciliation is the only way.

            #2.1 - Sat Jun 3, 2006 8:13 PM EDT
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