Zakaria: “You Can’t Fight The Arab Desire To Destroy Israel, So Why Try?”
CNN: Why is the American decision not to work with Hamas such an issue in the Arab world?
Zakaria: The U.S. appears hypocritical to much of the Arab world. The U.S. has been trumpeting the importance of democracy to Arab countries world and has insisted on elections in Gaza. When Hamas, a faction they did not support, won, many Arabs felt the U.S. did not accept the victory and has attempted to strangle what they see as a burgeoning democracy.
CNN: How much of a difference does this make?
Zakaria: By the U.S. isolating Hamas from commerce and contact with the outside world, we are strengthening the forces of fundamentalism and extremism in Gaza. By all accounts, Hamas is stronger now than it was six months ago.
The implication that Hamas is just another political party, like working with Labour or the Tories in the UK, is morally reprehensible but par for the course for the elitists of the day. The idea that "supporting democracy" means we have to be agnostic or indifferent to the espoused goals of extreme political groups is simply not worth considering. There is no way to "work with" such groups that does not also legitimize and normalize their vicious aspirations.
Bad Ideas | Rich Horton Friday, 20 June , 2008
By Americaneocon, Friday, 20 June , 2008 @ 3:37 pm
Well said…
By Bleepless, Friday, 20 June , 2008 @ 7:29 pm
"Supporting democracy" in 1933 would have meant supporting the installation of Hitler and the inauguration of the Third Reich.
By crosspatch, Friday, 20 June , 2008 @ 11:05 pm
The fundamental problem is with the Hadiths. The logic is that the Jews lost Israel because they refused to accept Mohammad as God’s messenger and the Koran as the word of God. And according to the Hadiths, Israel will never again exist until they do. So to the simple fact that Israel exists means the Hadiths are incorrect and that must not be allowed to happen. That is why they refuse to acknowledge the existence of Israel. To acknowledge that Israel exists is to acknowledge the Hadiths are wrong on that issue. And if they are wrong on that issue, it opens them up to being wrong on practically anything and so the foundations of the entire religion begin to develop cracks. Some guys in Turkey are working on fixing that, though, and are working on some reformed interpretations of things that would allow Islam and a Jewish Israel to co-exist.
By martian, Saturday, 21 June , 2008 @ 8:02 am
Actually, Rich, without disagreeing with you from our point of view, Zakaria has a valid point about the views of those in the Arab world. While Hamas, in our eyes is a murderous terrorist organization that we cannot legitimize by dealing with them, in the eyes of the arab world they are "just another political party". Historically, in the Arab world, Hamas is simply a political party trying to impose its views - nothing unusual in that part of the world. Nor is it unusual that they seek to do so by violent means. Read a hsitory of the region and the peoples who live there. Violence is a normal part of their culture and their world view. The word "democracy" does not mean the same thing in their minds as it does in ours.
Unfortunately, this is a major problem in the western world in general and in the US in paricular - most of our people can’t seem to wrap their heads around the fact that these people don’t think the way we do!!! The people in the arab world and in the wider Islamic culture have an entirely different world view than do people in the western world. There is a clash of cultures because, from the cradle, people in their world and people in our world are taught fundamentally different mores, ideals, methods of dealing with problems and ways of viewing the world. In many ways, those differences are so stark and so opposed in their very nature, it makes it very hard for us to understand them and their viewpoint and also makes it very hard for them to understand us. In many cases they interpret things that we say and do with totally different meanings than what we intended because that’s what a person or nation in their world would mean by those actions.
By Rich Horton, Saturday, 21 June , 2008 @ 8:44 am
Martian, whatever the answer is, it certainly ISN’T for us to ignore what Hamas stands for.
My take is in a clash between civilizational values I’ll support the Western ideals of Human Rights. I’ve never understood the propensity of those like Zakaria who would happily sell such ideas down the river at teh drop of a hat.
By martian, Saturday, 21 June , 2008 @ 9:22 am
Like I said, Rich, I don’t disagree with you in supporting western ideals. Personally, I prefer them over all other cultures that I have observed or read about in the hisroty of the human race. Yes, our culture has its problems and areas that still need to be ironed out but, as many people have said in one way or another, our culture and form of government are the worst out there - except for all of the others. We aren’t perfect, by any means, but I’ll take our form of freedom and democracy over everything else that’s out there.
My point is simply that we must start to recognize that the problems between us and them are not simple differences of opinion but are fundamental differences in thought processes. Our problem is that our culture and our problem solving methods always have us seek to try and see and value the other side’s viewpoint. We try to understand where they are coming from in order to reason with them. They don’t have that same approach. In their culture, they don’t care what we think, they are taught that whatever an infidel thinks is irrelevant and has no bearing. Only the true Muslim point of view counts.