Hamas' Chutzpah

From Investors Business Daily:

Posted 1/30/2006
Middle East: Hamas is the duly elected ruling party of the Palestinians. But that shouldn't mean the U.S. has to financially support it.

Now that the Palestinians have made their choice in a genuine election, their first, there will be a swell of cries from within that the U.S. should aid the Hamas government — just as it does many other newly democratic governments. In this case, such pleas amount to madness.

It's obvious the U.S. government and the American taxpayers owe nothing to Hamas. It's easy to make that case.

The Hamas regime is, at its core, a terrorist organization. Three nations — the U.S., Britain and Israel — have designated it as such. Its charter calls for the destruction of Israel, a freely elected and sovereign state that maintains friendly ties with the U.S.

The argument, then, might be reduced to this: The poor and oppressed Palestinian people are in desperate need, so they deserve our financial largess. End of story.

But many of those "in need" are the same people that put Hamas in power. They also gave the corrupt Fatah — which is linked to the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, the terrorist group that briefly took over a European Union office in Gaza City last weekend because it didn't like a Danish newspaper's portrayal of Mohammed in a cartoon — far more parliamentary seats than it deserved.

These same Palestinians largely ignored the Third Way Party, the only party that could have come close to being charitably labeled the "peace party" in last week's Palestinian elections.

One of the first lessons of democracy is responsibility. Those who vote must take responsibility for the results and their actions.

As such, there's no compelling reason for the U.S. support a government and a people that virulently hate the U.S., refuse to renounce terrorism, are hostile toward Israel, and foster a culture of hatred and death whose goal is the destruction of the West.

To give such people money would be taken by Mideast terrorists as more evidence of American weakness. And it's weakness, not strength, that invites Islamist attacks.

The Europeans — those on the Continent and the American elites who think like them — reflexively see the Palestinians as victims. They think appeasement is a virtuous foreign policy — and will howl on cue if Washington withholds aid.

But withholding aid is the least Washington should do. Even better would be to have no official ties with Hamas until it renounces terrorism and accepts the right of Israel to exist. Anything less will be completely and utterly unsatisfactory.

If the U.S. and rest of the West act as if the Hamas regime is acceptable as a governing party, radical Palestinians — as well as radical Muslims in general — will see it as confirmation they are right, that the West is full of weaklings who won't stand up for themselves.

The will of the Palestinian people has spoken. But the Palestinians, if they're going to talk like that, should not have the last word.

That privilege belongs to civilized nations that stand against terrorism rather than operate as part of it. Only when the Palestinians begin to understand and act on this distinction should Washington have any relationship with them at all.