February 1, 2006
Put Hamas on Probation
By Pat Buchanan
Ever since President
Bush, sometime after 9-11, converted to neoconservatism, his Middle
East policy has suffered from the triple defects of that subspecies
of the Right: hubris, ideology and immaturity.
Neoconservatives
see the world as they wish it to be, not as it is. Like teenagers,
they act on impulse and rail against the counsel of experience.
"Often clever, never wise," Russell Kirk said of the
breed.
Repeatedly,
Bush was warned by traditional conservatives that to send a U.S.
army to occupy Baghdad would engender Arab rage and Islamic terror.
Heeding the "cakewalk" crowd, he refused to listen.
Three years later, we are trying to extricate a U.S. army from
Iraq with the least possible damage to U.S. security interests.
Prodded
again by neoconservatives, Bush declared our true goal had always
been to democratize Iraq and the entire Islamic world. His second
Inaugural resonated less of Reagan than of Rousseau:
"So,
it is the policy of the United States to seek and support the
growth of democratic movements and institutions in every nation
and culture, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our
world."
To advance
the end of "tyranny in our world," Bush began to call
for elections across the Middle East. Again, he and Condi were
warned that if these people were allowed to vote their convictions,
they might just vote to throw us out and throw the Israelis into
the sea.
Now that
elections have been held, what do the returns show?
Propelled
into or toward power have been Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Iran, pro-Iranian
Shiite zealots in Iraq, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Muslim Brotherhood
in Egypt, and Hamas in Gaza and on the West Bank.
Now, Condi,
who denounced Bush's predecessors back to FDR for supporting dictators
while preaching democracy in the Middle East, appears about to
engage in a bit of hypocrisy of her own.
After insisting
Hamas be included in the elections, Condi, stunned by the results
and under pressure from Israel, has declared we will cut all aid
to the Palestinian Authority if Hamas takes over the government,
as Hamas was elected to do.
Bush agrees.
Unless Hamas surrenders its weapons, abandons all armed resistance
and recognizes Israel's right to exist, we will not give 10 cents
to a Palestinian Authority that has Hamas as its head. Rice is
said to be pressuring Europe to do the same. Unless Hamas remakes
itself into a Mideast version of the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference of Dr. King, we terminate aid.
Before adopting
this knee-jerk reaction to an election we insisted go ahead, one
trusts the president, this once, will think it through.
What is
likely to happen if we proceed on such a course?
If we and
the Europeans cut off aid, and Israel refuses to remit to the
Palestinians the taxes they collect, the Palestinians will be
put through hell for voting the wrong way. The Arabs will call
us hypocrites who believe in elections only if they produce the
results we demand.
And who
could say they are wrong?
What will
Hamas do? They are not going to disarm in the face of an Israeli
military that has been killing Palestinians -- collateral damage,
of course -- at four times the rate that Palestinians have been
killing Israelis. They are not going to give up their trump card
and recognize Israel's right to exist before they get a Palestinian
state.
What will
Hamas do? Hamas will accept the cut-off of aid, seek money from
the Saudis and Iranians, do their best to keep the Palestinian
people fed, clothed, housed and educated, and sacrifice for their
people. And Hamas will fail. And when they fail, whom do we think
will be blamed? When the Palestinian people have been broken because
they voted the wrong way, whom do we think they will hate?
Let me propose
another course. Put Hamas on probation.
For almost
a year, Hamas has held to a truce with Israel and not engaged
in attacks. Let America and Europe send word that if the truce
holds, if Hamas does not attack Israeli civilians, if Hamas show
its first concern is, as it claims, bettering the life of the
Palestinian people, we will let the aid flow. But if Hamas reignites
the war, we will not finance the war. We will terminate the aid.
Make Hamas
responsible for continuing the aid. And make Hamas responsible
for terminating it, if it comes to that.
Understandably,
the Israelis are close to hysterical over the landslide for Hamas
and are on a diplomatic campaign to have all donors end all aid
to a Palestinian Authority dominated by Hamas.
But that
is not in our interests. It is not even in Israel's interest.
For it has been Israel's behavior, and uncritical U.S. support
for that behavior, that produced this victory for Hamas. To continue
on that road is to arrive at, literally, a dead end.
Bush has
unleashed a revolution in the Middle East, and it is everywhere
bringing to power Islamic fundamentalists. Either we deal with
them, or fight them or get out of the Middle East.
Copyright
2006 Creators Syndicate
