"Oh, They Only Want To Destroy Me GRADUALLY...Now I Feel Lots Better"

This is a great day to follow the news and blogging. If the Palestinians don't erupt into a civil war in the next few days, their election may prove to be important. Not as heart-warming as elections in Iraq or the Cedar revolution, but important nevertheless. Not many babes, though.

At this moment CNN is showing films of armed Fatah people, mostly guys and boys, refusing to yield to the results of the election, and armed Hamas people demonstrating/celebrating the election results...and the President saying the U.S. doesn't deal with terrorist groups. Even, I guess, if they have the full support of a majority of their constituents. Hmm. Democracy ain't all it's cracked up to be, it seems.

The title of this post is from An Unsealed Room, an Israeli blog.

Hamas political leader Khaled Meshal gave a news conference in Damascus yesterday. He reassured us that even thought the Hamas charter calls for Israel's destruction, he had no intention of destroying Israel immediately.

"We will not recognize the Israeli occupation but we are realistic and we know things are done gradually ... Being against occupation does not mean I can cancel Israel in moments."

Well, phew. As long as it doesn't happen in MOMENTS. Like it might even take DAYS!

Bleh. We have to laugh, don't we, because crying won't do us much good at this point.
When I read the following, it sounded really familiar:

Ghazi Hamad, one of Hamas' top ideologues, said on Saturday that Hamas may consider forming a government of technocrats with no connection to the radical Islamic movement, in a bid to relieve some of the international pressure on the group.

Has this guy been reading blogs? Because it sounded just like the conclusion of an analysis I'd read in one recently. Just goes to show you that the blog in question is not always full of crap.

The link is to another blog by that very name, TBIFOC, which concludes...

What I predict will happen is that Hamas will hear all of the messages telegraphed by Bush, EU, the UN, and the Arab League to fit through the loophole through which Fateh and Arafat managed to receive funding: they will also pretend to "split" the military wing and then give lip-service to fighting terror, using Islamic Jihad and PFLP as their token "arrest-and-release" targets.

Sadly, I think Bush and Condi will fall for this tactic because they have a goal of a Palestinian State first, and peace and security for Israel second.

Unless Congress "starves the beast" and starts threatning Bush's other agenda items until he starts following the will of America and the principles of peaceful democracy this country aspires to, my outlook on the situation is not positive.