They still want YOU dead.....

My friends,

2 elections this week...congratulations PM Harper and the whole of Canada for ever so gently putting our collective feet down on corruption and the Liberals. While I will, inevitably, comment more on the Tories still surprising win (see polls from 2 months ago), this blog entry is dedicated to the Hamas victory in the territories.

There are 132 seats in the Palestinian parliament, 70 of which just went to candidates flying the Hamas colours. Here's one sick and twisted example....One of the 70 candidates to win a seat is a woman named Miriam Farhat, also known as Umm Nidal. Farhat, in a video message, called on all sons and daughters of jihad to strap themselves with explosives and blow up Israeli civilians. That was yesterday. Today, this same terrorist is charged with the political responsibility of representing those who elected her. How sick is that? In Canada, we elect businessmen, lawyers and professors, and in the odd election, an entertainer here and a hockey player there, in the territories, the Palestinians were so fed up with Fatah corruption and inability to provide the most basic social services, they elected a well known terrorist group whose sole aim and goal is the destruction of the Jewish State and to push all the Jews to the sea. Well, newly elected leaders of the Palestinian people, I have a little secret to share with you....Jews don't like to swim. You can take my word for it or learn that particular lesson the hard way.... my gut (and history) says you'll go for the latter.

I am of 2 minds right now. On the one hand, I truly believe in democracy. I believe it is every person's right, nay obligation, to express themselves through voting. And I am happy that the Palestinian people have exercised that opportunity, no matter the result. But if the Palestinian people believe that voting is all democracy is about, they will learn some hard lessons soon. Some people will claim that this Hamas victory is a sign that the Palestinian people believe in Hamas' charter which calls for the destruction of Israel. I don't buy that. Like in all democracies, different people have different priorities when it comes to how they vote, and this Hamas win shows me, at least, that the Palestinian people are sick and tired of the corruption that has plagued Fatah and Arafat and his cronies since Oslo. Israelis have the right to live in peace and security, that is what they expect of their government. Well, Palestinians have the right to demand functioning hospitals and schools, running water and sewage systems, infrastructure and economy. Fatah could not deliver, so they have chosen to allow Hamas a chance to build what Fatah could not, a Palestinian state. To the Palestinian people, the fact that Hamas openly calls for Israel's destruction is not the sole reason for it being elected, it is simply a by-product of a successful campaign promising the social and welfare services that Fatah could not deliver. Unfortunately for the rest of us, it is not so simple.

Hamas is a terrorist organisation. They want all of us dead. You, me, my little sister living in Jerusalem, my friends in Tel Aviv and my family in the Old City. All of us, gone forever. Now they are in a much better position to accomplish their goals. They hope to achieve a similar government to that of President Ahmadinejad of Iran, one filled with flowery anti-Semitic rhetoric and whimsical modes of world destruction to prop themselves to the leaders of the Palestinian people and the Arab world. Their forray into politics, albeit successful, is still in its infancy. Perhaps their attempt at politics will lift the veil of terrorism and evil and give way to the cool yet warming breeze of reconciliation and peace? Ya, right....I won't hold my breath.

I wonder what Sharon would say to all this. Undoubtedly, he was prepared to tackle this problem head on and continue to lead the Israeli people and Jews all around the Diaspora into this new obstacle, but now, without his experience and resiliency, I feel lost. Who will now stand tall and lead the Jewish nation ahead? Will Olmert be able? Will this new Hamas reality push Israeli voters a little further right and give BiBi Netanyahu another chance as Prime Minister? Only time will tell. Time will also tell us where the winding road towards Middle East peace takes us next. How many stops will we make before we reach our desired destination? How much more blood will spill and soil that road? But the scariest question of all becomes what if we never reach our destination? At what point do we abandon all hope, quit leading idyllic lives and turn to deal with the reality that now presents itself? At what point does the glass turn from half-full to half-empty? It's a question we must all ask ourselves, no matter how scary the answer may be.