Go Hamas! and potd

In a sense, I kind of hope that Hamas will win the bloody civil war taking place in Gaza right now.

I hope that they will fight for a long time with each other and kill each other. But when it is all over and done with, I hope Hamas comes out in control.

Sounds pretty stupid of me, right? Why would I want the radical terrorists of Hamas to take control of the PA and Gaza rather than the moderate Fatah faction?

Let me explain my position.

Fatah has been in control of the Palestinian Authority since the day it was founded. Yasser Arafat was part of the "moderate" Fatah faction of Palestinians.

In my mind, both Fatah and Hamas are bad people. They are both made up of terrorists with no interest in living peacefully with Israel (this does not include all the civilians living in the PA - there might be some of them who do really want to live peacefully with us as neighbors, but the political factions do not).

The only difference between them is PR - Fatah has been good at PR. The world believes that Fatah is really a bunch of moderates who are capable of making a lasting peace. At the same time, much of the Western world (parts of Europe not included), think of Hamas as a bunch of unruly terrorists hell-bent on destroying Israel. In essence, fatah believes the same thing, but has better PR and has devised more manipulative ways of getting rid of Israel.

As Jameel put it, Zeh Neveila, Vzeh treifa.

So, why do I want Hamas to take control?

As long as Fatah has been in charge, the world feels comfortable pressuring Israel to offer concessions. It never mattered if Israel got anything in return. It never mattered if the PA had kept nay of their promises or any of their agreements. Israel always had to make offers. And even when things were not going well in negotiations, Israel would be pressured to make goodwill gestures, sometimes in the form of land, sometimes in the form of releasing terrorists from jail, sometimes releasing money, sometimes easing up travel restrictions through Israel, etc. All this was in order to prop up Fatah and make them look better in the eyes of their people.

The world pressured Israel to play to Fatah because the world considered Fatah moderates. the world considered Fatah to be a bunch of people we could make peace with. Everything had to be done to preserve that.

If Hamas wins, that ridiculous pressure placed on Israel might be lessened. Nobody in the Western world likes Hamas. Everybody accepts that they are a bunch of thugs and terrorists (though some in Europe still choose to ignore that). Nobody will pressure Israel to make goodwill gestures to Hamas.

At least for a while. Eventually they will. But for a while, the PA will look really bad to the world.

So I offer my cheer, "GO HAMAS!!!"

And now for the Picture of the Day.... (drumroll please):

(picture taken from ynetnews.com of a Hamas terrorist at a border crossing. This is called upgraded security)