Hamas Victory: A Clarifying Development

RUSH: Here’s my first observation on this election in Israel. I know some people think it’s Palestine. I still think it’s Israel. I want to phrase this, and put this within the context of what I’ve always called the Limbaugh doctrine. The Limbaugh Doctrine, ladies and gentlemen, is very, very simple: Peace does not come about with words and doctors and nurses and clean water. Peace follows victory. If you look at any conflict worldwide in modern history, in recent history, or long-ago history, in history, period — you will see that peace follows victory. We didn’t get peace with Germany and Japan by virtue of words until after we had defeated them. Now, this Israeli-Palestinian thing is not going to be any different than any other such conflict, and in that sense, I think that the Hamas victory in these elections could end up to be a good thing — and here’s why.

I don’t think there’s any difference between Hamas and Fatah at all. They both stand for the same thing, and that is the elimination of Israel. Fatah, however — which is Yasser Arafat’s old party, they were defeated — the reason I think they pose the greater threat of the two, actually, was because they have the liberal dunces, these elitists in this country and in Europe, fooled into thinking they are a party of peace and that they are a willing partner of peace, and I don’t think that there’s any evidence. I don’t think there’s any reason in recent history to trust either of these groups, when either of them would happen to say we are a partner for peace. So in the sense that the side that the liberal intelligentsia, the liberal elites and establishment around the world have chosen Fatah, since they go down to defeat. George Mitchell was on CNN today, said, ‘Well, yeah, President Bush gotta be careful what he’s looking for here. He wanted democracy, now we got democracy, and democracy has produced nothing different than what we had before the elections.’

The government hasn’t been formed yet. Libs, you know, be careful what you wish for. It just follows from the elitist view that, ‘Not every people are prepared for democracy. Not every population can handle it,’ and so they feel vindicated here because they think the wacko of the two groups, Hamas, has been elected, which means the Palestinians want war and so forth, and blah, blah, blah. The difference in this case, though, is, Hamas and Fatah are identical when it comes to the thing we should be concerned with most about them, and that is the limitation of Israel. Now, when Hamas acts out with a terrorist attack or whatever, guess what? They are a duly elected government. Now it’s not a bunch of fringe wackos attacking Israel; Israeli can say, ‘Hey, this nation has just attacked us,’ and they will have a greater reason to respond to this, and a more justified reason in doing so.

So in one sense it was clarifying and it is positive because it will allow the militant group now to have some so-called democratic legitimacy, which makes the Israeli response more justifiable. Now, Benjamin Netanyahu, the leader of the Likud party in Israel, spoke to the Likud faction in the Knesset today, and here’s what he said. He said, “Before our very eyes, Hamastan has been established, a stepchild of Iran and the Taliban. It’s within firing range of our airport, our highways, and cities. This has to be a day of soul-searching because the writing was on the wall. A policy of giving land for free gave a prize to terror and a winning card for Hamas. How are Olmert and Peres getting ready for this challenge? They’re moving the fence 500 meters closer to the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway. They gave more land to the Hamas site. Any land given to Hamas is a Hamas state. Any land given to Hamas will give more of a front to fire upon us. This is a new and dangerous situation. Sharon said he wouldn’t let Palestinians in Jerusalem vote but Olmert let them.” So it’s going to be interesting to see how this shakes out in the next couple of days. But it’s pretty predictable to me what’s going to happen.
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RUSH: The president was asked today by the AP’s Terrence Hunt: “Mr. President, is Middle East peacemaking dead with Hamas’ big election victory, and do you rule out dealing with the Palestinians if Hamas is the major party?”
THE PRESIDENT: Peace is never dead, because people want peace, and that’s why I articulated a two-state solution early in my administration so that, as a vision for people to work toward, the elections should open the eyes of the old guard there in the Palestinian territories. I like the competition of ideas. I like people to have to go out and say, “Vote for me, and here’s what I’m going to do.” There’s something healthy about a system that does that, and so the elections yesterday were very interesting. On the other hand, I don’t see how you can be a partner in peace if you advocate the destruction of a country as part of your platform.
RUSH: A-ha. A-ha. And that’s the key, and if these guys all of a sudden go soft, it’ll be the first time in world history something like this has happened. One more bite. Steve Holland of Reuters: “Are you cautioning Abbas not to resign, would this in effect aid the Palestinians and are you willing to work with Hamas assuming they take a large share of the government?”
THE PRESIDENT: I’ve made it very clear that the United States does not support political parties that want to destroy our ally, Israel, and that people must renounce that part of their platform, but the government hasn’t formed yet. They’re beginning to talk about how to form the government, and your question on Abbas was a good one and our message to him was we would hope he would stay in office and work to move the process forward.
RUSH: All right. So clearly stated there, we’re not going to work with anybody who still stands up and suggests the destruction of Israel. Now, that’s all Hamas — and Fatah, too. They’re both cut from the same cloth. It’s just that the Fatah people are a little bit more sophisticated. You know, when Arafat was alive, a terrorist attack would be launched against Israel, and he’d come out in the morning and denounce it in English and then later in the day he’d go on television in Arabic and praise and celebrate it and have a grand old time. But, you know, Arafat was the love child of the Clinton administration. I mean, most popular guest in there, the Clinton White House — well, unpaid. There were a lot of people paid to be in there a lot of times, but Arafat just showed up. So the left-wing establishment really rolled all the dice that they had with Arafat and Fatah, since he’s gone now, it’s even better. So they’ve lined up with these guys, and now their side has lost, and they think this is going to be the death of Bush’s whole concept of spreading democracy around the world. George in Windsor, Connecticut, you’re up first today. I’m going to take your call. Hello sir, and welcome.

CALLER: Hey, Rush, I have to agree with you that Hamas could be a good thing but my concern is that if for some reason they toe the line with Israel and the terrorism between Israel and Palestine goes down, then the elites in this country are going to say, ‘See, you can keep a terrorist organization in power and not be afraid,’ and they’ll use that, you know, again, in a negative way against this fight on terror.

RUSH: Be very careful with this, because, two things. Number one, that is a huge ‘if.’ If Hamas — do you realize who’s praising them to the heavens today is Iran. This new wacko president over there, all over al-Jazeera, Iran just loves this. So expecting Hamas to stand down would be the same thing as expecting Iran to stand down to stop its inflammatory statements, to stop its worldwide sponsorship of terrorism, and to dismantle its nuke machine. It isn’t going to happen, and it’s not going to happen with Hamas. They have been all my life, the destruction of Israel has been the objective of these people, and they’re getting closer to it now. Now they can say, ‘See? Hey, we were democratically elected to destroy Israel.’

CALLER: But –

RUSH: Wait a minute, now. The second point I want to address — because a lot of people might think that you swerved into something great there, ‘Wow, if the terrorists actually call it all back in and stand down, why, it will prove we can negotiate with terrorists.’ The problem with that is, is that it will also prove that democracy works and brings peace, and the American left is steadfastly opposed to that concept. They don’t think that democracy can work because it’s George Bush’s idea. So while they might be prone to say, ‘Well, yeah, yeah, yeah! See? See! You can negotiate with terrorists,’ they’d also have to admit that the reason we can negotiate with terrorists is because we had democracy and freedom, and they don’t win with that.

CALLER: Yeah, but if Hamas steps out of line, Israel will no doubt take matters into their own hands, which will give them every reason to do it because now Hamas is in the lead doing it not behind Arafat and, you know, the Fatah party.

RUSH: Well, yeah, it’s because in effect here you will have a duly constituted government, i.e., a state launching these attacks, and that will legitimize an Israeli response even more. I’ll tell you, there’s something else, though. (interruption) What are you shaking your head about in there? You’ve been disagreeing with me a lot lately and it’s putting you on some thin ice. Mmm-hmm. Mmm-hmm. Uh, well, here’s (interruption). Now, Snerdley says, ‘What happens if Hamas doesn’t deliver their own people?’ You mean government benefits and that sort of thing? I think before we get to that, Joel Rosenberg has an interesting take on this. He says that the immediate danger is the outbreak of a Palestinian civil war. That Fatah is not just going to say (flawless Fatah lackey impression), ‘Oops, we lost. We go back home.’ They’re not just going to do that. ‘In the worst-case scenario, Fatah members who have no desire to give up government ministries, patronage jobs, monthly paychecks, off-the-books slush funds, as well as access to guns and ammunition, could declare war against Hamas and fight to retain the power they have just lost at the ballot box. Skirmishes between the two groups have been on-going for months, but it could get a lot bloodier.’ Joel says the Middle East peace process — like Sharon — now lies ‘in a coma,’ while we wait to see how this shakes out.

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