Well said, David----I'm afraid. William Ball Norma Ball -----Original Message----- From: lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of dsavory@xxxxxxxxx Sent: Thursday, January 26, 2006 3:15 PM To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: time for a re-think Hamas victory a wake-up call for Mideast Huge vote for Islamist party likely to send shockwaves through region In an overwhelming victory, the Islamic militant party Hamas has effectively taken control of the Palestinian government after winning an unforseen 76 seats in the 132-seat Palestinian parliament. While both the United States and Israel consider Hamas to be a terrorist organization, which they refuse to recognize or negotiate with, the results of the election are clear. With voter turnout reportedly as high as 77 percent out of the 1.3 million eligible voters, and the elections considered free and fair by outside observers, a Hamas mandate is undisputed. So there it is, nice and clear and easy for everyone to see. The Hamas victory is a wake up call for the US, not the Middle East. It is clear that militant Islam is the ideology of choice for the majority of Palestinians, as it is for Iranians and probably for Iraqis as well. Thus, the clash of civilizations, the cognitive dissonance and the resulting paradigm shift are gonna reside in the American adjustment to Islamic nationalism not on the Islamic adjustment to democracy; it's clear that Muslims know what they want and now that we've encouraged them to achieve it, we're have to be happy for them. It's gonna be fun watching the US Administration tap dance around freely and fairly elected governments that hate their guts. Or else it will do what administrations have done for over 150 years in Central and South America: deem grassroots nationalism "communism" or "terrorism" and go kick some ass. David Savory Vancouver ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html