The Power of Voting

Let’s use the events of the election in the Middle East to spell out the power of the ballot. After listening to and reading the fallout from the so-called experts, the general consensus is the votes amassed by Hamas was the result of a vote against the Fatah. Voters so disenfranchised with the corruption of Fatah thought that to punish Fatah they would vote for Hamas. They got their wish.

Voting democratically for these people is something new and I’m not sure they fully understood what casting a “negative” vote would yield. But, now they have to live with it and realize the results of their actions. They need to be shown that voting is a serious right and casting a ballot should be done responsibly – I guess we could all take a lesson in that.
This is a result of ignorance and having never participated in any kind of election that even closely resembled a fair election – a democratic one. This all happened too fast. This is a good example of how trying to hurry a society that has been ruled by corrupt dictatorship into a democracy, can produce unwanted results.

Both the United States and Palestine, along with the rest of the world, will have to live with and deal with the results of that election. The U.S. and other progressive democratic societies will need to learn how hurrying a society into democracy can be dangerous when the people don’t have a chance to fully understand what consequences might bely them by voting a particular way.

The Palestinian people now have to figure out what they are going to do. No one wants to deal with Hamas. They are a terrorist organisation that refuses to give up on the idea of the anialation of Israel and all who support her. The U.S. and others need to cut off all support immediately and force Hamas to yield on this issue and others.

We know Hamas is funded and supported by Iran, Al-Qaeda and other nations and groups, so our efforts need to extend beyond Palestine and cut off supplies and support from these terrorist supporters – a blockade of sorts.

The U.S. pushed for democratic elections and got them. We may not like the results but we have to deal with it. We should use the event to teach ourselves and the Palestinian people that the world will not negotiate with terror groups, even when they have been voted in democratically.

With that said, I am not that optomistic that Hamas will listen to much of anything that the rest of the world has to say. I believe that Israel will not sit quietly by and do nothing. Hamas will provoke, they will continue their onslaught of terror while pursuing their ultimate goal of the destruction of Israel.

We need to keep a watchful eye on Iran. They wanted complete control of Palestine as much, if not more, than Hamas. Palestine could very easily become a puppet regime and just one stepping stone closer to the destruction of Israel by Iran.

Tom Remington