DEMOCRACY IS THE DRIVER, NOT THE CAR:

What Hamas could learn from the early Zionists about state-building: Paralysed by the shock result of the Palestinian election, all sides are now looking to the past to find a way forward (Jonathan Freedland, February 1, 2006, The Guardian)

Take President Bush. If he recognises Hamas, he flatly contradicts his global war on terror - since both the US and EU have long branded Hamas a terrorist organisation. But if he doesn't recognise Hamas, he flatly contradicts his global campaign for democracy - since Hamas just won a clear majority in precisely the kind of free election Bush demands for the whole Arab world. He either, by his own logic, legitimates terror or he admits that he is offering only a Henry Ford kind of democracy: you can have whatever colour car you like - so long as it's black.

Democracy is the means by which even a Hamas will be reformed, not the end in itself.

Posted by Orrin Judd at February 6, 2006 11:07 PM