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If we and the Europeans cut off aid, and Israel refuses to remit to the Palestinians the taxes they collect, the Palestinians will be put through hell for voting the wrong way. The Arabs will call us hypocrites who believe in elections only if they produce the results we demand.

What an idiot! Hamas has already said that they won't stop the violence. Why should the Bush administration compound the mistake of allowing them in the electoral process -they expected Hamas to win only a few seats- by giving aid to a terrorist organization -Hamas- whose goal is the extermination of Israel?

The following are excerpts from an interview with Hamas leader Mahmoud Al-Zahar, which aired on Al-Manar TV on January 25, 2006.
Mahmoud Al-Zahar: "We will not give up the resistance in the sense of jihad, martyrdom-seeking, sacrifices, arrests, the demolition of homes, and the uprooting of trees, at the same time, nor the shattering of the Israeli enemy's honor in all the confrontations - the war of tunnels and of security against the Israeli enemy, which ultimately led to its withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and part of the West Bank.
"In addition, we will teach them how we can have an industry that is independent of the Israeli enemy. We will gradually get all the laborers back [from Israel], after supplying them with job opportunities in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, where they will work in small and very small factories which will be independent of the Israeli enemy."
"Palestine means Palestine in its entirety - from the [Mediterranean] Sea to the [Jordan] River, from Ras Al-Naqura to Rafah. We cannot give up a single inch of it. Therefore, we will not recognize the Israeli enemy's [right] to a single inch. That is one thing.
"The second thing is that if the right of return is an individual right, neither Mahmoud Al-Zahar nor 'Abbas Zaki can relinquish it, because all these concessions will constitute a national catastrophe.
"The third point is that we can found a state on any piece of the land, and this will not mean we give up on any other part of the land."
Interviewer: "Condoleezza Rice has demanded that Hamas recognize Israel's right to exist. How do you respond?"
Mahmoud Al-Zahar: "Why should we recognize Condoleezza Rice... or Israel's right to exist? In this region we have faced Roman occupation, Persian occupation, Crusader occupation, British occupation - they are all gone. The Israeli enemy does not belong to the region. It does not belong to the region's history, geography, or faith. When you enter the land occupied in 1948, it is like entering an enclave. But when you go to Jordan, Syria, Saudi Arabia, or Egypt, you feel at home. It is your homeland."
"If today we are unable to win the conflict decisively, for reasons known to all, we must not pass on to our sons a disgraceful defeat by recognizing the Israeli enemy's right to exist, where it has no such right. Link

Now think of the dilemma that Hamas faces. They are basically organized as a militant group hell-bent on having Israel removed from the map, but now they are in a position where they have to govern something that is supposed to be a "nation" of some kind. Good luck with that, folks. I'm kind of surprised they didn't demand a recount in the aftermath of the election -- because they are in no position to govern anything with an attitude like theirs.

"We will gradually get all the laborers back [from Israel], after supplying them with job opportunities in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, where they will work in small and very small factories which will be independent of the Israeli enemy."

Hey Mr. Al-Zahar . . . Maybe you could answer a couple of questions for me: 1) what do you plan to make in these factories?; and 2) what kind of life are you folks going to have when you find that you can't compete with China, Bangladesh, etc. unless you pay yourselves 35 cents an hour?