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Elections are the beginning of the process and the election of Hamas was very instructive. It was the final culmination of the Arafat era and we don't want corruption. They want health care and better attention to the interests of their people. A government that has announced they want to destroy Israel .... Democracy will eventually allow them to live side by side in peace.

Anyone who is optimistic about the Middle East has to be a little suspect. We all understand that it is one thing for Hamas to blow things up in Israel and be popular. It is another to be in a position where they are expected to make things better for the people that elected them. The last government was tossed because they were viewed as corrupt. I guess Bush believes that if they don't work, they will be voted out and further believes Hamas understands this. Ergo, they will change.

Some of us think they will simply eliminate (or adopt the Sadaam style of) elections thereby continuing to blame Israel and the West for there being no money and no hope, pretty much business as usual but now Hamas has nicer offices to build bombs.

I think his theory is right but I do not understand why he believes there is a structure in place that will guarentee the democratic process necessary (i.e., free elections) to force Hamas to change.

The last government was tossed because they were viewed as corrupt. I guess Bush believes that if they don't work, they will be voted out

Absolute nonsense and that the President believes it is scary.

I can prove it is nonsense and I don't need the President's intelligence assets....only a daily newspaper.

Since the election, Fatah, the losing party, have stepped up terrorist operations. They know better then the President that the way back to power is not by promising good things for the "Palestinians" but by promising and delivering dead Israelis.

There was a brief moment during the first Administration when I believed this President would stop the Mideast charade of Arabs wanting peace with Israel and formulate policies based on reality. It was also when I believed he might be a great President. I was fooled and wrong.