Hamas and The End Times

Once upon a time in the not too distant past when Yasir Arafat died the officially proclaimed leaders of our country preferred to express their hopes that his death presented an opportunity for peace in the Middle-East. Indeed even fearless leader and head cheerleader of America’s ruling power elite, George Bush, dismissed Arafat as a negotiating partner in the Middle-east. Once again a faith based society is confronted by reality this time with the election victory by a Hamas party which has on occasion engaged in terrorism.

The election in Palestine occurred in large part because of Washington’s pro-democracy campaign in the Arab world. A policy based on the ignorance and intolerance of the religious right which tries to export that which it has no familiarity with i.e. democracy. The reality of American politics today is that it is the politics of fear which is but a different form of terrorism that exists at home it is that and not democracy which we export to the rest of the world.

The reality in Palestine is that 78 percent of the eligible population voted in one of the most free, open, and democratic elections in the Arab world and 60 percent of them preferred to be represented by Hamas because of the forty year Fatah party propensity for corruption and ineffectiveness as well as Israel’s occupation of Palestine, and international indifference to the plight of the Palestinian people.

A party with a propensity to impose their fundamentalist social agenda is now in power, Hamas yet another player in the “End Times”. Iran’s present day ruler influenced by a right wing religious fundamentalism believes in the extinction of Israel. We have an Israeli leadership that will not negotiate with an armed terrorist organization calling for the destruction of Israel while failing to see the terrorist organization in the mirror that occupies a people. There is in fact no difference between an Arab country ruled by right wing religious fundamentalism or an Israel, or a United States similarly influenced. It’s the same oppression.

As a people our involvement in this madness, this pursuit of a self fulfilling prophecy of “End Times” is evidenced by an American president who claimed that his God told him to invade Iraq. The WMD, the connection to Al-Qaeda, the involvement with 9/11, the nuclear capacity, and the imminent threat were necessary to secure public support for his belief in a God that permits man to take the life of his fellow man, created in His image, based on a lie.

Today George Bush says that he can’t “see how you can be a partner in peace if you advocate destruction of a country”. The arrogance of failure trying to mask such shameless hypocrisy as if the rest of the world were informed about Iraq by the American media. And today Condoleezza Rice says “you can’t have one foot in terror and the other in politics” while she demands that Hamas should renounce violence.

If George Bush cannot accept his responsibility for the death and destruction which occurs in Iraq how can he reasonably expect another country to turn the other cheek? And how can Condoleezza Rice demand that Hamas renounce violence without renouncing our own? At least Hamas has claimed responsibility for its acts of terrorism while we have yet to accept responsibility for our own.

For decades we have been an example of democracy for the world to follow. Today we have become the monsters we fought 70 years ago. We have shown the world that our definition of democracy is doublespeak for engaging in pre-emptive strikes, committing crimes against humanity, and permitting such evil by reason of the insanity of “national security”. A nation in which one in which no one accepts responsibility and no one is held accountable and those who object are charged with treason.

That’s reality in America today as a nation of sheep follows the course of a foreign policy based on the “End Times” when the people of another country choose terrorism to respond to terrorism that is the abyss gazing back at us.