How do you solve a problem like Hamas

Charles Krauthammer feels, as I do, that the Hamas election was a good thing, since it finally reveals what the apologists can no longer disguise: that Palestinians want Israel's destruction, and will use democracy to get it. I focused on the freedom this gives to Israel's foreign policy as to the Palestinians. Krauthammer, in a fascinating article, focuses on what the world should do and what that will mean:

This election was truth in advertising. Now we know. What to do? The world must impress upon the Palestinians that there are consequences for their choices. And so long as they choose rejectionism -- the source of a 60-year conflict the Israelis have long been ready to resolve -- the world will not continue to support and subsidize them. And that means cutting off Hamas completely: no recognition, no negotiation, no aid, nothing. And not just assistance to a Hamas government, but all assistance. The Bush administration suggests continuing financial support for ``humanitarian'' services. This is a serious mistake. First, because money is fungible. Every dollar we spend for Palestinian social services is a dollar freed up for a Hamas government to purchase rockets, guns and suicide belts for the ``Palestinian army'' that Meshal has already declared he intends to build. Second, because it sends the Palestinians precisely the wrong message. If they were under a dictatorship that imposed rejectionism upon them, there would be a case for helping a disenfranchised Palestinian people. But they just held the most open and honest exercise of democracy in Palestinian history. The Palestinian people chose. However much they love victimhood, they are not victims here. They are actors. And historical actors have to take responsibility. They want blood and death and romance? They will get nothing. They choose peace and coexistence? Then, as President Bush pledged in June 2002, they will get everything: world recognition, financial assistance, their own state with independence and dignity.

As always, though, the world, led by Israel, will be utterly incapable of imposing real world consequences on real world decisions. So, while Krauthammer is absolutely right as to what should be done, what in fact will be done is to continue to funnel Western money -- including your and my tax dollars -- to prop up an explicitly genocidal government. Even in the 1930s, with appeasement on everyone's lips, the world's governments at least wouldn't have paid Hitler to do what he did. Talking to Technorati: Hamas, Israel, Palestine