Here is a note from Night Watch on Egypt and Hamas (toward the bottom of this web page).
Egypt: The Supreme Military Council and Foreign Ministry have discussed opening offices for the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in Cairo, similar to the offices of Fatah for the Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, several news services reported. A delegation from Hamas will visit Cairo to discuss the idea at a later date.I do think that the interim Egyptian authority is responding to what it thinks the People of Egypt want. The complicating thing is that a disturbance in the political balance that is Near East could result in war and the death of hundreds of thousands. It could draw the United States in, one way or another.
Comment: Under Mubarak, Egypt never permitted Hamas to have representation on an equal footing with the Palestinian Authority, which has international stature. The interim Egyptian administration, which has not been elected or approved in a democratic referendum, is acting as if it has a mandate to craft a new foreign policy that moves Egypt out of the pro-US camp, politically, and more towards the anti-Israel camp, led by Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah.
These are the kinds of things that test one's adherence to the idea that individual nations should have the right to pick their own path. They test the idea that others deserve democracy as much as we do—the right of the locals to make their own decisions.
Regards — Cliff
1 comment:
I find distrust of fair political results to be the most disturbing human emotion. First of all, the hubris, self-centered-ness and and arrogance of such is chilling at its core. Second of all, such discounts the very foundation of our socialization and civilization, which has attempted to prove over the centuries that being part of the "whole" is better for the individual than not. Of course, *we* happen to know better...
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