Should Hamas Have Participated in Elections? -Peter Baker
Prior to the Palestinian elections, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice sat down with aides to consider if the elections should be canceled. Israeli leaders had implored Bush advisers to not let the vote proceed. Hamas, deemed a terrorist group by the U.S., could easily win, they warned. Even Natan Sharansky urged the Americans to postpone the vote, arguing that democracy is about building institutions and civil society, not just holding elections.
But Mahmoud Abbas told the Americans that his Fatah party needed the vote for credibility and it had to include his opposition.
Sharansky, whose book [The Case for Democracy] so inspired Bush [said,] "I give him an A for bringing the idea and maybe a C for implementation."
Prior to the Palestinian elections, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice sat down with aides to consider if the elections should be canceled. Israeli leaders had implored Bush advisers to not let the vote proceed. Hamas, deemed a terrorist group by the U.S., could easily win, they warned. Even Natan Sharansky urged the Americans to postpone the vote, arguing that democracy is about building institutions and civil society, not just holding elections.
But Mahmoud Abbas told the Americans that his Fatah party needed the vote for credibility and it had to include his opposition.
Sharansky, whose book [The Case for Democracy] so inspired Bush [said,] "I give him an A for bringing the idea and maybe a C for implementation."
"There is a gap between what he says and what the State Department does, and he is not consistent enough." The challenge Bush faced, Sharansky added, was to bring Washington together behind his goal.
"It didn't happen," he said. "And that's the real tragedy."
(Washington Post )
(Washington Post )
2 comments:
Sharansky is right, of course, about a lot of this, and his wise counsel: Even Natan Sharansky urged the Americans to postpone the vote, arguing that democracy is about building institutions and civil society, not just holding elections. would have been a prudent way to handle Iraq as well. However, when dealing with the Palestinians, you need to take into account the Palestinians, and they do not seem to know what is best for themselves, and that is why the vote went on. However, I do not believe that Sharansky's book was an inspiration to Bush. You will be hard pressed to convince me that he read it, or read much of anything else, really.
I can not vouch for Bush having read it, but i can say that Sharansky has penned a short, poignant and timely text that shares the moral path that America's founding fathers paved.
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