rational geekery

There has been a great deal of rhetoric, both ideological and realist, since Hamas won the Palestinian Parliamentarian elections.  Some welcome the result, arguing Hamas will shake up the peace process, bringing Tel Aviv back to the table.  Other have condemned the result and labelled Hamas terrorists.

My favourite assessment was a short post by cartoonist Scott Adams on his site DILBERT.BLOG.  Adam’s evades ideology and addresses the conundrum now facing Hamas as they wake up to the realities of power: -

You know the old joke about the dog that chases cars – “What would he do if he caught one?” I was reminded of that when I read that Hamas won an election victory. I imagine a room full of Hamas leaders looking at each other behind closed doors and saying, “Oh crap, we won.”

And I imagine the Israeli leaders sitting around behind closed doors and saying, “It just got a lot easier to find the people we want to kill.”

I have to think it will be difficult for Hamas to reconcile the whole “destroy Israel” platform with “We’ll all be at the Parliament building at noon talking about how to do it.”

I’m writing this on Thursday the 26th. I predict that Hamas will start softening their position by the time you read this. Or maybe they’ll wait a few weeks just to make it seem like they thought about it. But it’ll happen.

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For another insightful commentary see The Skeptic الشكاك