Blinded By Democracy

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Blinded By Democracy
Georgie Anne Geyer
February 01, 2006

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s frank words after the gigantic Hamas electoral victory in Gaza last weekend should be engraved in bronze in a prominently displayed plaque in the lobby of the State Department.
No, I take that back. Identical plaques should be hung in the lobby of the Pentagon, over the secretary of Defense’s desk, at the entrance to the Oval Office in the White House and in the vice president’s office.

In her own words, the plaques would read: "I’ve asked why nobody saw it coming. It does say something about us not having a good enough pulse." Then it would be signed "Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who for some inexplicable reason did not foresee the Hamas victory in 2006."

So, here we are again. We didn’t know, we didn’t suspect, we didn’t dream — mostly, we didn’t THINK! But virtually everyone who thinks seriously about the Middle East, including this observer, knew that Hamas was going to win. The papers were filled with this prediction. But the administration, in its ingrown, arrogant, self-deceiving "wisdom" about "democratizing the world," deliberately chose to ignore it, believing despite all evidence to the contrary in its utopian dream that elections will solve everything "because all people want the same things" (except, of course, when they don’t).

If I didn’t admire the man so much, I would usurp Pope John Paul II’s famous words to the Poles, during a period when they were still under communism, "Be not afraid!" Instead I would beseech this administration: "Be not amazed!"

Why on Earth would the 1.2 million beaten down, misused, disgusted Palestinians in Gaza (a piece of land merely 10 miles by 30 miles) vote for anyone but Hamas? The traditional party, Fatah, has robbed the place blind, ignored technical development and couldn’t carry through the on offer of a lifetime, the Oslo Accords of the 1990s.

Hamas says it is for the destruction of Israel, but, for the average miserable guy on the dusty, bitter streets of Gaza, Hamas offered schools, clinics, community centers and what passes for hope after nearly 40 years of brutal occupation. It’s doubtful that this was a vote for violence; rather, it was a vote for some desperate relief from history.

Let us look at how President Bush’s utopian "democratization" dream is actually doing in the region. In Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood, the original fount of all the radical Islamist groups, dramatically increased its representation in parliament. Iraqi elections divided the country into religious groupings, with Shiites clearly the winners, with close ties to radical Iran. The radical Hezbollah moved even further ahead in elections in Lebanon last year. And now, Gaza.

All those in the West who "didn’t expect this" are running around like chickens with their heads cut off, trying to figure out what to do next. The Bush administration says we can’t/won’t work with a group that wants to destroy Israel. The Western countries who have supplied Gaza with "blood money" contributions say, "No more." Israel, now within walls that in truth define the "New Israel," says she will not relay customs taxes it collects for the Palestinian Authority to Hamas. By withdrawing funds to Gaza, the West might as well send a formal invitation to the radical government in Iran to "c’mon over."

As our former ambassador to Israel and top Middle East analyst, Martin Indyk, was quoted in The New York Times this week: "On the American side, the conceptual failure that contributed to disaster was the president’s belief that democracy and elections solve everything."

Secretary Rice used the interesting word "pulse." We didn’t understand the movements, the currents, the feelings within Gaza. I would add to that, on policy terms, informed "instinct." There are plenty of people in Washington and elsewhere who have that street sense, that feeling at the end of the fingertips, that knowledge of cultures that comes from reading literature and history — and being honest — but they were all cut out or ignored by this administration.

The thing to do now is what the administration will never do: stop and look backward at all the mistaken analyses and assurances. How we didn’t push through the Oslo Accords. How Israel deliberately bombed all the buildings in Gaza built by European Union funds, convinced that Europe was too pro-Palestinian. How we have been so involved with fraudulent democratization and our own importance that we have forgotten to consider what constitutes justice.

Before he was killed by the Israelis in 2004, Abdel Aziz Rantisi, a top Hamas leader, said it was forbidden religiously for the Palestinians to give up part of their land, so they couldn’t recognize Israel — but they could accept a truce, live side by side and refer the issues to coming generations.

Is it possible to dream that this rigid and unseeing administration could still summon up the modesty and sophistication that could make a compromise like this workable?