It's important to take stock of the over all message that we (the west) are sending the middle east.
While we talk democracy, our actions betray us. Hamas was democratically elected yet our response was to isolate them. The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt was democratically elected but the west didn't say a word when he was over thrown in a coup de'tat.
So It's no surprise that Arab Leaders who are all holding on to their dwindling dictatorships with an iron grip would side with the Israel (the West) than risk suicide by siding with Hamas.
The one exception to the rule is Qatar though who seems to have outclassed and outstrategised every single Gulf State to date.
Democracy is not the be-all, end-all. A consensus to do evil should be rejected. Our repudiation of Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood was more a rejection of their stated aims rather than the means of influence.
Lets be fair. Morsi won 51% of the vote and thereafter granted himself unlimited power (quite literally). He essentially declared himself god-emperor. What would you have NATO do, restore the dictator to power?
Hamas is in much the same boat- democratically elected yes, but a state sponsor of terrorism that believes the state of Israel has no right to exist. They actively house rockets/terrorists in schools, mosques, and hospitals. No one in the West can support such an organization even if Israel is nearly as bad.
It might be a difficult concept to wrap one's head around - that someone might come to power via democratic means and then proceed to usurp the power by killing off the opposition & closing free press.
Ie if you want to use the D word, it's not enough to mention it once ('came to power') but also demonstrate that they are staying in power democratically.
This is what the US always did. If a government doesn't play ball with them they try everything to get rid of it. Look at what happened just a couple of months ago in Ukraine: democratically elected president was ousted just because he was becoming too friendly with Putin.
[+] [-] dang|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cup|11 years ago|reply
While we talk democracy, our actions betray us. Hamas was democratically elected yet our response was to isolate them. The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt was democratically elected but the west didn't say a word when he was over thrown in a coup de'tat.
So It's no surprise that Arab Leaders who are all holding on to their dwindling dictatorships with an iron grip would side with the Israel (the West) than risk suicide by siding with Hamas.
The one exception to the rule is Qatar though who seems to have outclassed and outstrategised every single Gulf State to date.
[+] [-] DLarsen|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kansface|11 years ago|reply
Hamas is in much the same boat- democratically elected yes, but a state sponsor of terrorism that believes the state of Israel has no right to exist. They actively house rockets/terrorists in schools, mosques, and hospitals. No one in the West can support such an organization even if Israel is nearly as bad.
What good options exist anywhere?
[+] [-] omonra|11 years ago|reply
It might be a difficult concept to wrap one's head around - that someone might come to power via democratic means and then proceed to usurp the power by killing off the opposition & closing free press.
Ie if you want to use the D word, it's not enough to mention it once ('came to power') but also demonstrate that they are staying in power democratically.
[+] [-] abroncs|11 years ago|reply