Hamas is elected, students of history know what to expect now

I have avoided posting anything on events in the recent Palestinian elections for a simple reason: I just didn't have the words to adequately describe my dismay at the results and my fears for what the future will hold.

Richard Cohen's column in today's Dallas Morning News (and the WaPo, and probably all over the place) sums up my feelings pretty well. Hamas, he reminds us, has clearly and distinctly called for the destruction of Israel. So, now that they are going to be governing the Palestinian territories, we're supposed to forget about that?

Cohen goes on to draw parallels between the Weimar government of Germany in the late 1920's and early 1930's and the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority. In both cases, corruption and lawlessness were rampant, and civil society was breaking down. In this environment, in both cases, a radical, ultra-conservative party, who had previously and publicly stated some rather extreme goals (anyone out there read Mein Kampf?), came along, promised to pick up the trash or make the trains run on time, and won stunning victories at the polls.

Cohen takes pains not to directly compare Hamas to the Nazis, but that's because he has to. He's a national columnist who would prefer not to risk offending the sensitive in the Palestinian or larger Muslim community.

I, however, am a nobody blogger from Middle America, and am under no such restrictions, so I'll go ahead and say it: I am scared to death at what this portends for Israel and the Middle East. Jews in the Middle East today are in a MUCH better position to protect themselves than they were in Weimar Germany, but that doesn't change the fact that this is as scary a situation as has existed since the Yom Kippur War in 1974.

We have no choice but to let this play out. However, Hamas does NOT deserve the benefit of the doubt. They have to take some positive actions before I'm going to give them any rope at all. I know the Israelis are thinking the same way. I sincerely hope the Bush administration is as well. And, as for the Palestinian apologists in Europe and elsewhere: You can stick your heads in the sand all you want, but, to me, this is exactly the reason we study history.