In the Montreal Gazette, Gil Troy makes a strong argument for why it’s in the world’s interest to not extend legitimacy to Hamas and Hezbollah just because they’re now active players in Palestinian and Lebanese elections.
Democracy requires more than periodic elections. During the bad old days of communism, in Saddam Hussein’s late unlamented regime, the world saw how strongmen could strong-arm voters into voting for them. But questions of the legitimacy of the electoral process among the Lebanese and the Palestinians aside, democracy demands the rule of law, respect for others, basic rights for all. An organization that commits mass-murder with no compunction cannot wipe out its crimes by winning some votes.
And, as we have certainly seen in the street killings within Palestinian cities and in the periodic Beirut bombings, a political culture that celebrates and consecrates mass murder becomes addicted to violence as a way of life internally and externally.
