Acorn

Media Credit: cnn.com Citizens celebrated this week at the democratic elation of Hamas, solidying the organization as an influential party in the Middle East [Click to enlarge]

Media Credit: cnn.com Hamas has become as much of a cultrural power as a polictal one, but the question remains: WHere will the U.S. draw the line on recognizing their power [Click to enlarge]

After last semester, I was sick of government and politics, pundits and newspapers. I could not even bring myself to follow that glorious little ticker at the bottom of CNN. My brain was overloaded with random factoids about agricultural economies and United Nations processes. I needed to escape the addiction of knowing every minutia of what was going on in the world.

I went to my parents� quiet place up north, where I could read novels away from traffic noise and play with my dogs I did not pick up a newspaper, magazine or otherwise follow the headlines of the world for the better part of winter break.

As it turns out, a lot can happen in five weeks. I was in shock. You don�t feed a starving man a seven course meal. He needs time to adjust. The same can be said of a CNN junkie that has been away from cable for an extended period of time.

One of the first things reported on the news when I tuned back into �reality� was that Hamas won the Palestinian election. Yeah, THAT Hamas. It might as well have read that Osama Bin Laden moved to a suburb of Toronto and opened up bait and tackle shop or that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi called a cessation of hostilities so he could make it to Torino next week to watch the first round of women�s luge. I thought I picked up a copy of The Onion by mistake. �No way can this be right,� I thought. Well, it was not The Onion. It was the New York Times.

My perfunctory response was, �How the hell did they get on the ballot?� I knew they were empty words. It didn�t matter how they got on the ballot. It only mattered that they did. And they won. An organization that the United States lists as an active terrorist threat won a clean and clear democratic election. Over half of the seats in the Palestinian government went to Hamas, forcing a coalition government between Hamas and Fatah.

Now the question is when? When does Hamas take over control of the Palestinian Authority? It could be a matter of weeks, but more likely a matter of months, tt least until after March 28 when the Israeli elections are held. The �quartet� (United States, United Nations, Russia and the European Union) has demanded that Hamas, �must be committed to nonviolence, recognize Israel and accept the previous agreements and commitments,� according to the NY Times. That would take a large and fundamental restructuring in both the culture and platform of Hamas. Meanwhile, Palestinians need both a clean and nimble government and tons of international aid. Even if Hamas were not a terrorist organization, its members are rookies at government and there is no foreseeable direct aid coming to a Hamas- government. The Palestinian Authority is facing a budget deficit of approximately $700 million. Palestinians need people who know how to govern efficiently, regardless of who won the election. It has been suggested by CNN that the current president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, �work with a technocratic prime minister, with Hamas approving policy from behind a screen.� This approach would give power to with some experience in government, while still respecting the vote of the Palestinian people. It�s not perfect, but maybe it can alleviate some of the Palestinian�s problems.

-Jonny Tyrell, Senior

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