The Election of HAMAS and its Impact on America

HAMAS and Homeland Security

A Congress rep should be thinking how global events affect our future, because they do.

So the election of HAMAS deserves comment. If it increases terrorism, then it directly impacts our Homeland Security (and future terrorism acts here or abroad). Our mission is to find a way to diminish that threat. There is a way to do that.

I recommend everyone read Fareed Zakaria’s column in Newsweek’s Feb. 6 edition –he describes how dictators in the Middle East have destroyed opposition groups, how that lead to the rise of HAMAS and what we need to do to “fix it.”

“Fixing it” means promoting secular, progressive groups in the Middle East that provide an alternative to hard-line religious radicalism that fueled HAMAS. Unlike Arafat and his Fatah, HAMAS actually built hospitals and provided services that the corrupt Fatah officials never tried to do. But they will have to accept Israel’s right to exist. Our government can play a role in the process of moderating Middle East politics.

President Bush, as Mr. Zakaria points out, has said that democracy promotion is a “growth industry.” We can help by funding those groups to help bring electoral diversity and more moderation to the Middle East.

I have talked about this issue with both Muslim friends and Jewish friends. Everyone has much at stake because it impacts all of us regardless of religion or where we live.

We must be proactive to avoid future 9 11’s (not to mention budget crisis) instead of ignoring the obvious signs as our Congress did the 1990’s.