After the first TV
reports that their party would win the Canadian election, Conservative
campaign workers began smashing windows in the Parliament Buildings,
and in government offices around Ottawa. They roved through the
corridors, beating up clerks and civil servants suspected of having
Liberal Party connexions. From St John’s to Victoria, both
winning and losing Conservative candidates took to the streets,
leading heavily armed supporters in ski-masks, followed by millions
of happy, cheering, banner-waving CPC voters, dressed in toques
and scarves. Merchants and homeowners raced to get Liberal and
NDP signs out of view, as the Tory hordes marched through towns,
firing their guns in the air, vandalizing post offices, and looting
shops belonging to their opponents.
In his victory address,
Stephen Harper read from the Loyalist Martyrs’ Creed, promising
that “ten million martyrs will march on New York City”.
He said there would be no more softwood negotiations with the
United States. Suicide bombers would resume blowing up pizzerias
and transit buses in Buffalo, Detroit, and Seattle, and the War
of 1812 would continue until the Americans were driven into the
sea. “They are illegally occupying territory belonging to
our Queen,” he declared, to rhythmic chanting, whooping,
and applause.
While admitting
that the Conservative victory had harmed prospects for peace in
North America, commentators on CNN and in the New York Times
hastened to assure their audience that they had nothing to worry
about. Mr Harper’s electoral triumph was merely a response
to popular perceptions that Canada’s governing Liberals
had been corrupt. Canadians had voted for a housecleaning, nothing
more. President Bush made the same points in a Washington press
conference. He praised the Canadian people for their commitment
to democracy, and expressed hope that, despite losing the election,
Paul Martin would remain in office so that the peace process could
continue.
Now -- at some point,
I hope, my reader guessed I was pulling his leg. I have transposed
events in Palestine to Canada, substituting Ottawa for Ramallah
and so forth. In doing so, I had to slur some comparisons. For
instance, our Conservatives won only a tiny minority, whereas
Hamas won an overwhelming majority in the Palestinian Assembly.
For militant Islam, I had to substitute British Imperialism, which
I admit has been stone dead for a while (whereas militant Islam
is thriving). I also wantonly confused Israel with the United
States. On the other hand, once this is allowed, the U.S. media,
and President Bush, spoke roughly as presented.
Quite apart from amusing
myself, my purpose was to bring home to my reader that Palestine
is not like Canada. The word “democracy” can be used
too glibly, and when we try to interpret a Palestinian election
as if it were just any election, we necessarily enter a world
of psychotropic illusions.
Hamas, the openly
terrorist party, defeated Fatah, the closet terrorist party, in
an election that -- our liberal media to the contrary -- had nothing
to do with Fatah corruption. It had much to do with the Palestinian
dream of driving Israel into the sea. And it clarified, beyond
doubt, that the great majority of Palestinians hold and nurture
that wish above all others.
As to the notion that
corruption would be the election decider, among a people who have
been accustomed to it from time out of mind, my friend Lee Harris
explains: “We thoughtlessly pay our onerous taxes; they
thoughtlessly pay their less extortionate bribes.” Efficiency
might come into it somewhere. Hamas runs protection rackets that
are more efficient than Fatah’s. And Hamas wisely invests
more of their take in schools and clinics, so there is something
to show.
But Fatah has been,
from its foundation in the 1960s, as terrorist as Hamas. The difference
between the parties is merely tactical. Yasser Arafat discovered
that Western (including Israeli) liberals are boobs, who could
be conned into believing he was a “peace partner”
if he just said so -- in English only. In Arabic, Fatah has never
concealed its project of driving Israel into the sea. Hamas, a
little more honestly, thinks peace talks are all a sham. It’s
the bombings that get results.
In a word, Hamas won
the election by successfully claiming credit for the Israeli withdrawal
from Gaza. In power, they will soon claim credit for the Israeli
withdrawal of isolated settlements in the West Bank. That is how
things are, how things were, and how things are going to be, and
it is time for the West to catch on.
Copyright
2006 Ottawa Citizen
