In the latest edition of the New Statesman, its leader is entitled: "Israel must acknowledge Hamas as the democratic choice of a majority of Palestinians."
Er... why must Israel (or the West)?
This plea surely cannot come from the same New Statesman that on 14 February 2000, in another leader article, this time entitled "When it's right to be hysterical," which argued that the EU was right to place sanctions on Austria in protest at the Austrian people giving Jorg Haider's far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ) 27 percent of the vote in 1999 and a place in Austria's governing coalition?
The leader argued: "the European Union is right to register its disapproval; a party that trades at least partly on racism has entered the government of a member state. The political sanctions may be no more than gestures - the withdrawal of all but "technical" briefings from Austrian ambassadors, for example - but gestures are precisely what is needed at this stage. What needs to be brought home not just to Austrians but to people of all countries is that, whatever their frustrations with the established political system, recourse to extreme right-wing leaders, with openly racist or xenophobic agendas, is a dangerous game."
The hypocrisy from the Left is astonishing!
It is right that we all deplore the politics of the Far-Right (such as Haider's) - whether our politics is right or left. However, the Left's hatred of Israel (a democratic country) is so strong that it deludes and blinds itself of those it really ought to condemn. This delusion is such that the current leader in the New Statesman says Israel and the West will not "recognise a Palestinian Authority run by what they regard as a terrorist organisation." I'm sorry, come again? What on earth does the New Statesman and the Left regard Hamas as, if not a terrorist organisation? A Boy Scout group, perhaps? A nice group of men who help frail grannies cross the road in safety? Absolutely pathetic!
In 2000, the New Statesman argued against accepting the democratic choice of the Austrians. But by 2008, the New Statesman is asking us to accept the democratic will of Palestinians in Gaza even if they have elected a terrorist organisation. Why? Because one election was 'won' by the Far-Right while the other was won by a lovely terrorist organisation that refuses to recognise Israel and seeks its destruction and the death of all Jews. The hypocrisy!
In answer to the New Statesman's plea that "Israel must acknowledge Hamas as the democratic choice of a majority of Palestinians" I'll finish off by quoting the New Statesman back at them from their 2000 leader:
"It is all very well to insist that people should have an absolute freedom to vote for whom they like, just as we may insist that they should have an absolute freedom to say or write what they like. But racism is a special case, because it ultimately denies to a whole group even the right to keep themselves to themselves."
A terrorist organisation that wants to murder all Jews should not be recognised. The New Statesman is a bad joke of a magazine!
