Associated Press
Analysis: Limits of Democracy Talk
By ANNE GEARAN 06.19.07, 5:39 PM ETRemember all that administration talk about democracy in the Middle East? President Bush made the seeding of democracy around the globe the rhetorical cornerstone of his second-term foreign policy, but his eager embrace of a largely unelected, emergency government for the Palestinians shows the limitations of that lofty goal. The United States, along with much of the rest of the world, has leapt to support Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as he has tried to consolidate power and avert all-out civil war with his Islamist Hamas rivals. The choice elevates short-term political expediency, and Bush's imperative to fight terrorism and extremism, above pure principle. The administration has brushed off questions about whether Abbas' actions are undemocratic, but that doubt hangs over Washington's repeated assertions that Abbas' new government is legitimate and his actions justified. Bush didn't wait to be asked Tuesday before he offered an endorsement of Abbas' democratic bona fides. "He was elected. He's the president," Bush said when asked about the future of peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Abbas evicted Hamas radicals from his government over the weekend and is now the sole elected figure running the Western-backed Palestinian government in the West Bank. He installed a banker who is a Washington favorite in the top job of prime minister, replacing a Hamas minister. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert also made a point of noting that Abbas is "perhaps the only person who was widely elected in a democratic manner by all of the Palestinian people." Yet Abbas has fired Hamas from the government that its legislators were elected to run, and effectively has returned the West Bank to single-party rule by his Fatah Party and its allies. The move came more than a year after Hamas' victory in one of only a handful of truly free and fair elections ever held among Arabs in the Middle East. "This confirms the falseness of the international community's support for democracy," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said Monday. Daniel Levy, a former Israeli peace negotiator and now a Mideast analyst at the New America Foundation in Washington, said the administration knows it risks the appearance of hypocrisy. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice may be trying a little too hard to buck up Abbas, he added. "Thou dost protest too much," Levy said. "If this is all so legitimate and democratic, why do you have to say that 10 times?" The Bush administration had insisted that the January 2006 election go ahead, over reservations from allies and a request from Abbas to delay the voting. "I really don't believe that we can favor postponing elections because we fear an outcome," Rice said days before the voting. When Hamas won, Washington took its lumps and never publicly regretted the choice to back elections. It also immediately began work to diplomatically and economically starve out Hamas, a political and military organization that the U.S., Israel and the European Union count as a terrorist group. Hamas refuses to renounce violence or recognize Israel's right to exist, conditions the world has set for recognition and aid. Abbas apparently has 60 days to hold new elections to replace a government that is theoretically temporary. He has not been precise about his plans. Hamas, currently the only real political alternative to Abbas' Fatah Party, refuses new elections on Abbas' terms and timetable. Hamas now controls the Gaza Strip, home to 1.5 million Palestinians, and Abbas' government controls the larger West Bank. Each holds power in part on the strength of partisan militias. Although it has pushed for new elections or referenda in other instances of emergency rule, the Bush administration has adopted a hands-off policy for Abbas. "We're certainly not going to advise the prime minister in terms of how he would proceed," White House press secretary Tony Snow said Tuesday. Bush blamed Hamas for provoking the crisis. He framed the larger issue as a long-haul clash between good and evil in a world shadowed by terrorism. As Olmert looked on before an Oval Office meeting, Bush seemed to suggest that whatever the near-term complications, history will bear out his commitment to democratic ideals. "Extremists in the Middle East would be emboldened by the failure of those of us who live nice, comfortable existences not to help those who are struggling for freedom," Bush said. "So it's the great challenge of our time, and there will be forward moving, there will be setbacks." EDITOR'S NOTE - Anne Gearan covers diplomacy and foreign affairs for The Associated Press.
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