Progressive World Review

While the best that President Bush can muster as a leader is to prance around in a flight suit, Jimmy Carter has demonstrated what real leadership is all about as he attempts to negotiate a peace settlement in the Middle-East.  Of course Carter is taking plenty of flak from a shallow, vapid and clueless media that’s incapable of even covering an election without falling into meaningless personality-based coverage more suitable for People Magazine.  A perfect example is this Washington Post editorial,

ON THE OPPOSITE page today we publish an article by the “foreign minister” of Hamas, Mahmoud al-Zahar, that drips with hatred for Israel, and with praise for former president Jimmy Carter. We believe Mr. Zahar’s words are worth publishing because they provide some clarity about the group he helps to lead, a group that Mr. Carter contends is worthy of being included in the Middle East peace process. Mr. Carter himself is holding what appears to be a series of meetings with Hamas leaders during a tour of the Middle East. He met one militant in the West Bank town of Ramallah on Tuesday and was reportedly planning to meet Mr. Zahar in Cairo today before traveling to Damascus for an appointment with Khaled Meshal, Hamas’s top leader.

While this may be marginally better than reports of Obama’s bowling scores it still exhibits the fundamental flaws in the personality-based politics that pervade in our national media.  It doesn’t matter what you think of Hamas or Mahmoud al-Zahar, the fact is this; Hamas was democratically elected by the Palestinians living in Gaza.  That is why you negotiate with Hamas, because, like it or not, they represent the people we are trying to make peace with.

It’s easy to view the world in black and white, it requires no thought, simply label your enemies as terrorists, unworthy of negotiating with, and call it a day.   Of course you won’t actually solve any problems but you can feel smug in your self-righteousness that you are morally superior.  But are you?  We invaded a sovereign nation based on lies and incompetence, killed hundreds-of-thousands of its people but none of that matters, we are better than they are, we get to decide who is worthy of talking to even when we are not the primary stakeholders in the conflict.

So what do bowling scores and Hamas have in common?  The media’s focus on both has centered on personalities while deliberately obscuring the important issues.  According to our political class, because Obama is a bad bowler, he’s incapable of connecting with working class Americans (who apparently are all avid bowlers), and therefore incapable of leading them.  It matters not what he has to say, or what his leadership capabilities are, but because can’t bowl, he’s an out of touch elitist who’ll turn this country into a Mecca for trial lawyers, gays and illegal aliens.  While real men like Bush or McCain are morally upstanding, regular, beer drinking guys who are perfectly in touch with everyday folks.  Never mind that both are filthy rich, privileged men who have about as much in common with the working class as Pastor Wright has with Pat Buchannan.

And with Hamas, by looking only at the surface, the media has all but ignored the plight of the Palestinians of Gaza who live in what amounts to an open air prison.  In much the same way that Obama’s leadership qualifications are reduced to his ability to roll a ball down a lane, the Palestinians are painted by the utterances of one man, “Mr. Zahar’s words are worth publishing because they provide some clarity about the group he helps to lead.”  Not only does this represent a gross over-simplification of Hamas, it says virtually nothing of the Palestinian people as a whole, who just like the Israeli’s, have indicated a willingness to create a two-state solution to their conflict.  So while it’s true that the Hamas leadership has been unwilling to recognize the state of Israel, they don’t speak for all Palestinians anymore than Bush speaks for all Americans.

The Palestinians want their own homeland.  The Israelis want to live without fear.  Both have legitimate grievances and concerns.  Picking sides will never bring peace to the region; only by finding common ground will this conflict ever be solved.  Jimmy Carter understands this and his efforts should be praised rather than scorned but don’t look for our political class get it.

–Paul Wilden

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