And maybe Sharon will wake up from his 9 months of being brain dead and declare that he was wrong all along, that the settlers should NOT grab every hilltop they can, that he’s sorry for Sabra and Shatila, and then he’ll recall the IDF and settlers from Gaza and the West Bank, declaring that the Palestinians will be allowed to have the sovereign state that was promised to them at Oslo.

Or maybe the brutal horrors of Palestine’s occupation will continue, unabated and unchallenged by any foreign leadership for another 60 years. Maybe that.

Hungary is one of the ‘new’ Central European democracies and it has only been a free country since 1989/1990. Sometimes I call Hungary for ‘the Wild East’ (as opposed to ‘the Wild West’) as it is still having problems with issues like organized crime, corruption, and dirty politics. I am definitely not saying that my new home is bad, because even though there are serious issues in many areas of Hungarian society, Hungary is less imperfect in many areas compared to the ‘established’ democracies in Western Europe.

Anyway, in Hungary, there has still not been one government coalition that has managed to get re-elected for a second term. Basically, everybody knows that corruption is not just a ‘feature’ of one particular party, but corruption is seen as one of the facts of life.

In the Hungarian elections there are basically three types of voters, one group is the ‘ideological group’ that stays with the same party because of its politics and views on society, at the other end of the scale is the ‘unhappy group’ of voters who are fed up and will vote for the party that critizises the sitting coalition the most – regardless of political color. In the middle are the ‘sceptics group’ of voters who make their decision based on whether a party is in the right political area (center, center-left, center-right) and how well they argument. Each or the three groups have about 1/3 of the voters each, so in this respect I guess Palestine looks a bit like Hungary.

I don’t think that Hamas managed to get a majority because the majority of Palestinians are terrorists; there were just a large ‘swinger’ group that was fed up. After the next election, when Palestinians have seen that Hamas is capable of being just as corrupt as Fattah, then the balance will probably ping-pong back in Fattah’s favor. So, congratulations with a relatively normal democracy, Palestine!

I just hope the Hamas guys are clever enough to understand that the only way they can gain international support and use the political power they have gained is to denounce terrorism; either by laying down their weapons (the best solution) or by splitting into two seperate operational areas like the IRA/Sinn Féin. I think terrorism/armed resistance and politics are counter-productive if they are mixed.

By the way to everyone who said that the Palestinians must live with their decision, to some degree you are correct but let’s not forget that Hamas only won 73 seats out of 132 that leaves more than 40% of Palestinians who did not elect them, just as more than 45% of Americans did not support Bush.

Having said that, I think that Hamas must denounce violance and recognize Israels right to exsist otherwize the peoples suffering will not end.

Listening to the US tell them who to elect is idiotic. Why should they listen to a nation that only cares for the Isrealis?

If they want to be a mediator in the situation, they have to look at both sides of the situation. If the US and its allies are unwilling to do that, then they should keep quiet.

Whoever thinks that Isreal is the victim in this situation is sadly misinformed.

Does anyone find it surprising that Isreal and the US are dictating to the rest of the world not to recognize Hamas? I certainly don’t. Nothing would make them happier than to see the Palestinian people suffer even more. Hopefully, other nations of the world will be brave enough to do what is right and not what they are told to do.

The Palestinian people, God willing, will survive this heart-breaking situation. In the end, they will get their justice. They have God on their side.