In his stunning treatise on politics, religion, and ecology The Dune Chronicles, Frank Herbert wrote
Do you know what guerrillas often say? They claim that their rebellions are invulnerable to economic warfare because they have no economy, that they are parasitic on those they would overthrow. The fools merely fail to assess the coin in which they must inevitably pay. The pattern is inexorable in its degenerative failures. You see it repeated in the systems of slavery, of welfare states, of caste-ridden religions, of socializing bureaucracies—in any system which creates and maintains dependencies. Too long a parasite and you cannot exist without a host.
Today, Hamas moved from parasite to host by winning the most seats in the Palestinian parliamentary elections. But many accounts, most people voted for Hamas not because they embrace the organizations terrorist actions, but because they were fed up with the impotence and corruption of the Party of Arafat; Fatah. They want change.
Which means, they want good governance.
Which means that Hamas will either have to produce or they will have to try to put the Democracy genie back in the bottle when the time comes to be judged by the voters.
So what will they do now? How will they bring peace and prosperity to the people who are gambling on them to improve their lives?
"Now that they are in power, Hamas will have to take responsibility for the future. They will have to become more moderate. Now they are part of the democratic game and they will have to play by the democratic rules," [Hanna] Siniora said.
Siniora, a 69-year-old east Jerusalemite Christian, is publisher of The Jerusalem Times and a co-CEO of the Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information. An early proponent of negotiations with Israel, he has long been involved in pro-peace activities. He was one of seven candidates contending for one of the two seats reserved for Christians in the Jerusalem district, but is unlikely to win the seat.
"Once they are in power, the Hamas will have to pay salaries, create jobs and provide health and education services. They know that to do all of this, they need stability. In order to be in charge of the government, they will have to become responsible leaders, if they want to stay in power," he predicted.
With luck, they'll be too busy dealing with the day to day annoyance of governance to have time to attack Israel.
