Lawrence of Cyberia points out the hypocrisy of the sudden favor the Bushistas are showing toward Palestinian democracy. A small bit of the conclusion of a well argued and linked post:
The U.S. refusal to countenance Palestinian elections unless they produce a ruler we like is symptomatic of a bigger problem in our Middle East policy in general, which is the absolute bankruptcy of the Bush Administration’s much-vaunted claim to be bringing democracy to the region. Given a free choice, the people of the Middle East are not going to choose the CIA-backed pro-US Emirs, Kings and unelected Presidents that currently rule over them, so democracy is absolutely not on the cards and never was. (Remember Rumsfeld’s comment two days after the invasion of Iraq that a Shiite-led Islamic government was “not going to happen”? Well, that’s a pretty odd thing to say with confidence if you really plan to give a democratic voice to a country that is 2/3 Shiite and where the most respected community leaders are Ayatollahs, isn’t it?).
Our policy towards the Middle East is basically built on the lie that we care about democracy when really we care about installing compliant Arab governments who will keep their populace in line, tone down the rhetoric against Israel and, where applicable, keep the oil flowing at a price Americans can live with. We need to find a new name for the regional order we are currently installing at the point of a gun in the Arab world, because whatever it is, it isn’t “democracy”.
Who will the Palestinians elect to succeed Yasser Arafat? Bet on it.