What do we do now?

"What do we do now?"

Kudos to AP's John Leicester. If there were an award for best quote, this would be it. It's spoken by Elie Wiesel, so he's got a heavy hitter. And it's great.

The topic, of course, is the election of Hamas. So far, everything's cool. Bush and Condi say they'll treat them like Arafat, which is good. Plenty of people, Kaus among them, have recognized that now Hamas is likely to moderate, since they'll have to spend energy making sure the toilets flush. Israel says they won't talk to them, which is good, but I suspect they'll find a way soon enough, which is good, so long as Israel continues willing to shoot, too.

All tough questions.

But here's the great one: Suppose this really does mean that the Palestinian people want to kill the Jews. I don't mean, is that the popular prejudice among them; of course it is. I mean, are they willing, more than just fantasizing about someone else doing it, are they will to disrupt their own lives and die for it? If so, it'll be like Sherman's Civil War: Kill them until they're gone.

And what about another idea: Can people vote themselves out of a democracy? I don't mean, can someone take over and suppress the people; of course that can happen. What I mean is, could the people legitimately vote them selves a dictatorship or theocracy?