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religion, not only a democratic process – and he succeeded – he formed such a powerful religion
that it dominated over the others. The holy books of this religion are the Declaration of
Independence (which he wrote) and the Constitution (written by James Madison); its temples
are the White House and Capitol Hill, and its holiest of holiest is the Supreme Court of Justice.
The religions which fall underneath it are in constant danger of deterioration into folklore under

the imminent pressure of the belief in democracy. Jewish-American, Protestant-American,
Catholic-American, Muslim-American, and Buddhist-Americans are "dashed" religions.

Their religion has a dash but their suffix is always American. When the American president
speaks of the Axis of Evil he doesn’t mean that the evil ones are not Christian or not Jewish or

not Catholic. Nor does he mean that they are Muslim. He means that they are not democratic.
The president’s citizens also do not measure evil according to Abraham, Jesus, Muhammad, or
Buddha, but rather they understand the definition of good and evil exactly as their president
does.

Because for Americans, the structure, as Ellen Finklecraut said, is the content. It is easy to
mistakenly think that this system is easily implemented. All you have to do is adopt elections
and constitutions and everything else works out. America also tends to think like this, and they
are always surprised when it turns out that it’s not that simple. They were surprised in Vietnam

just as they were surprised in South America, and just as they will soon be in Iraq. Because the
content is not the structure, and when you force implementation of the structure surprising
things happen: the structure (elections) suddenly gives birth to a different content (communism,
say, or Islam), and the new content is not always suited to adopt the structure…

The 2006 elections that allowed Hamas to gain power were opposed by Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and
Israel, among other countries (notably not including the Bush administration), since it was clear that
these elections would be democratic in structure only, but not democratic in principle (i.e., not
necessarily prepared to protect equal rights of citizens under the law, societal pact to honor all
outcomes, right to life, right to voice opposition without fear, equal right to vote). Rather, Hamas is a

terrorist organization that does not recognize Israel’s right to exist, which used/abused the democratic
process to gain power then destroyed the democracy, and exploits
its citizens’ own lives for political capital. The Hamas charter, as well
as senior Hamas leaders before, during, and after the recent
operation in Gaza, clearly state that Hamas will continue its violent

acts until Israel ceases to exist. We cannot allow our faith in
democratic process to blind us to what is actually happening in Gaza –
Hamas is not an entity that looks out for the best interest of its
citizens, a fact evidenced by their use of citizens as human shields,
their refusal to release injured civilians to Egypt or Israel for

medical care, and their use of schools to store rockets. The
ceasefire does not change this, nor does the extent of the force or
the extent of restraint that Israel employs when responding to the
years of rocket barrages and suicide bombings that threaten the

lives of its citizens. While Israel does not by any means have a clean record in its history of dealing with
the Palestinian people, this is still not a justification for the actions of Hamas, and it is clear