...A common "realist" critique of the assumption that the West should push for democratization in Arab society is that Arab democracy in today's world can only mean the coming to power of Islamic fundamentalists in more and more countries. Yet this is perhaps a shortsighted realism. In the long run, just as it took decades of communist regimes in Europe to convince the world that communism is a system that never works, the only way to rid the Muslim world of the illusion that Islamic governments can cure it of its ills may be to let such governments reign and fail. But to do this, it is imperative not to save them from failure by propping them up financially or otherwise.

The Palestinians have chosen Hamas? We can agree that it was their democratic right to. But we should also agree that the sooner they realize they have made a bad choice, the better. Any Western attempt to thwart such a realization by supporting a Hamas government can only help delay the discreditization of radical Islam among the Palestinians and Arabs themselves. This would be a very foolish thing to do.