Refaat Alareer's brief, quotable accusation was the
cri de cœur of someone who knew that his community in general, and his family specifically, were increasingly unlikely to survive.
In those desperate life-and-death circumstances, I would have lashed out at any meddler whose meddling didn't intervene in the exact way I wanted, too. And my brief, quotable accusation would be taken as ammunition by lots of people who cared more about scoring points in arguments than about my personal situation.
Refaat Alareer said lots of other things, too, but this statement is so quotable by Biden-haters that it's getting most of the attention.
There's certainly plenty of American blame to go around for the current situation in Gaza, going back at least to President George W. Bush's and Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice's intense pressure to hold "free and fair" Palestinian parliamentary elections in January 2006, open to all parties, including the terrorist organization Hamas's "Change and Reform" party.
Winner-take-all district elections are never truly "free and fair" expressions of the will of the people, because the system is so game-able—which Bush of all people should surely have known, having famously won the White House in 2000 despite having lost the popular vote. Nonetheless, Bush kept pushing his fervent belief that democracy is magic and would solve all the problems in the Middle East.
Hamas did not win a majority of the popular vote, but it won the majority of seats, taking legitimate power from the then-governing (moderate) Fatah party. Hamas then used that power to suppress and murder their Fatah opponents.
A few examples of how the winner-take-all system did not truly express the will of the Palestinian voters, from
a 2006 analysis by FairVote (an American nonproft group that promotes alternatives to winner-take-all election systems, including ranked choice voting):
Quote:
Two results stand out as glaring spoiler cases, with Hamas winning at least half of seats without even obtaining a plurality of votes. In Tulkarem, Hamas ran two candidates and won two of three seats with 27.4% of the total vote. Fatah ran three and won no seats, despite winning a total of 34.4%, more than any other party. In Bethlehem, Hamas ran two candidates and won two seats with 20.5% support. Fatah won only two seats with 28% because it ran four candidates.
Three other likely spoiler cases show evidence of over-nomination by Fatah in winner-take-all plurality seats. In these elections, Fatah won significant percentages of the vote, but these votes were divided among more candidates than votes for Hamas were.
• In Nablus, Hamas ran five candidates, and Fatah ran six. Hamas won five of six seats with 38.2%. Fatah won only one, despite polling 36.5% - only 2% less than the opponent.
• The outcome in Ramallah was similar. Hamas ran four candidates where Fatah ran five. Hamas polled 38.4%, and Fatah polled 32.6%. Yet Hamas won four of five seats, and Fatah won only one.
• In Gaza, Hamas won five of eight seats with 37.3%. Fatah won no seats despite polling 31.7%. Hamas ran five candidates where Fatah ran eight.
• Third-party spoilers may have been in operation in Hebron and North Gaza. In these districts, both parties ran the same number of candidates, but Hamas swept all the seats. In Hebron, both parties nine candidates for nine contested seats. Hamas had 51.1% of the vote, and Fatah had 35%. In North Gaza, Hamas swept five of five seats with 46.7% to Fatah's 35.9%. These two elections were heavily contested – by six parties in Hebron, four in North Gaza.
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TL;DR: A one-line remark can launch many longer statements (such as my own), many of them having absolutely nothing to do with the intentions of the person quoted. Probably not the best way to honor the life, work, and memory of the person who said it, upon his death.
A tribute to Refaat Alareer
Hybrid Mode
