Bad is Never Good

The “Bad is Good” theory made the rounds this month. It was “good” that Iran’s president Ahmadinejad called the Holocaust a hoax and announced his intention to obliterate Israel. Similarly, it was “good” that Hamas won the Palestinian legislative election. Both were variations on the theme that the more extreme the bad behavior and the more overt the threat, the less able the U.S. and others would be to pretend you can have politics as usual with terrorist regimes.

The “Bad is Good” theory made the rounds this month. It was “good” that Iran’s president Ahmadinejad called the Holocaust a hoax and announced his intention to obliterate Israel. Similarly, it was “good” that Hamas won the Palestinian legislative election. Both were variations on the theme that the more extreme the bad behavior and the more overt the threat, the less able the U.S. and others would be to pretend you can have politics as usual with terrorist regimes.

There are two assumptions underlying the theory. First, that the previous bad behavior by Iran or the PA wasn’t bad enough or overt enough to engender action but this behavior is really, really overtly bad. Second, since the world is now clear about just how bad things are, countries will actually do something about it. Both assumptions are faulty.

The problem with the first is that things were already bad enough. In its 26 years of governing, the Islamic Republic of Iran has exported revolution and fomented terrorism across the Middle East, Africa and South America. It has assassinated its enemies in Europe. It has subverted Lebanon and threatened Israel with missiles. It has imprisoned, tortured and stoned to death its own citizens. It is corrupt morally, politically and economically. It has used its oil money to build long-range missiles and create the infrastructure for nuclear weapons – and may, in fact, already have nuclear capability.

And the PA? Since 1993, the Palestinians have had a form of self-rule that produced an impoverished, radical, angry people ready to shed blood – Israeli, American or their own – to turn the clock back to 1947 and undo the “mistake” of Israel’s creation. They never changed the PLO Charter that called for armed revolution to destroy Israel. Arafat and Abbas engaged in race baiting (Abbas is a Holocaust denier from way back), Jew-baiting and terrorism. They built an education system that taught children to hate and kill, and a “justice system” that murdered Palestinians in the street. They were corrupt, venal and without a vision for their posterity other than violence. That wasn’t bad enough? They are being replaced by Hamas, which has a Charter similar to that of the PLO, a similar reverence for violence and bloodshed and a similar desire to destroy Israel.

The problem with the second is that international politics tend toward “the triumph of hope over experience.” Diplomats call on Iran and Hamas to “behave” and are probably prepared to wait years for compliance. Three years of European-led talks with Iran gave the Mullahs three more years of nuclear progress. Secretary Rice and others insist that Hamas recognize Israel – which it will not do – while funneling money to the Palestinians through NGOs, allowing Hamas to use its illicit sources of funds for terrorism and cronyism. Insisting that “pothole politics” will make Hamas more responsive to international concerns – although it certainly didn’t moderate the Iranians – U.S. Envoy to the Quartet James Wolfensohn has been soliciting money from the Arab countries for the PA. Everyone is jockeying for a way to find a success, no matter how small, that will allow them to say, “It isn’t bad enough to be a crisis.”

But bad is always bad; bad is never good.