4A - The Michigan Daily - Monday, February 20, 2006 OPINION albe irbigaiu n:DatiI DoNN M. FRESARD Editor in Chief EMILY BEAM CHRISTOPHER ZBROZEK Editorial Page Editors ASHLEY DINGES Managing Editor EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN SINCE 1890 420 MAYNARD STREET ANN ARBOR, MI 48109 tothedaily@michigandaily.com NoTABLE QUOTABLE 44 Cheney is a terrorist. He terrorizes our enemies abroad and innocent citizens here at home indiscriminately." - Actor Alec Baldwin, blogging at the Huffington Post, posted last Friday. KATIE GARLINGHOUSE HOUSE ARREs'T Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily's editorial board. All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their author. Between Hamas and a hard place SAM SINGER SAM's CLUB n the heels of a landslide election vic- tory in January, the militant Islamic group Hamas has publicly RSVP-ed to Russia's invitation, extended in early February by President Vladimir Putin, to formally open diplomatic channels at a summit next month in Moscow. The engagement itself will be ceremonial, a routine meet-and- greet certain to prove far less momentous than the initial gesture of recognition, which marks the first of its kind from a major world power. Had President Bush known back in March 2004 - when Hamas terrorists murdered 10 Israelis and injured 12 more in twin sui- cide bombings near Israel's port of Ashdod - that precisely two years later a delegation of popularly elected party officials would be congregating in a five-star hotel in Moscow, sipping chilled Stolichnaya and shooting the breeze with Russian dignitaries, he probably would have thought twice about resting his presidential legacy on the success of promot- ing democracy in the Middle East. But hindsight has never been friendly to President Bush, and this won't be the first time he's been forced to eat his democracy- as-peace maxim. (Given the political land- scape in Iraq, it probably won't be the last.) Bush shifted ground when voters in Lebanon effectively handed Hezbollah terrorists their own government ministry. He retreated when parties affiliated with the radical Muslim Brotherhood routed moderates in Saudi Ara- bia. And last year, when U.S.-backed local elections elevated militant Islamist groups in Egypt, the White House was caught back- pedaling again. Bush marketed democracy to the Arab masses as a mouthpiece for the region's moderate silent majorities. But almost without exception, the fanatical ele- ments he hoped to shut out have retooled and consolidated, and many now operate with popular mandates and new levels of influ- ence in local government. His vision, for all intents and purposes, has come full circle. That's not to say his legacy is lost. While I wouldn't expect to see his face on the $50 bill anytime soon, Bush still has three years to play lion-tamer. Which direction he goes from here - in particular, how he chooses to approach Hamas - will ultimately influ- ence whether he will be able to claim that he left the Middle East in better shape than he found it. Established doctrine prohibits the United States from officially recognizing Hamas, which is still correctly classified as a foreign terrorist organization. The State Depart- ment, however, still has considerable leeway over the level of humanitarian assistance it provides for the Palestinian Authority. As anyone who's picked up a newspaper in the last month can attest, the issue is a lightning rod for controversy, and the White House has been understandably reluctant to firm up its position. . The pro-Israel lobby, already fuming over Bush's decision to support the elec- tions in the first place, will tolerate nothing short of complete diplomatic isolation. This approach, which would combine aid depri- vation and economic sanctions, would aim to bleed the already-bankrupt Palestinian Authority into submission. If the Palestin- ian government is even half as dependent on aid as it was under Yasser Arafat, this strat- egy may actually work. At the very least, it would shore up the State Department's zero- tolerance policy for acknowledging terrorist groups while sending a compelling message to Palestinian voters: Welcome to interna- tional politics. Now stop voting for murder- ers or starve. Of course, whether Palestinians were actually voting for murderers when they went to the polls in January is another question entirely. Some exit polls suggest that far from a popular endorsement of the Hamas brand of armed resistance, the elec- tion can be more accurately described as a referendum on Palestinian President Mah- moud Abbas and his hopelessly corrupt Fatah movement. Poll analysis from the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research shows that three-quarters of those who voted in January support negotiations toward a two-state solution. Other polls have revealed similar divisions between the battle-weary Hamas - a movement that would swallow glass before surrendering any more territory - and its more temperate constituency. These sentiments hardly seem grounds for punishment, especially since they were expressed through an electoral process encouraged, financed and moni- tored by the United States. Caught between two fires, the Bush admin- istration must now decide whether to recoil from a democratic process it impatiently promoted or to stomach its outcome and engage one of its most ruthless enemies in the process. Whichever direction the White House chooses, of this we can be certain: The Hamas debacle will stretch the Bush administration's foreign policy to its logical limits. 04 Singer can be reached at singers@umich.edu VIEWPOINT Students 4 Michigan outlines accomplishments BY NICOLE STALLINGS AND JOANNA SLOTT The members of the Students 4 Michigan Party would like to applaud other parties who have demonstrated an interest in stu- dent government by organizing to increase competition in this winter's election. S4M believes that having a competitive election is the only effective way to ensure the best can- didates are elected to represent all students, as well as to increase voter turnout. While we appreciate the increased involvement in Michigan Student Assembly, S4M will enjoy the opportunity to defend both our genuine commitment to campus and our track record of real results. While the Michigan Progressive Party has been very good at saying what needs to be done, Students 4 Michigan members of the MSA and LSA Student Government have been actively working on these issues and have achieved tangible results. Since the party's conception, members of S4M have been responsible for great improvements on this campus that continue to improve the lives of students each and every day. We have made great strides in the realm of academics - creating an international studies minor and an LSAT familiarization course through the Career Center, increasing students' study abroad options, improving the course design of Engineering 101, improv- ing graduate student instructor consistency in various departments and increasing the hours of the undergraduate and graduate libraries during exams. Additionally, S4M members are single-handedly the reason that Advice Online is operational today, and they are continuing to improve it. Students 4 Michigan has worked hard to reach out to student organizations and help them as much as possible. We have allocated more than $200,000 per semester to student groups across the spectrum and continue to do so. In addition, we have reached out to individual students through an application process to join MSA's committees and com- missions and gotten hundreds more students involved in helping improve student life through MSA. One of Student 4 Michigan's most, prized accomplishments comes in the field of student-city relations. In the past year, S4M members have created the position of City Council Liaison. This has been vital in our fight to push back lease-signing dates. S4M has led this crucial fight for more than four months. When the ordinance passes on March 6, it will be a huge victory for stu- dents and our party alike. Additionally, in the past month we successfully lobbied the Uni- versity to increase parking for students on North Campus, working to get the University administration to change its mind. Finally, Students 4 Michigan led the way in improving transportation for stu- dents. We have seen roughly a 38-percent increase in AirBus trips for students, which has greatly helped students wishing to get to and from Metro Airport. In addition, S4M worked with the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority to make its services free for stu- dents. Finally, we fund the Ginsburg Center in its efforts to lend vans to student groups wising to engage in off-campus community service. While we cannot mention every accom- plishment that we have had during our tenure in office, additional accomplishments include putting on an informational MCRI forum with speakers both for and against the ballot initiative, hosting a "Raise the Wage" forum, adding a housing and immigration attorney to Student Legal Services and creating a housing website to help educate students on potential landlords. We are truly a party of students for Michigan. It has been said that we do not have a plat- form or ideology. In fact, what we don't have is a political agenda. What we believe in is action, not ideology, and we will continue to work to improve the campus. We chal- lenge members of other parties to share their record of accomplishments as we have done here. In the coming weeks, S4M will look forward to continuing to defend our excellent track record, as well as detailing our vision for the future of both MSA and LSA-SG. If you have a problem with how something on campus works you can always e-mail ThisSucks@umich.edu, which was created and is run by S4M members of LSA-SG, or for party-specific questions, please contact S4MCore@umich.edu. Stallings is an LSA junior and MSA vice presi- dent. Slott is an LSA junior and LSA-SG counsel. They're the S4M presidential candidates for MSA and LSA-SG respectively, and are writing on behalf of the Students 4 Michigan party. I LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Send all letters to the editor to tot hedaily@rnichigandaily. corn. Immaculate conception should play bigger role in abortion debate TO THE DAILY: Maybe King thinks this was just a one-time thing. But there are many other tales of immacu- late conception. Dionysus, for example, was born from Zeus's thigh. Last I checked, thighs serve no reproductive function (aside from providing leverage in bed), so sex was clearly not involved. because God can always intervene - even if you have your womb removed. Never forget that. Andy Petrovich LSA junior Coleman's suitor 1 9, 1 ,. Editorial Board Members: Amy Anspach, Andrew Bielak, Kevin Bunkley, Gabrielle D'Angelo, Whitney Dibo, Milly Dick, Sara Eber, Jesse Forester, Mara Gay, Jared Goldberg, Ashwin Jagan- nathan. Mark Kuehn. Frank Manley. Kirstv McNamara, Raiiv Prabhakar. Katherine Seid, Ben I