The Hamas government was democratically and legally elected by the Palestinian people. It promised to fight corruption and to introduce new, more transparent governance. The people who voted for Hamas knew very well that it was behind countless suicide attacks against Israelis and that it was against the Palestine Liberation Organization, against the Oslo Accords and against the existence of the State of Israel, refusing to recognize our right to exist.

Now eight months after the election, the Palestinian people are victims of the international siege and blockade imposed on their government. Salaries have not been paid. The economic situation is daily deteriorating and more people sink deeply into unprecedented poverty. This is the reality facing the Palestinians. It is because the international community, led by the UN, U.S., EU and Russia, demand that Hamas respond to three simple, very basic values: To accept the right of their enemy and neighbor (this is us, the Israelis) to exist, to accept the legitimacy of past agreements signed by previous legitimate and authorized Palestinian governments, and to stop terrorism. Yet Hamas, torn by factional splits refuses to say Yes. They prefer to sacrifice the well being of the Palestinian people on the altar of their false ideology. They have taken their supporters and the rest of Palestine hostage for their rigid policy.

The value of democracy in this case is contradicted by another, no less important value -- the right to live with dignity and food. Government has a responsibility to provide bread to its own people. If the government fails the people and its obligations, it is the right of the President of the Palestinian nation to call new elections. If this is not possible because Hamas threatens to sabotage them, then the president has the responsibility to change the government. Bread, survival and life come first; abstract ideals, second.