Prime Minister-designate Stephen Harper is to be commended for his first foreign policy announcement: Canada will not recognize the Hamas majority elected to rule the Palestinian Authority.

President Bush, too, has said American aid—amounting to half a billion dollars a year—will be suspended unless Hamas renounces violence.

Hamas is now promising a 'peace initiative'—but retains the destruction of Israel as a primary goal in its charter. Hamas says the 'peace initiative' will be based on Islamic history. That history—specifically the ten-year 'Peace Treaty' of Hudibayha that was broken after two years in the seventh century—shows that such promises cannot be trusted.

Hamas—a criminal organization—simply does not merit world recognition, even if "democratically" elected. But it took courage for Mr. Harper to say so.

Hamas' hands are stained with innocent blood. That it could win a majority, in an election with a voter turnout of nearly 78 percent, is simply an indictment of manipulation of the democratic process by demagogues.

Not that we're anti-democratic; far from it. The CHP believes strongly in democracy—when the judgement of the electorate is informed, as it was for the first 100 years of Canada's history, by the wisdom that only begins with reverence for God.

Without that foundation, even democracy can become very dangerous. Remember Germany in the 1930s? Every action of the Nazi government—with the exception of Kristalnacht (the 1938 rampage that destroyed Jewish businesses in most German cities)—was first made legal by the "democratic" government that put Adolf Hitler into the chancellorship.

The Palestinian Authority—lavishly supported by Canadian and American taxpayers—has used that money to foment hatred of Jews in the PA-run media and schools. The result? The people manipulated by PA propaganda elected terrorists.

The long history of Arab/Muslim deceit in the Middle East is eloquently exposed in Joan Peters' thoroughly-researched book, From Time Immemorial. In nations ruled by radical Islam both Christians and Jews are designated as dhimmi—social and political inferiors, and taxed more than other citizens.

So thank you, Prime Minister Harper, for refusing to recognize a criminal regime as though it were a legitimate government.