The international community has condemned the military coup against Honduras’ president. The United States and the Organization for American States has called for the reinstatement of the president.

Personally, I am for the coup after reading this op-ed in the Wall Street Journal:

That Mr. Zelaya acted as if he were above the law, there is no doubt. While Honduran law allows for a constitutional rewrite, the power to open that door does not lie with the president. A constituent assembly can only be called through a national referendum approved by its Congress.

But Mr. Zelaya declared the vote on his own and had Mr. Chávez ship him the necessary ballots from Venezuela. The Supreme Court ruled his referendum unconstitutional, and it instructed the military not to carry out the logistics of the vote as it normally would do.

The top military commander, Gen. Romeo Vásquez Velásquez, told the president that he would have to comply. Mr. Zelaya promptly fired him. The Supreme Court ordered him reinstated. Mr. Zelaya refused.

Calculating that some critical mass of Hondurans would take his side, the president decided he would run the referendum himself. So on Thursday he led a mob that broke into the military installation where the ballots from Venezuela were being stored and then had his supporters distribute them in defiance of the Supreme Court’s order.

The attorney general had already made clear that the referendum was illegal, and he further announced that he would prosecute anyone involved in carrying it out. Yesterday, Mr. Zelaya was arrested by the military and is now in exile in Costa Rica.

Honduras is fighting back by strictly following the constitution. The Honduran Congress met in emergency session yesterday and designated its president as the interim executive as stipulated in Honduran law. It also said that presidential elections set for November will go forward. The Supreme Court later said that the military acted on its orders. It also said that when Mr. Zelaya realized that he was going to be prosecuted for his illegal behavior, he agreed to an offer to resign in exchange for safe passage out of the country. Mr. Zelaya denies it.

Besides opposition from the Congress, the Supreme Court, the electoral tribunal and the attorney general, the president had also become persona non grata with the Catholic Church and numerous evangelical church leaders. On Thursday evening his own party in Congress sponsored a resolution to investigate whether he is mentally unfit to remain in office.

The OAS response is no surprise. Former Argentine Ambassador to the U.N. Emilio Cárdenas told me on Saturday that he was concerned that “the OAS under Insulza has not taken seriously the so-called ‘democratic charter.’ It seems to believe that only military ‘coups’ can challenge democracy. The truth is that democracy can be challenged from within, as the experiences of Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, and now Honduras, prove.”

So the coup was a good thing, and President Obama should get behind it.

The only two nations who have thus far recognized the new government are Taiwan and Israel. While they are correct in doing so, it is clear that political calculation and not principles defense of democracy is the motive.

Both Taiwan and Israel are nations that feel that there existence is less tangible than other nations. Taiwan was founded as a nation of Chinese nationalists whom lost the war against the Maoists and formed their own country in an island that has always been part of China. Israel was founded by European settlers whom formed a Jewish state in a land that belongs to the Palestinians.

Both the Chinese and the Palestinians rightly demand that they receive back the land that was usurped from them. Thus Taiwan’s long-term existence is put into question by China and Israel by the Palestinians.

These nations then work to create allies around the world that will defend them. Taiwan often pays nations to vote for it in the United Nations General Assembly. And Israel often offers support and delivers aid to nations during national disasters in an effort to build support.

This recent endorsement of the Honduras coup is in line with that. Both Taiwan and Israel have calculated that the new government will stand and that the best get on its good side early. Another effort in making friends.