03 March 2009

03 March 2009 - Subsidizing terror

Hillary Clinton and several other no doubt well-meaning foreign emissaries gathered in Sharm-El-Sheikh recently to discuss the future of Gaza. They pledged a staggering $4.5 billion in aid for the "rebuilding" of Gaza, $900 million of which will come from the US--in the midst of a profound economic crisis, mind you.

Amazing. Hamas provokes a war by launching rockets at Israeli civilians, then continues to do so at war's end, and instead of bearing the cost of repairing the damage--to Gaza and to Israel--the world rewards it with a massive sum of cash.

How much of that money will actually be spent on the needs of ordinary Palestinians? Hardly any, if the past is any indication. What's even more amazing is that $4.5 billion is more than twice the sum ($1.9 billion) that Palestinians themselves estimated they needed--and that figure is likely on the high end. This report by Yvonne Green suggests Gaza may not need much help at all: "From what I saw and was told in Gaza, Operation Cast Lead pinpointed a totalitarian regime's power bases and largely neutralized Hamas's plans to make Israel its tool for the sacrifice of civilian life," she writes. It was not a war that targeted civilian infrastructure.

The international community has pledged exactly $0, by the way, to fund the rebuilding of Sderot and Ashkelon and Beersheva , in Israel.

I'm not opposed to pumping billions of dollars in investment into a nascent Palestinian state. But to do so while terrorists are in charge--terrorists who, moreover, have a long track record of misappropriating aid for violent purposes--is simply stupid.

We are subsidizing terror with our tax dollars. And we will continue to do so until we demand that the Palestinian regime--whether Hamas or Fatah--bear responsibility for its actions and for the future of the people it governs.

1 Comments:

At 10:14 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

"only" one fifth? you gotta be kidding me! its a palestinian city deep in the oPt with a 99% Palestinian population! What if the Palestinians asked "only" for one fifth of Tel Aviv? WOuld that make sense to you too?
The terrorist attack in Shuhada st happened after the road was closed for a couple of years. Nobody is saying that there isn't terrorism.Even if it was a result of this attack, it would be wrong. YOu can;t shut down the main rod of a city, cutting off thousands of people from their work and tens of families from access to their homes for "security".
In fact, SHuhada st was closed for the first time for Palestinians after a different type of terrorist attack- by the name of Baruch Goldstein.
Learn your facts.
YOu present yourself as a moderate. Much of your crticism is nuanced. But then you justify the situation on Shuhada St. and you lose all credibility with me (and yes, what you did was justify the situation because you said that acts of terror can somehow legitimize this kind of thing).

 

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