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US billion-dollar bailout |
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Written by Shoshana Bryen
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Tuesday, 03 March 2009 |
Not mortgages, auto manufacturers, banks or Wall Street. Rather $900 million US taxpayer dollars (in addition to $85 million pledged in December) to bail out Hamas in Gaza.
US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton didn’t say it that way, of course, but announced the US contribution as emergency humanitarian aid for Gaza. “None of the money will go to Hamas, it will be funnelled through NGOs and UN groups,” said an administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Which agency? UNRWA, for one. This would be the same UNRWA that has been closely associated with Hamas, and even slipped a letter from Hamas to US President Barack Obama into a packet of ‘promotional material’ provided to Senator John Kerry without telling him he was serving as the messenger. The same UNRWA that announced that Israel had shelled a school, killing 41 people; then said the school wasn’t hit, but 41 “innocent people” were killed outside the school – then Israel discovered that 12 people, including 5 known Hamas members and 4 other men, were actually killed outside the school. That UNRWA.
“None of the money will go to Hamas,” we repeat what the anonymous official said. “Some of the $900 million...will go to the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank,” said another official quoted in The New York Times. That would mean Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah government – America's theoretical ‘peace’ partner – would be responsible for spending our bailout money. This would be the same Fatah that Palestinian voters rejected in favour of Hamas; the same Fatah that then lost a civil war to Hamas in Gaza; the same Fatah that is currently building a ‘security force’ in the West Bank under the direction of an American Army general to protect itself from Hamas (if it is building an army to protect itself from Israel, we’re in real trouble); and the same Fatah that is engaged in ‘unity’ talks with Hamas in Cairo, where Hamas is ‘demanding’ open border crossings to receive the international largesse.
This is Wonderland.
The Palestinian people knew full well that the agenda included terror against Israel when they elected Hamas. Israel’s operation in Gaza was inevitable and as careful as it could be under the circumstance of Hamas hiding its fighters among its own women and children. Trying to put money into Gaza while Hamas still occupies centre stage in ‘unity’ talks in Cairo ensures that Hamas’s political and financial position can only be strengthened. Mahmoud Abbas shouldn’t be looking for ‘unity,’ he should be denouncing Hamas as a rogue organization, worse for the Palestinians than for Israel.
No one is starving in Gaza; no one ever did because Israel won’t let it happen. But ‘reconstruction’ with American money should wait until the people of Gaza are clear about the cost of their support of Hamas, and Hamas – and its agent UNRWA – are written out of reconstruction plans.
Bailing out mortgages is one thing. Bailing out terrorist organizations is something else.
Shoshana Bryen is senior director of Security Policy for the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA). |
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 10 March 2009 )
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