PrintApril 14, 2007
Oxfam's folly
According to the tearful plea from Oxfam - a poverty and "injustice" advocacy group - international aid should be given to Palestinians no matter what. As per the Guardian report , Oxfam's position is that "International aid should be provided impartially on the basis of need, not as a political tool to change the policies of a government." In other words, he who pays the musicians should have no say over the tune.
Oxfamers must be living on Venus, to judge by disconnect between their logic, and that of the normal humans. Else, their concern with Palestinian "poverty" (Palestinians are not poor, their food being supplied for free by the UN, their energy needs by Israel) would have caused them to ask a simple question: why are Palestinians "poor"? Are they "poor" trough necessity, or by choice?
The latter is clearly the case. If Palestinians did not choose to be "poor," they certainly did choose to be violent (both by rocketing Israel, by attempting new terror acts, and by showing their grass-root support for that cause of action through democratically electing terrorist Hamas into power).
Had they chosen to be peaceful, they would have been able to build their economy, living like all other normal peoples do, and would no longer be "poor." Reject violence - and you will do well. That's the advice Oxfam should be giving the Palestinians, rather than argue their thugdom's entitlement to the free world's money.
