PrintJune 17, 2010
Charity begins at home
President Obama has announced that he intends to give $400 million more to the Palestinian Authority and Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip without conditions, or oversight.
This is in addition to $900 million America pledged for Gaza and the PA in March, 2009.
President Obama said: "...the United States -- which is already the biggest humanitarian aid donor in Gaza -- is going to be announcing an additional $400 million in assistance for housing, school construction, business development -- not only in Gaza, but also in the West Bank ... the status quo with respect to Gaza [is] unsustainable, the status quo with respect to the Middle East is unsustainable. It is time for us to go ahead and move forward on a two-state solution..."
Yet, Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, has been held in Gaza for four years without even minimal human rights, even a visit from the Red Cross. And Hamas terrorists, who are in control of Gaza, continue to attack Israel.
And a few days ago, terrorists connected to Fatah, the ruling party in the PA, murdered a policeman and wounded two others. PA policemen have been involved in other murders of Jews traveling on roads in Judea and Samaria.
Why should American taxpayers fund this insanity? What American interests are served?
This is in addition to billions that American taxpayers have already poured into the Palestinian Authority, with little or nothing to show for it.
Photos of "Palestinian policemen" (many of whom are members of terrorist militias, like Fatah) parading in new uniforms are mere publicity; they have failed to stop terrorism against Israel. Trained and supplied by US taxpayers and led by Lt. Gen. Keith Dayton, they are no match for Hamas; when confronted in Gaza, they abandoned their weapons and fled, or joined Hamas.
In the fall, Gen Dayton is going to retire. Experts predict that the troops he has trained will revert to terrorism against Israel, or unleash an explosive clash with Hamas.
IDF Major General Avi Mizrahi warned that Dayton's PA security forces are well-trained and equipped; they pose a serious threat to Israeli forces. Dayton himself has expressed concern that the soldiers he has trained could attack Israel in a new wave of violence if PA demands are not met. Those demands include: an Israeli withdrawal to the 1949 Armistice line, PA control over eastern Jerusalem, and implementing the "Palestinian right of return" to Israel.
An uneasy truce between the two Fatah and Hamas exists in Judea and Samaria (the "West Bank"), nominally controlled by the former; many of its supporters who remained in Gaza after Israel's incursion, were killed by Hamas as "collaborators." This civil war continues to rage, and most reliable predictions are that in a showdown, Hamas will win.
With jobs scarce and unemployment high in America, why continue support for Palestinian terrorist organizations? American and European governments are funding building and infrastructure projects throughout the West Bank, and Gaza;
Some people in Gaza are suffering, and unemployment is high, but they elected Hamas to represent them. If their elected representatives bombard Israeli communities with rockets, prompting an Israeli incursion, why should American taxpayers bail them out? If money, equipment and supplies are siphoned off to build smuggling tunnels and bombs, who is to blame?
The entire Gazan economic and social infrastructure is controlled by Hamas, including schools and the media. In collusion with UNRWA, which operates eight "refugee camps" (in fact, towns) and services a million and a half people, Hamas controls every aspect of daily life. Nearly all experts predict that if elections were held in Arab cities in the West Bank, Hamas would win.
"Humanitarian aid" used to improve daily life and encourage self-sufficiency can be justified; but using the money to buy weapons and dig smuggling tunnels cannot. Without some way of verifying how the money will be spent, these funds will be used to build Hamastan.
For American workers standing in unemployment lines, with aching feet and broken hearts, threatened with foreclosures and not enough money to support their families, they might ask who deserves their gifts.
Sometimes giving really hurts.
The author is a writer and journalist living in Jerusalem.
