Soccer Dad: Propping up fatah

January 24, 2006

Propping up fatah

There was big news on the front page of the Washington Post on Sunday "U.S. Funds Enter Fray In Palestinian Elections"

Little Green Footballs reacts to this news by asking:

The �secular� Fatah movement? With a �wing� called the �Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades?� That secular movement?

But the bigger question is whether Hamas really is worse than Fatah (Arabic for �Conquest�), or if they�re just two facets of the same ideology.

(Boker Tov Boulder notes the story and LGF's comments.)

USAID has a special place on its website devoted to the West Bank and Gaza. I figure that if I looked enough I'd find something egregious, but I haven't found it yet.

Still USAID doesn't have a great record funding civil society. LGF noted a few months ago that USAID was going to fund groups that promote terror.

And you have to ask yourself if all the funds are being well spent. Given the boast here that:

The $2 million Moderate Voices project has supported and strengthened the work of Palestinian civil society organizations to confront violence and incitement.

you have to wonder how successful its been if the unapologetic terrorist organization Hamas is expected to to do very well in the upcoming election.

And what happens if the effort in propping up Fatah doesn't work and Hamas gets elected to a major role in the government. It appears that Mere Rhetoric's doubts about the American government will be confirmed.

The Jerusalem Post reports, "US won't cut PA ties if Hamas in cabinet" :

The US won't deal with Hamas ministers in a future Palestinian Authority government, but will also not cut off ties with the PA as a result of Hamas's inclusion, diplomatic officials said Monday.

According to the officials, the US formula for dealing with a PA government following Wednesday's elections would be based on the "Lebanese model." In Lebanon, the officials said, the US continues to have strong ties with the government in Beirut even though Hizbullah is part of it. It does not, however, have any contact with the one Hizbullah minister.

The Counterterrorism Blog suggests that if the Bush administration decides to take the Clinton path and deal with a government that included Hamas, Congress may yet have a say:

The State Department and White House may well be reluctant to formally add an eventual Palestinian state to the list of terrorist states (Iran, Syria, Libya, Sudan, North Korea and Cuba). The sanctions could have a sweeping impact and once a country is designated, it is not easy for it to get off the list unless it shows it has stopped its support for terrorism and gives convincing assurances that it will not support terrorism in the future.

And if Hamas-sponsored terrorist attacks resume, the Congress is likely to force the administration to put the Palestinian state on the terrorism list or impose an aid cut off on its own. Congress included in the FY 2006 Foreign Assistance Appropriations Bill a provision barring foreign aid to the Palestinian Authority. It included a �national interest� waiver clause. In the future, it might deny the President such authority.

In the end, it will depend upon the Palestinians themselves and whether the Hamas leadership will be more pragmatic about building up a new Palestinian state or passionate about killing Israelis in the vain hope of destroying the Israeli state.

In a somewhat related vein, a number of bloggers have been taking issue with the way Palestinian extremists and terrorists are given the airbrush treatment by the media.

Secular Blasphemy concludes an excerpt of an NYT article profiling a Palestinian candidate nicknamed Hitler:

And, hey, this is one of the "good" guys that we hope will win, running for Fatah, against the people in Hamas who are, presumably, even worse.

I'm guessing that this guy:

Security forces also arrested Mahmoud Abu Roub, a top Islamic Jihad commander in the West Bank, early Tuesday morning.

According to reports, Roub, along with others, was involved in planning attacks that were to be carried out in the near future.

Security forces surrounded his home in Kabatiya, near Jenin, before dawn, calling on Roub to surrender. When their calls were first ignored, troops employed pressure tactics to force the fugitive outside.

is a relativ of "Hitler."

In Elegy for a suicide bomber Mediacrity can't bring himself to feel the same sympathy for the young man who attempted kill and maim scores others in Tel Aviv that Times Jerusalem Bureau Chief Steven Erlanger manages to muster.

And if that weren't enough he scored the Times again two days later for seemingly featuring Palestinian Thug of the day in the Times, scoring the paper of record for lionizing a terrorist leader of that Al Aqsa Martyr's brigades.

Finally, the Counterterrorism Blog features a letter by Yossi Zur blasting the Golden Globes for honoring "Paradise Now." Mr. Zur has a stronger reason than most for being outraged. His 17 year old son was killed nearly 3 years ago by a suicide bomber.

Technorati Tags: Palestinian elections, Israel, Fatah.