Soccer Dad

The bill is due

I don't think that I can cover the topic of stopping aid the Hamas run PA better than AbbaGav does.

However there is still the inclination of many in the media to place the burden of the blame for the Palestinian crisis on Israel.

An editorial in the Baltimore Sun A reprieve for Palestinians argues

The Bush administration resisted this temporary reprieve. But its European allies, Russia and the United Nations pressed Washington - and they were right. The World Bank this week revised its assessment of conditions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip since international donors refused aid to the bankrupt Palestinian Authority. Things have become so bad that it predicted the territories would be ungovernable by year's end. Such chaos might mean the end of the Hamas-led government; it also might lead to a civil war.

In Thinking outside the Iran Box, Jim Hoagland writes

The White House has flirted with a complete cutoff of Western economic help to the Gaza Strip and the West Bank in hopes of splitting Hamas or forcing Palestinians to oust the radicals who won January's legislative elections. U.S. agreement last week to work with the European Union, Russia and the United Nations to provide funding to relieve the looming Palestinian humanitarian crisis is a welcome sign that a scorched-earth policy -- a symmetrical response to Palestinian violence -- has not been firmly adopted at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

The White House went along with a European initiative on emergency aid after Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni telephoned Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice last Sunday and supported help for the Palestinians that did not go through Hamas. Defense Minister Amir Peretz went further Thursday, saying Israel should rethink harsh policies that contribute to the humanitarian crisis in the first place.

Barry Rubin however, thinks these concerns for a "humanitarian crisis" or "chaos" and "civil war" are misplaced.

There is also no reason to believe that paying the PA payroll will produce any development or broader benefits. It is one thing to subsidize another society if the recipients do something to warrant support but the PA got money only because it agreed to make peace and stop terrorism. Since the PA broke that agreement, the new regime openly rejected it, this leaves zero reason to give it aid.
As for fear that the PA is going to collapse, the PA has been collapsing since its inception. The reason the PA has been in such bad shape is because of the bureaucrats and gunmen--both Fatah and Hamas--who continue to breed anarchy because they put violence ahead of helping their own people. If this PA "collapses" how is that worse than what exists now?

If Palestinian nationalism had been about building a Palestinian state there would have been one by now. But Palestinian nationalism hasn't been as much about creating a state than destroying the one that.

And that is the problem. Instead of creating institutions of industry and governance, the PA mostly promoted its foreign funded "security" services. Now that the Palestinians need a responsible government more than ever there is none. Israel was told to stand by and allow Hamas to be elected, though it was a terror organization and its members should have been outlaws.

Well Hamas has moderated neither word nor deed. And Palestinian voters don't seem to regret the choice; just its cost.

Gershom Gorenberg may try to justify the election of Hamas claiming

Only a quirky electoral system gave Hamas a majority in the Palestinian legislature; in the popular vote, the hard-line movement didn't come close to winning. Polls among Palestinians continue to show strong majority support for a two-state solution and recognition of Israel. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, of the more moderate Fatah, continues to call for talks with Israel.

The gap between Hamas's positions and public leanings is causing ferment in Palestinian politics.

But as Yisrael Ne'eman observed

The Hamas swept to parliamentary power in the Palestinian Authority four month ago in democratic elections. The Palestinian Islamists ran on a double platform advocating the replacement of the corrupt secular PLO-Fatah regime and the destruction of the State of Israel. “The People” voted and now “The People” must be responsible for the outcome. Over the past months weapons smuggling by land and sea continue and have even increased. Kassam, Grad and katuysha rockets are being fired from the Gaza Strip into Israel and on any given day there are approximately 80 terror warnings. Although the Hamas says it is holding to a “hudna” (Islamic cease-fire), by definition it means PM Ismail Haniya’s Islamic government is using the time out to strengthen itself to destroy the Jewish State.

In all fairness to the PLO-Fatah and other secular factions, they too polled tens of percentages and now sit in opposition to the Hamas. The PLO Covenant was never amended (Yes, this was supposed to have been done after the December 1998 Clinton visit but as we know, these things take time) and continues to call for Israel’s destruction. Here too, “The People” voted, only their votes went to the loyal opposition, whose leader incidentally is President Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) who personally may be in favor of a peace agreement and two-state solution, but whose organization officially still favors the liquidation Israel.

So 1) Palestinians knew that part of the Hamas platform remained implacably hostile to the existence of Israel and 2) Fatah hasn't exactly changed as it was supposed to.

And when Palestinians are interviewed by the news media they don't say "But Hamas didn't really win" they ask why the West questions their democratic choice.

The Palestinians knew what they were doing when they voted for Hamas. The consequences now are just coming due.

Technorati tags: Hamas, Israel, Terrorism.