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In February of 2006, it started to become apparent that the free world had the opportunity to put financial pressure on the Hamas government, and I posted that I expected the free world to use this opportunity:
As I have posted here on several occasions, the terrorists depend on our goodwill towards men, for their very existence. They depend on our willingness to risk our own lives rather than to incur collateral damage to the civilians who surround and support the terrorists. If not for our historically unusual solicitude for the civilians who support the terrorists, we would have devastated those terrorists with little military expense long ago.
Today this dependence of the terrorists on the free world they are dedicated to destroy, has become actual financial dependence, in the case of Hamastan.
It is not human nature to let up on someone who's trying to kill you when you have the upper hand. I do not expect the free world to let up on Hamastan now that the terrorists of Hamas are in need of our financial help.
Over a year later, my prediction continues to be confirmed by events:
EU Says No to Aiding Palestinian Unity Government
Already facing many other hardships, the Palestinian people now face a shortfall in aid
New Palestinian Finance Minister Salam Fayyad has failed to convince the European Union to agree to resume aid to the Palestinian Authority despite what he called a "very acute financial crisis".
Speaking in Brussels on Wednesday, Fayyad, a respected independent and a former senior World Bank official, warned that the Palestinian coffers only had about a quarter of the funds required for 2007, a shortfall of around a billion euros ($1.3 billion).
"These are very difficult times for the Palestinian people," he told reporters at a joint press conference with EU External Affairs Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner. The Finance Minister added that if the international community did not come to the aid of the Palestinians, the outcome would be "devastating".
Fayyad warns that lack of aid is devastating for the Palestinians
Palestinian and European diplomats said the meeting itself was a sign that the EU was willing to give the new finance ministry a chance.
The EU was the biggest aid donor to the Palestinian government until the Hamas militants came to power in March 2006. The Quartet of Middle East mediators -- the European Union, United States, United Nations and Russia -- then suspended direct aid to the Palestinian authority.
EU bypasses unity government
Since then, the EU has redirected its funding, which reached 700 million euros in 2006, through a special mechanism to help the neediest people while bypassing the government to avoid contact with Hamas -- which is considers a terrorist organization.
At the Brussels press conference, Ferrero-Waldner said this temporary mechanism would continue but offered Fayyad technical assistance to get his finance ministry in order.
She also repeated the international demands that the Palestinian government renounce violence, formally recognize Israel's right to exist and abide by former agreements.
The pressure appears to be working. There are reports of infighting within Hamas. Also, a Saudi columnist has recently published two articles arguing that "The Right of Return is an Illusion." From Memri:
In the first article, published March 5, 2007 and titled "On the Impossible [Idea] of the Right of Return," Al-Sweidan wrote: "...The slogan 'right of return'... which is brandished by Palestinian organizations, is perceived as one of the greatest difficulties and as the main obstacle to renewing and advancing the peace process between the Israelis and the Palestinians based on the Road Map and a two-state solution.
"It is patently obvious that uprooting the descendents of the refugees from their current homes in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and other countries, and returning them to Israel, to the West Bank, and to Gaza is a utopian ideal and [a recipe for] anarchy. More than that - it is an idea that cannot be implemented, not only because it will upset the demographic [balance] in a dangerous and destructive manner, and will have [far-reaching] political, economic and social ramifications in such a small and constrained geographical area, but [mainly] because the return [of the refugees] stands in blatant contradiction to Israel's right as a sovereign [state], while the Palestinian Authority lacks the infrastructure to absorb such a large number of immigrants as long as the peace process... is not at its peak..."
Hamas must be forced to recognize the right of Israel to exist.
#1
Unfortunately, this doesn't make a difference. HAMAS is receiving more aid NOW than it was before the sanctions were placed on them. I'm not saying sanctions should be lifted. G-d forbid. I'm just saying that we know who the real players are now, and the EU, although sticking with the sanctions, are looking for excuses to lift them. Russia has already called for the immediate end to sanctions, saying that they are radicalizing the Palestinian society. Can you believe that?!? Because they weren't radical before the sanctions were put in place... This is the same population that voted Hamas INTO power. Give me a break. Russia, of course, fails to mention that the PA has continued to receive hundreds of millions of dollars in humanitarian aid, money that has gone directly into the coffers of the corrupts government and into buying munitions, explosives, and thousands of weapons.
-OC