Bankruptcy You Say? What Kind Might That Be?
Budget crisis grips Hamas cabinet is what I read. Really? Oh, really and truly? How can that be? After all, Iran has promised funds to Hamas, have they not? They have funded Hamas in its terrorist incarnation, just as they fund Hezbollah, so what's the problem?It was a mere few days ago that Ismael Haniyeh cavalierly dismissed Canada's initiative to stop funding the Palestinian Authority on the basis that it is now headed by Hamas, a group which Canada recognizes as terrorist in origin, function and intent. Canada has promised to resume funding as soon as the new political Hamas promises to recognize and make peace with Israel. I paraphrase, but what Palestinian Prime Minister Haniyeh said was something to effect that Canada's paltry funding would not be missed; it would swiftly be replaced by funds promised to Hamas by other Arab governments.
Iran's new Prime Minister, he with direct linkage to Allah fulsomely pledged that Iran's glorious treasury would make more than sufficient operating funds available to Hamas in its ongoing struggle to oust Israel from Muslim territory, and restore Palestine to its rightful place in the geography of the Middle East. So, what's happened? The funds haven't come through yet? A trifle, no doubt. The cheque is in the mail. Wait for it.
Oops, is it possible? Could it be even remotely so that Iran, Saudi Arabia and other wealthy worthies are not really all that interested in ensuring the health and well-being of the Palestinian population? Say it isn't so! All right, it isn't so. It just appears to be so. It appears to the casual onlooker that Palestinians left adrift on a sea of ambiguous near-existence to fester as a reminder of the injustices that Israel, aided and abetted by the Western world visits upon Islam has more practical resonance than rescuing people from hunger and deprivation. Sometimes, appearances are everything, right?
The honourable Mr. Haniyeh has informed his Cabinet that the Palestinian Authority has run out of cash and is attempting to bring forth funds to pay its 140,000 government employees. The Authority's bankrupt state is Israel's fault, of course. Along with the previous administration, he says, who misused the funds. Bravely, all salaries of the Hamas ministers in the Authority will be suspended until such time as funds are available to pay government employees.
The Authority's Finance Ministry is bankrupt. Over a billion dollars annually has been received by the PA from Western sources. Odd, that, wouldn't you say? Why not financing through Islamic sources, through the kindly auspices of their neighbours? Mind-bending, isn't it? Foreign aid is required so that the Palestinian Authority can function as an overseeing entity for Palestinians. Oil wealth does not assist the Palestinians. Their near and dear relations with other Arab states have garnered them naught.
Bankrupt? Let me count the ways:
- Intellectually bankrupt, for not understanding that Allah does not rule the entire world, and that a firm, however reluctant declaration of peace with all of its neighbours is the only guarantor of funding from abroad;
- Morally bankrupt, for insisting that murder in all of its varying forms is fair game for 'occupation resistance' while it is anathema to most religions, and most people, wherever they happen to live, and that an agenda of elimination is simply not acceptable;
- Ethically bankrupt, for lunatic expectations that the rest of the world will continue bankrolling a regime intent on interpreting the Koran to justify spreading its virulent form of religious worship abroad;
- Religiously bankrupt, for interpreting a medieval viewpoint of religious fundamentalism by military conquest, no excesses of which are not tolerable to its adherents.
Bankruptcy you say? Appeals to neighbours have not resulted in anything concrete? Still expecting the West to bail you out?
Oh. Dear. Perhaps not?
posted by Pieface @ Thursday, April 06, 2006
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