generalspeaking

Under No Illusions?

Well how about delusional then, that would work just as well. Everyone, it appears, is eager, despite the financial downturn everywhere, to prove how supportive they are of Palestinian Gazans, by opting to pledge hefty amounts of 'humanitarian aid' to re-build Gaza, after the IDF's bombing of Hamas targets.

Good money going after bad. But the rationale, held so dearly by the European Union and the United States, is that Fatah, led by Mahmoud Abbas, will lead the Palestinians to peace through recognition of Israel's right to exist, and the building of a Palestinian state. A Palestinian state to have a border contiguous with that of the State of Israel, although that border is yet to be determined, should it ever come to pass.

And Israel, in the process, is expected to cede territory seen not to be inclusive of greater Israel, and to give up part up her ancestral capital, because the Palestinians claim Jerusalem to be theirs, too, and to be receptive to receiving a greater number of Palestinians within Israel's own borders.

What are the expectations on the part of these gracious international planners and peace-makers on the part of the Palestinians? What do they give up, to come to an amicably difficult agreement for peace and eventual statehood? Claims to the entire geography? Ongoing vilification of Israel as the oppressors of their people? The reining in of their own irregular terror groups, blissfully happy to continue lobbing Kassams at Israel?

This will be quite the accomplishment, given that official Palestinian Authority maps of the region show the Palestinian Territories inclusive of Israel; no sign of anything remotely resembling the Jewish state on their map, the very map that is used in their education system. An education system inclusive of the vile dehumanization of Jews, and the identification of Israel as a viciously blood-thirsty occupying force.

Having spent so much time, energy and dedicated focus on ensuring the Palestinian population has been fed and accepted a diet of hatred toward a neighbour, from the ground up, from infanthood to adulthood, how to suddenly transform that population into a biddable, peace-loving and accepting neighbour? Good trick there. And then, of course, there is the population in Gaza.

Which population may not entirely adore the administration of Hamas, but does support it, and whose resentment and aggrievedly demonic hatred of Israel will never permit it to live in peace, side by side. Funding for Gaza goes directly to Hamas, promises and intent otherwise, aside. It's happened in the past, and will continue to happen in the future.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is free to say what she will in support of responding to "the immediate needs of the Palestinian people", but the fact is any and all support given them also by definition supports Hamas. Hamas rules Gaza and if and when international funding assists the Palestinians it also assists Hamas; their condition is inseparable.

Hamas is continually benefiting from all manner of supports not meant to reach them, inclusive of the PA's prime minister forwarding to Hamas over $21-million it received from tax revenues transfers that he had informed Israel was meant for PA employee salaries. That funding went directly to Hamas and with it work on the rebuilding of mosques and homes commenced. And that building spree was not always what it seemed, being used also on weapons-storage depots.

Weapons that the United States and others have given to Fatah have been used in Hamas terror attacks against Israel. And so too will all other funding generously provided by international efforts to support the needs of Gazans end up benefiting Hamas and their steadily growing, well trained, and well furbished army of dedicated jihadists. Gaza as a civic entity is completely bankrupt as a social structure.

Thanks to the ongoing generosity of the United Nations, the European Union and the United States, it has blossomed fully into an enormous welfare state, not even attempting to accomplish anything for itself. The billions of dollars funneled into the Palestinian Territories have resulted in no concrete, measurable foundation of civic infrastructure and independence to result eventually in a state of their own.

Even the World Bank has come to the conclusion that all that funding comprised of foreign aid has been utterly wasted, enabling the Palestinian Authority to build an enormous payroll of civil servants living off the avails of international aid. Instead of grooming itself to become a responsible, well run and forward looking state, it continues to quietly incite violence against Israel, both through the encouragement of 'resistance' against the 'occupiers' and through the distorted education system.

The PA's public servants number 160,000 with a payroll of close to $2-billion a year. What has this top-heavy administration accomplished? The GDP of their economy has withered instead of burgeoning ahead, in the last ten years. What have they been doing to advance their economy and the future of their people, to prepare them to live in harmony with a neighbouring country willing to aid and assist in an atmosphere of peace?

Why do donor countries steadfastly look past the reality of violence in the Territories, manifest and undeniable, as though it hardly mattered that they're propping up a nascent state government that does nothing to prepare its people to live in peace with another country. The elephant in that particular room is terror, inspired by a peoples' perceived and dearly held victimhood, an assault on their national honour that they will not accept nor will time dim.

As long as Palestinians understand that no especial effort to help themselves is anticipated by their generous sponsors - and this is precisely what has happened over the past 60 years - they will continue to feel they have no need to be responsible for themselves, and their trajectory toward increasing violence is accepted by the outside world. The standard to which they are held is a low one. Why should they themselves aspire to anything greater?

They have, to begin with, the inspiration given them by a corrupt and violent culture and a tradition of grievance and victimhood, encouraged by their leaders who revel in their corrupt administration and government malfeasance. The endless spiral of blame, hatred and bloodshed has no reason not to continue, since it has elicited from the outside world not condemnation but support of the 'plight' of the Palestinians.

The first terror campaign in the form of the first Intafada against Israel launched by Yasser Arrafat, and then again by his successors, destroyed what had already been accomplished, with a Palestinian Authority working with Israel to become a responsible governing entity. The result of the escalated violence was to undermine the future of the Palestinians, victimized by their own lunatic hatred, and shoving their aspirations back by decades.

As long as the Palestinian Authority - and by extension, Hamas - can continue to be guaranteed direct and indirect support by a bleeding-heart international community unable to see beyond their rose-coloured glasses, they will recognize no need to develop their communities, to rely on their own inspired devices through commerce and development to attain a working budget based on a healthy economy. Why should they, after all, when the funding comes so easily?

The Palestinians' decision to launch attacks against Israel - from stone-throwing youths to dedicated suicide bombers, ruined their nascent economy and set them on the track they're currently on, spinning wheels of welfare necessity. A situation evolved in direct defiance of once-workable relations between the PA and Israel, into one which forced Israel to erect a barrier to future suicide attacks, a device the world deplored as 'unfair' to the Palestinians and which the Palestinians claim has diminished the quality of their lives.

In exchange, the lives of Israelis has been protected, and no further suicide attacks have resulted. But where there's such an ardent will to unseat the security of an enemy, there always a way, and that way of choice has become the lobbing of Kassam rockets. Destabilizing security and irredeemably harming peoples' peace of mind, to the extent of mental illness, inclusive of children's nightmare traumas never to be outgrown.

Referring to Fatah and the PA, Hillary Clinton claims, "They are offering their people the option of a peaceful, independent and more prosperous future, not the violence and false choices of extremists whose tactics -- including rocket attacks that continue to this day -- only will lead to more hardship and suffering. "These attacks must stop." Well they most certainly should, but continuing to help build the scaffold of terror by indulgently funding the source won't help one iota.

At the pledging conference, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak reiterated his country's and his own dedication to finding a way of reaching a state of peace between Israel and the Palestinians. He also envisions a unity government, shared by both Fatah and Hamas. Apart from the fact that one is secular the other religious, one states a commitment to peace with Israel (while inciting otherwise) and the other refuses the very possibility, they've much in common.

Among their commonalities is a shared and quite distinct revulsion for one another, so the very idea that a Palestinian unity government is a goal and a potential for reaching peace with Israel has a huge question mark on either side of the aspiration.

Nicholas Sarkozy, never to be left out of international negotiations of any kind, has warned 'countries who have links to Hamas' - what? Syria and Iran?! - 'you have a particular responsibility to demand that Hamas join President Abbas, whose path toward peace is the only one that will produce results'. Who is he kidding? Himself I'd wager, but no, he does know better.

Gag me with a peace dove.

Labels: Israel, Middle East, Terrorism, Traditions

posted by Pieface @ Monday, March 02, 2009