Posted on 03/03/2009 5:06:48 AM PST by SJackson
Against the backdrop of even worse news about Iran’s inching toward nuclearization, the news about Iran’s vanguard on the southwestern border of Israel—Hamas—also isn’t good. Despite Israel’s attempt, during and immediately after Operation Cast Lead, to focus U.S. and European attention on the problem of Hamas’s arms smuggling under Egypt’s none too watchful gaze, that problem continues unabated and the rocket attacks are steadily mounting again. And not only is it militarily recovering, the terror group is making diplomatic progress as well. With Hamas and Fatah now meeting in Cairo for talks on establishing another unity government like the one they had briefly in 2007, there are indications that this time such a government would be accepted as a diplomatic player by the West. The Bush administration, for its part, shunned Hamas, and continued to do so while it allied with Fatah. But George Mitchell, the Obama administration’s Middle East envoy, has signaled a different attitude and said Hamas-Fatah unity would be “a step forward.” Former British prime minister Tony Blair, now Middle East envoy of the Quartet, said more explicitly that he thought it was important to “find a way of bringing Hamas into the peace process”; and current British foreign secretary David Miliband says talking to Hamas is “the right thing to do.” Earlier U.S. Senator John Kerry—while claiming U.S. policy toward Hamas had not changed—took a rare step for U.S. officials by visiting Gaza. While there he inspected damage caused by Israel’s military offensive—and appears to have accepted, or at least conveyed once he discovered it was in his possession, a letter to Obama from Hamas. Seemingly Israel’s outgoing, compliant Olmert government, which played the Western game by showing enthusiasm for a Palestinian state and whitewashing Fatah—while insisting that, nevertheless, Hamas remained a bad guy and beyond the pale—must be seeing its worldview crumbling around it. But the situation is yet worse. Haaretz has reported that U.S. secretary of state Hillary Clinton has been angrily warning Israel over delays in delivering humanitarian aid to Hamas-ruled Gaza. Senior EU officials have also been complaining to Israel about aid getting held up at the crossings into the Strip. Israel is protesting that, with its kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit still being held in Gaza, its control of the crossings is the main thing giving it leverage; and also that since Cast Lead ended a good deal of aid—nearly 200 trucks a day—has been getting through in any case. The U.S. and EU, though, together with the UN, are demanding that it be upped to 500 trucks a day—with growing pressure on Israel to allow cement and steel to enter the Strip even though those are used for Hamas weapons production. Soon after the war Israeli professor Efraim Inbar, head of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, argued powerfully against reconstructing Gaza. He noted that it “signals to Hamas that it can continue shooting; for if Israel repeats its military action, merciful Westerners again will repair the damage…. The reconstruction of Hamastan in Gaza—an Iranian base that threatens Israel and many moderate Arab regimes—makes no strategic sense.” He was, unfortunately, talking to the wind. At Monday’s conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, Western and Arab donors pledged a total of $4.4 billion for rebuilding Gaza. The U.S. share—at a time of severe financial crisis—comes to $900 million of which $300 million is supposed to go to Gaza and the rest to the West Bank Palestinian Authority, which, for its part, regularly transfers large sums to Gaza. The U.S. claims that Hamas, somehow, won’t benefit from any of these funds. But as Inbar pointed out, “There is no way to reconstruct Gaza without strengthening Hamas…. From what we know of the fortunes of the humanitarian aid transferred to the Gazans in recent years, it is clear that a large proportion of the benefits of the external aid will be siphoned off to the Hamas leadership….” Inbar also questioned “the morality of pouring money” into Gaza: “Hamas was popular among the Gazans and continues to be so. Why should the international community and Israel help people that support an organization intent on destroying the Jewish state? Indeed, all polls show staggering support among Gazans for violence against Israelis.” Compared to the wheels of international geopolitics—which demands unrelenting pressure on Israel to appease Arab and Muslim economic power and opinion—it’s a still, small voice. The Bush administration, in refusing to deal with Hamas, imposed an outer limit on the pressure. The Obama administration already seems to be lifting it. The incoming Netanyahu government, which represents a choice by the Israeli people to deal more realistically with enemies and threats, faces a harsh challenge. As for Hamas and its patron Iran, busily building its nukes, they can take heart. =============
By Daniel Pipes http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=FE5B3EEA-BD56-46BD-9B86-55C772412539
Was I the only one rubbing my eyes in disbelief yesterday, as the Egyptian government hosted an “International Conference for the Reconstruction of Gaza”? It took place in Sharm El-Sheikh, attended by delegations from 71 states, plus 16 regional, international, and financial organizations. Its stated goal was to raise US$2.8 billion, of which $1.3 was for rebuilding what had been destroyed in the course of Israel’s recent war on Hamas (the rest would be sent to the Palestinian Authority to help improve its standing). The actual amount raised at the conference was $4.5 billion which, when added to previously committed funds, means the grant total for Gaza and the PA comes to $5.2 billion, to be disbursed over a two-year period. A delighted Egyptian foreign minister called the amount “beyond our expectations.” U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called it “a very productive conference” Among the larger donations included a Gulf Cooperation Council contribution of $1.65 billion over five years and a U.S. government pledge of $900 million from the American taxpayer (of which $300 million will go for Gaza rebuilding). Husni Mubarak of Egypt, Nicholas Sarkozy of France, Silvio Berlusconi of Italy, Ban Ki-moon of the United Nations, Amr Moussa of the Arab League, and Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority gave speeches. Why my disbelief at this spectacle: I wonder if those eminentoes and worthies really believe that warfare in Gaza is a thing of the past, and that the time for reconstruction is nigh? They must not read dispatches from southern Israel, which report the daily warfare that continues there. Take a representative news item from Yedi'ot Aharonot, dated February 28, “Experts: Grads in Ashkelon were advanced.” the two Grad rockets that landed in Ashkelon Saturday morning[, Feb. 28,] were new and improved models, capable of greater destruction than those usually fired from Gaza. One of the rockets hit a school in the southern city, and succeeded in penetrating the fortification used to protect it from projectiles. … The Grad rockets that hit Ashkelon were two of only five or six locally manufactured 170 mm rockets ever fired at Israel, experts say. The rarely used rockets have a range of 14 km (8.6 miles) and are capable of massive damage, evident from the destruction witnesses described on the scene of Saturday’s attack. In an official protest to the United Nations, the Israel’s Ambassador Gabriela Shalev noted that “there have been nearly 100 rocket and mortar attacks from the Gaza Strip” since the ceasefire on January 18, or over two per day. These have been increasing in number, with 12 rockets fired at Sderot on March 1 alone. Responding to these attacks, the Israeli cabinet resolved on March 1 that “should the firing from the Gaza Strip continue, it would be met by a painful, sharp, strong and uncompromising response by the security forces.” Prime Minister-designate Binyamin Netanyahu echoed this bellicosity, reportedly telling a European leader that he would not sacrifice Israel’s security “for a smile.” (Saudi foreign minister Saud Al-Faisal, in unexpected agreement, noted that rebuilding Gaza would be “difficult and fool-hardy, so long as peace and security do not prevail” there.) What the hell are the donor countries doing, getting in the middle of an on-going war with their high-profile supposed reconstruction effort? My best guess: this permits them subtly to signal Jerusalem that it better not attack Gaza again, because doing so will confront it with a lot of very angry donor governments – including, of course, the Obama administration. Adding to the surreal quality is a blithe disregard for Israel’s security needs. Consider the attitude of Douglas Alexander, international development secretary for Britain’s Labour government, who pledged £30 million of his taxpayers’ funds to rebuild houses, schools, and hospitals in Gaza. “There is a desperate need for tough restrictions on the supply of goods to be relaxed,” he said, demanding next that “Israel must do the right thing and allow much-needed goods to get through to those men, women and children who continue to suffer.” That’s very humanitarian of Mr. Alexander, but he willfully ignored Israeli expectations that Hamas will confiscate steel, concrete, and other imported construction materials to build more tunnels, bunkers, and rockets. After all, Hamas appropriated prior deliveries intended for civilians, and so blatantly that even the usually docile United Nations Relief and Works Agency protested. Husni Mubarak might warn Hamas not to treat the donors' pledges as a “conquest of war,” but it will assuredly do precisely that. U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk (Republican of Illinois) got it right: “To route $900 million to this area, and let’s say Hamas was only able to steal 10 percent of that, we would still become Hamas’ second-largest funder after Iran.” So, under the cheery banner of building, in Clinton’s words, “a comprehensive peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors,” donor states are not only defying Israel to protect itself from rocket fire but they are funneling matériel to Hamas. Is this ignorance or mendacity? I suspect the latter; no one is that dumb.
Reconstructing Hamas
FrontPageMagazine.com | Tuesday, March 03, 2009
That Surreal Gaza Reconstruction Conference
FrontPageMagazine.com | Tuesday, March 03, 2009
Obama is giving tax money to terrorists. I am not going to give tax money to obama to give to terrorists.
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