... as long as none of it goes to Hamas.
GAZA (Reuters) - Israel accepted on Wednesday a decision by major Middle East peace brokers to resume some aid payments to the Palestinians -- a move that could ease intense economic pressure on the Hamas-led government.
The Quartet of international mediators -- the United States, Russia, European Union and the United Nations -- agreed on Tuesday to create the new mechanism for funneling funds to the Palestinians and will run it for a three-month trial period.
The Hamas-led government said it appreciated the Quartet's efforts to ease the burden on the Palestinian people but said they could have gone further, and in a statement criticized the fact that its own authority was likely to be bypassed. |
I can appreciate the compassion that's being shown here. Why make the people suffer for the choices of their government, especially since their government can't even perform the basic things necessary like paying government employees and paying for other basic services. This is also on top of yesterday's news that the UN, EU, US and Russia will give direct aid to the Palestinians. All very well meaning, but unfortunately misguided. I don't want the Palestinians to unnecessarily suffer, but they voted Hamas in to power. They need to sleep in the bed that they've made for themselves. All actions have consequences and they can't expect that just becuase they democratically elected Hamas that we have to deal with them as we would any other democratically elected government. If Germans voted in the Nazi party again, should we support them the same as we do now? If South Africans voted in an apartheid administration again, should we deal with them the same way then as we do now? So why should we (and the rest of the world for that matter) deal with a terrorist group as we deal with the Israeli government? Why should we deal with a terrorist government at all? |
