Re-Post: No Consequences by Cox & Forkum

Cox and Forkum have an interesting article about the air to Hamas.

The Palestinians elect a terrorist group to lead their government, and this is the consequence:
From ABC News: Israel releasing money for Palestinians.
Israel has agreed to release tens of millions of dollars it withheld from the Palestinians after Hamas ascended to power and is considering easing restrictions on the movement of goods between Israel and the Gaza Strip, officials said Thursday. ...
Israel stopped transferring some $55 million in tax and customs revenues it collects monthly on behalf of the Palestinians shortly after Hamas won January parliamentary elections.
The withholding of those funds, coupled with a cutoff in aid from the U.S. and European Union, has left the Palestinians broke and two months behind in paying salaries to government workers who provide for about a third of the people in the West Bank and Gaza.
The potential humanitarian crisis is fueling international alarm.
Later in the article:
Outside U.N. headquarters in Gaza City Thursday, about 40 children protested what they called an economic siege. Several stripped down to their underwear and stood on U.S. and Israeli flags.
Is that the way to ask for help? It illustrates how morally inverted the whole issue has become. And the Palestinians don't just stand on the flags, they stab them too.
The article goes on to quote the protest's organizer: "The world should act to end this collective punishment." Yeah, right. Like Hamas will ever stop its "collective punishment" of Israelis.
But Israel is not the only one rolling over. A Reuters report indicates that America might be, too: Quartet agrees to channel aid to Palestinians.
The quartet of Middle East peace brokers agreed on Tuesday on a way to channel aid to the Palestinians for a trial period to ease a financial squeeze on the new government following the election of Hamas.
The group of international mediators -- the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations -- issued a statement after a day of talks in which Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia warned of a civil war if the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority was left to collapse. ...
The move came after the World Bank warned on Monday that the Palestinian Authority could face a breakdown in law and order and basic services unless foreign donors step in to pay the salaries of about 165,000 civil servants.
The United States, which initially opposed a European proposal to channel aid to the Palestinians via an international mechanism such as the World Bank, said any such move would have to be limited in scope and [have a] mechanism so aid would not reach the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority. ...
The European Union will take the lead in working out the details but has suggested in the past that the World Bank could be a suitable vehicle for getting aid to the Palestinians.
The cartoon's title and links are from AllahPundit, who has more links and commentary.
Posted by Forkum at 03:52 PM / Permalink