Hamas and the American Press

So whenever I read about Mid-East violence, crazy Iranian Presidents calling for the destruction of Israel, or whatever, my first reaction is that it's just another part of some crazy bug-up-the-ass fetish that Arabs have for hating us. And then I read stuff like this.

So Hamas won the democratic election among the Palestinians, and one of the first things we did was stop giving them financial aid. I have no issues with that. Now that hurts the Palestinian state (as we intended it to), because the government represents a huge portion of their economy.

The Palestinian Authority employs some 165,000 people and the UN estimates a quarter of the Palestinian population relies on government salaries.

And it appears to not be a self-sustaining thing, but rather one that's dependent on 1: transfer of tax revenues from Israel or 2: foreign aid. That's a ridiculous mode of government (temporarily pretending that we don't have a swollen government dependent on foreign support), but whatever, that's Hamas's problem, not ours.

This is where it gets hairy. Muslim and Arab nations are trying to donate money to the Palestinians (not even through the Hamas government, but directly to the employees), but their banks are afraid that if they do the US will charge them with abetting terrorism and shut them out of international finance. So basically, fear of the US is causing Palestians to not get paid, even by other Arabs. That's not exactly going to make for a more stable situation. (1. Hungry oppressed people with nothing left to lose are hard to make peace with. 2. How long does it take for angry Arabs who are prevented from donating money to feed people to decide to donate that surplus money to less humanitarian causes?)

Now maybe the Palestinians deserve to go hungry for voting for Hamas. We all know terrorist states are potentially more dangerous than rogue terrorists. Maybe threatening the banks and preventing Muslim charity is a just use of our global fiscal dominance. I don't think so, but I'm open to the argument.

(I also think it casts a big shadow on our determination to bring democracy to the Middle East when we blacklist an elected government. And this is the first thing I'll be thinking of next time some yahoo claims "They hate us for our freedom." Newsflash: I'd hate any country that caused me to not get paid for 2 months, and you would too. But believe you want to believe, I'm cool with that.)

What I'm not cool with is the total lack of press coverage on it here in the US. CNN mentions that we consider Hamas a terrorist group and have cut off aid. As mentioned within the context of US envoy James Wolfenshon's (former Pres of the World Bank) quitting his envoy job:

The militant group's stance has led to a cutoff of funding from Israel and the
West.

"It would surprise me if one could win by getting all the kids out of school or starving the Palestinians," Wolfensohn said, according to a State Department transcript from Monday's news conference.

He added, "But I do think that the Palestinians need to understand that it is not business as usual. Here you have a Palestinian group which has said that it wants to destroy its neighbor. "

(btw - it's a bad sign that this guy's quitting, he sounds good)

No mention of the Arab nations trying to help the workers, nor the blockage of fund transfers. Nor is there any in this piece about Bin Laden's opposition to the US-Hamas issue. (Reading the piece, you'd think Bin Laden just expects us to give Hamas money) This one comes close, but doesn't really show that we're blocking non-US donations as well.

In a memo obtained by the AP, the U.S. Treasury Department said "transactions with the Palestinian Authority by U.S. persons are prohibited, unless licensed." The memo said the decision was based on "existing terrorism sanctions," according to the AP.

It still sounds like it's just between us and Hamas...But hold your britches!! What about Fox? This is a surprisingly accurate article from Fox News.

Public sector salaries are two months late, largely because Israel and the West have frozen the transfer of funds to the Hamas-led government, branding Hamas a terror organization.

"We have given alternative suggestions and plans, including what has been reported about sending the lists of the employees to the Arab League to have a direct transfer to their accounts," [Palestian leader] said, but "we even faced American pressure to prevent the direct transfer."

Also, Israel has halted transfer of about $55 million a month in taxes it collects for the Palestinian government.

I stand corrected. This is merely under-reported, not unreported. Thus I am placated by the unlikely savior of Fox News. They've done good journalism. The lesson here, repeated twice, is that well-known crazy bug-up-the-ass fetishes aren't nearly as encompassing or explanatory as we think they are. My plug of the day is to read BBC and Fox News. I wonder if anyone has ever suggested that pair in combination before.