Give Hamas Money?

The issue of the U.S. cutting off aid, in what is perhaps our most ridiculous aid program to date, in response to Hamas wining the election among the Palestinian Arabs was, I thought, a fairly cut and dry one. That was, of course, until President Carter decided to stick his nose into the issue with his Washington Post op-ed.

The kindly old ex-President has a long history of playing with dictators and enemies of America, something none of us would have suspected from the kindly old peanut farmer from Georgia. Ankle Biting Pundits has a very good list of his past activities cavorting with everyone from the Soviets to Castro to Chavez. Perhaps after he botched dealing with Khomeini back in ’79, he snapped and went full-tilt left. Maybe he wasn’t as “shocked” as he said he was when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan. Hmm… Well, regardless of that, Mr. Carter has some gems to contribute regarding the new Palestinian “government”.

First, let me get out of the way that with very few exceptions, I’m not a big fan of bribe money, which is exactly what our “aid” to the Palestinians is. We paid for a corrupt regime, which I absolutely didn’t think we should and now we’re expected to pay for a terrorist regime because it might not be as corrupt? That’s rich. Even better is Carter’s insistence at numerous points in the op-ed that the U.S. can work with Abbas because the guy is the President and not beholden to Hamas. No, he’s not beholden, but he’s also not with any significant power and authority either.

To assume Hamas will let a man whose views they don’t agree with have any say is laughable enough. For Mr. Carter to assume that the known terrorist organization Hamas, which despite his assurance that it hasn’t “claimed” any terrorist bombings in the past eighteen months still has as its core tenant driving the Israelis into the sea, will simply bow to the inevitability of political change is bad comedy.

Hamas wants the U.S. money not to pay teachers or doctors. It wants it to buy illegal weapons to blow up Israelis. Don’t kid yourselves that thugs can suddenly become altruistic. This is one of those areas that is so black and white even some of those gifted with “gray-only” vision are seeing how twisted these guys are. Talk about killers of innocent women and children, folks, it doesn’t get any clearer than blowing up a busload of Israeli women and kids, or a pizza parlor, or an intersection. Would you be this lenient on them if it were your neighborhood? Would Mr. Carter be if the bombings were in Americus, Georgia instead of Tel Aviv?

The Palestinian Arabs voted in these thugs, mostly because Hamas promised to end corruption and to drive the Israelis into the see. They’re looking for some kind of major victory here. They made their bed. Now they can burn in it. This will go nowhere but down and I guarantee you it will be the fault of Hamas and its supporters. I also can guarantee you that Carter and his ilk will blame the U.S. and Israel for not giving the terrorists the money to buy the bullets and bombs to shoot them with. Mark my words.