Why am I not surprised?
Some of the $100 million in tax revenues that Israel transferred to the Palestinian Authority in January went to thousands of Hamas supporters – including those in the security forces – Hamas officials said on Monday.
Meanwhile, a senior PA official in Ramallah said that Israel’s decision not to release more of the hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenues it owes the PA undermines PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah faction.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert made the decision against releasing more of the funds last week, following reports that Abbas had broken a promise to use the revenues solely for humanitarian purposes.
“This is not a wise decision,” the official told The Jerusalem Post. “On the one hand, Israel is talking about the need to strengthen the moderates among the Palestinians. On the other hand, Israel’s decision to refrain from releasing the funds, which are estimated at nearly half a billion dollars, will weaken President Abbas and all the Palestinians who don’t support Hamas.” — Jerusalem Post
Some comments:
- Abbas does not keep promises, either because he doesn’t want to or he is too weak. It doesn’t matter.
- Abbas is not so moderate anyway and shouldn’t be “strengthened”.
Israel is in an impossible situation here. Supplying the funds means certaintly providing funds for terror. Not providing the funds means opening oneself to the charge that one is starving the civilian population of Gaza. Either way , whatever one does, one is wrong.
Now were there a responsible Palestinian partner who truly aimed at peace, the story would be otherwise. But as indicated above Abbas is only marginally better than ‘Hamas’.
What a neighborhood!