Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Paying Malignants to be Nice

The Palestinians hate the Americans for supporting Israel. They burn more American flags than I go through Kleenex in a typical week. Public opinion there has been particularly bad after the Israeli Gaza incursion. So the Americans propose to pay money to Gaza:

Clinton said during her Asia trip this month that she would attend an international donors conference in Egypt on March 2 to discuss reconstruction in Gaza.

She provided no other details, but a U.S. official in the United States said Monday that the Obama administration's donation will likely top $900 million in humanitarian and rebuilding aid to the Palestinian Authority to help Gaza recover from Israel's offensive against Hamas last month.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the donation had not received final approval, said the exact amount was still to be determined.

The official added that the aid would not go to Hamas. U.S. officials have no formal contacts with the Islamic militant group Hamas, which runs a separate Palestinian administration in the Gaza Strip.

A little less than two thousand years ago, the Romans used to pay the Huns not to attack them and all it did was encourage them to do it more often. It ended with the Huns having so much Roman gold they invaded Italy and got to the gates of Rome itself.

The US have been paying off Iraqi Sunni militants since 2006, have sent $10 billion to Pakistan since 2001, and are hinting at the same policy with the Taliban in Afghanistan. Now here they are funding the Palestinians in Gaza. Do they think this will make people like them? Or embolden them?

2 comments:

  1. It seems these Washington folks are living in a dream world. The US government is not only broke they are in debt. Last October they gave out $1 billion to Georgia, the country not the state. This is very similar to the General Motors CEO flying around in his private jet. Hello is anybody home, your in debt.
    Perhaps a US bankruptcy is required to somehow get across the message of fiscal restraint. California is on the verge of bankruptcy, and the US government is giving out money to Gaza. If this was on a movie script, even Arnold would turn this one down.
    Message to Washington, your broke, stop pissing money down the drain!

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  2. So true. If they had a referendum for this issue, I think over 95% would agree not to send the (borrowed) money to places like that.

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