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He Kept His Eyes on the Prize
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A 2012 Conservative Case for America’s Future
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Trust, Don’t Verify
November 17, 2011 | 27 comments
A Further Perspective
Cut U.S. Funding for Osama’s Mourners
Now that Fatah has dropped its mask, it’s time to put teeth into U.S. policy.
Hamas, the Palestinian terror group that runs Gaza, is mourning the death of Osama bin Laden. He is a “martyr” to these jihadists. And Hamas has just concluded a pact with the so-called Palestinian Authority (PA), or Fatah, the group that the U.S. recognizes and to whom we give lavish foreign aid. We are currently giving $600 million to the so-called Palestinian Authority.
Fatah has held an increasingly precarious control over much of the West Bank of the Jordan River since 1988. It was then that the U.S. brokered a deal in which the PLO morphed into the Palestinian Authority (PA), promised to give up terrorism, and promised to recognize Israel’s right to exist. Many of us never thought the PLO would keep any of those promises — but we knew they would cash our checks and pocket as well huge sums from the European Union. All of this in the name of “peace.”
Among the things that the PLO has done on the West Bank is to terrorize Christian Arabs, to name public squares after suicide bombers, and to conduct an all-out Hate Israel propaganda campaign in their schools, universities, and controlled media.
Good faith? Arafat instigated yet another intifada against Israel when he got 98% of his territorial demands met and not 100%. Intifadas are uprisings characterized by stone-throwing Palestinian youths confronting Israeli troops. The visuals are great for their propaganda purposes. Israeli soldiers in armored personnel carriers or tanks are shown confronting a hail of stones. But less often noted in the leftist media — BBC, CNN, Reuters, AFP — is that these young warriors of the intifada are deadly accurate. Their stones have been a deadly form of action in that region since biblical times.
Now, the PLO has made a pact with Hamas, their supposed rivals who control the Gaza Strip. For a decade, Hamas and Fatah have been fighting each other. Hamas is openly committed to the eradication of Israel. All maps of the Mideast produced by Hamas show Arab lands with no Jewish state — what they call the Zionist Entity — at all. But Fatah’s maps likewise show no Israel.
The somber news of the Fatah-Hamas deal came out of — Cairo. Apparently, the post-Mubarak government is being strongly influenced by the Muslim Brotherhood. Hamas is merely the Palestinian branch of the MB. So this is the “Arab Spring” we’ve heard so much about?
Look at the map of Israel. You can still find it on our maps. With Hamas firmly in control in Gaza, Israel’s main population centers are now within easy range of their missile fire.
Add to the threat of Hamas, Fatah in the West Bank, and you see Israelis caught in a lethal crossfire.
The Israeli government’s response to these menacing moves was sober and restrained:
“The Palestinian Authority (Fatah) must choose either peace with Israel or peace with Hamas.”
Our U.S. response was terribly weak: “The United States supports Palestinian reconciliation on terms which promote the cause of peace. Hamas, however, is a terrorist organization which targets civilians.”
It’s time to put teeth into U.S. policy. Yasser Arafat was the man who invented airline hijacking for terror purposes. He murdered Americans. It was never a good idea to trust his word or to trust any organization formed by him. We have gotten nothing for the billions we have showered on him and his corrupt and murderous cronies.
What we see with the Hamas-Fatah rapprochement is merely the open and brazen acknowledgment of what has always been the case: Both Hamas and Fatah are terrorist organizations. Only now has Fatah dropped its mask.
Secretary Clinton urged us to send Fatah another $160 million on top of the $600 million.
Here’s a fine candidate for cuts. Let’s cut off all U.S. support to these organizations. And we should press our European allies to do the same. It’s time to follow up the brave actions of our U.S. Navy SEALs with brave action in the diplomatic arena.
About the Author
Ken Blackwell, the former mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio is Vice Chairman of the Republican National Committee’s Platform Committee. He also serves on the boards of the Club For Growth and the National Taxpayers Union.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (26) | Leave a comment
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Bulgaricus1| 5.5.11 @ 7:55AM
Amen, Bro! Preach it in DC!
Intelligent Design| 5.5.11 @ 7:59AM
"Palestinians" means the same thing as "terrorists". They want to destroy Israel, kill Jews, and establish an Islamic state.
Maxwell| 5.5.11 @ 8:54AM
I don't see why Barry Big Ears would cut off funds to the PLO, they are his peeps.
Melvin| 5.5.11 @ 9:11AM
Palestinians are nothing more than political opportunists, useful idiots and Arab Cannon Fodder.
They are a people, that were cast out of Jordan, and became embroiled in the British Mandate, and have caused nothing but trouble since.
Even here in North Carolina, the tears of and for the Palestinians flow like rivers filled with the anguish and pitiful plight of the Palestinian masses.
Duke University in North Carolina recently hosted a Gaza "teach-in" about Israeli-Palestinian relations at Duke University. Hamas propaganda has done a excellent job at denigrating Israel to the elite within college academia.
Many of the Socialist Elites within College Academia are equating Israel to apartheid.
With the above being said, funding for the Palestinian Authority/Hamas will likely increase.
Hamas, CAIR, Muslim Brotherhood, and Hezbollah have so throughly corrupted the political, and academic landscape that United States Tax Payer funding for these organizations will be defended on the scale of Planned
Parenthood.
What we are seeing though, is that a tipping point has been reached within the Socialist Democrat and Progressive Republican Parties that there is less support for Israel than those acutally supporting.
Israel still has immense support with the American people, but like everything else with this Administration, what the American people want is way down the list of Globalist priories.
logmank| 5.5.11 @ 9:22AM
Nice thoughts. However, it is not going to happen on Obowmao's watch. His official policy is support for Islamist terrorists and opposition to the State of Israel, our ONLY reliable ally in the region.
Louis Jenkins| 5.5.11 @ 10:03AM
Do you think? The liberals and conservatives both vote for funding- all going down the PO rat hole, and coming back as missles, bullets, and bomb toting young men wanting a street or square named after them, and hoping to meet 27-97 virgins in the hearafter. Yes, the US funds terrorists, and there's not much the average Joe can do about it. Be it far better to stop fund everyone in the mid-east and go home.
Oldefarte| 5.5.11 @ 11:21AM
Great thoughts and information, Ben! $600million, that's an abomination and each and every taxpayer in this country should be outraged over same. What bullexcrement! I've constantly protested the spending of governmental money [furnished by TAXPAYERS] on welfare, military excesses, etc, and yes last but never least FOREIGN AID. That $600 million [and Hilly Poos $150 million additional] belongs to taxpyers, some of whom are relatives and loved ones of the victims of 9/11/01, the USS Cole attack, etc. What BULLEXCREMENT! If we don't stop this in November of next year, we all should be tarred and feathered for out combined stupidity!!!!!!
cicero| 5.5.11 @ 12:09PM
The American government has, for the past several decades, indulged in what can only be deemed sheer insanity. They keep sending money to the Arab world in hopes of getting them to act like civilized Western societies, and then are shocked over and over again that the results are less than they hoped for. I thought that it was hysterical when the Arab League begged the West to rid them of Uncle Mo, . . . and we did it, or are trying to. All the while they are charging so much for their only product that they could well take care of thier own people, and their own political problems on their own. But why should they, when they have the gullible West.
The only thing to date our money has done for the Palistinian arabs was to keep Arafat on life support long enough for the survivors of his gang to negotiate a settlement with his wife, getting her to tell them where the Billions were, and letting her keep the millions.
We are victims of our fearless leadders' wishful thinking. They all want to be the one who will go down in history as he/she who brought peace to the Middle East. Ain't gonna happen.
John| 5.5.11 @ 2:00PM
Palestinians - 600 million
Isreal- Zino Nazis - infinite dollars
a fool is soon parted from his money. Poor Americans no food, shelter, health care.
mzk1| 5.5.11 @ 3:07PM
2 to 1 John is actually named Ahmed.
Occam's Tool| 5.5.11 @ 6:54PM
I'll take that bet, MZK1. I'm pretty sure he's named after the leader of the Three Stooges, Mo.
RCV| 5.5.11 @ 6:02PM
John: The 600 million we foolishly sent to the PA ended up in Yasir Arafat's bank account and the pockets of a myriad other corrupt petty officials. The money we sent to Israel was used to buy American military hardware from American suppliers, protect Israeli citizens and their children from missles being shot at schools and daycare centers, and help resettle refugees from the Soviet Union and other places into good and decent housing (as opposed to warehousing them in squalid refugee camps with promises that Arab armies are going to "liberate their homeland"). Wise choices indeed.
Occam's Tool| 5.5.11 @ 6:51PM
Worse, of course, is that Mubarak is worth about what, $70 Billion, right? Which is about the amount of money given to Egypt in aid during his time in power. Hmmm....
Occam's Tool| 5.6.11 @ 1:55AM
Dear RCV: you are a good man.
Occam's Tool| 5.5.11 @ 6:55PM
OPEC--raises gas prices and screws over Americans. John (Mo) ignores this.
I would rather go to MDs here than Saudi, John.
Al Adab| 5.5.11 @ 2:27PM
Not only these entities themselves but the nations which harbor them should be removed from our aid list. Not only are we in effect financing our enemies, but in order to keep them semi-quiet we pay protection money. Every time Atilla the Hun threatened to attack the Byzantine empire they paid him off. He kept making threats, they kept paying. Great plan not to follow. Money can't buy you love...or allies.
mzk1| 5.5.11 @ 3:06PM
Full disclosure - I live in Haifa. The shopping mall by my bus statio nwas hit by Hezbollah in the last war, as was my boss' Arab village (several times).
The PA has been continually referring to Israel as "the enemy". As far as I am concerned, that means they are at war with us. Now they conclude as treaty with people who just hit a school bus with an anti-tank missle. The U.S. should give them money? (BTW, CAIR is an offshoot of Hamas.)
Meanwhile, the EU funds Israel's equivalents of Code Pink. Imagine if we did something like that?
Margie| 5.5.11 @ 6:35PM
Heh, there are some here who are actually in agreement with Code Pink.
Occam's Tool| 5.5.11 @ 6:53PM
Margie,
don't wake the Troll, dear.
Occam's Tool| 5.5.11 @ 6:53PM
MZK1---may G-d Bless and keep you.
By the way, do you know if Pizza for the IDF is still around and working? They get nice meals out to Zahal soldiers, along with messages to the guys.
Michele San Pietro| 5.5.11 @ 3:22PM
There would be no peace in the Middle East as long as the Arabs do not change radically. So far, we haven't even seen a gesture of goodwill from them. Obama was great at finding and killing Bin Laden, but I think he was particularly lucky and has in general no backbone. If Fatah prefers Hamas to the United States and peace with Israel, there is evidently no reason anymore to help and finance Fatah.
Richard Baker| 5.5.11 @ 7:46PM
Why on God's Green Earth we give nickel one to these insanely murderous groups and countries is beyond me. Lenin's quote about us selling the rope which will be used to hang us was prescient. We give our sworn and mortal enemies money which is used to plot and activate plans to destroy us. This makes ANY sense? If it does, please enlighten.
Rowdy Boots| 5.8.11 @ 9:46AM
It is disgraceful that America is funding the PA with taxpayer's hard earned money...
When will this sick activity end? We are sending money to our enemies!
LIBERALS, ARE YOU THAT SICK?
Rowdy Boots
Dee See| 5.8.11 @ 11:12PM
---Great piece.
Now onto withdrawing the TAX FREE status of
our own fifth column of culture subverters,
republic destroyers, sovereignty traitors
and EUGENIST psychopaths
of our 'benny violent' capstone 'chair-IT-Abel'
foundations.
HUAC meets NUREMNBERG 2012 ----is coming.
牌术 | 5.27.11 @ 9:26AM
I’m still learning from you, but I’m improving myself. I definitely liked reading everything that is written on your blog.Keep the information coming. I liked it!