US Cuts Aid to Palestinians - But Only Kind Of
Having at least temporarily lost the fight to totally defang Congressional efforts at isolating Hamas, the State Department has grudgingly recognized that they're going to have to cut at least some Palestinian aid. Vital Perspectives has a nice little table and summary of the loss of direct aid that the Palestinian government will suffer. They also include a description of this part of the bill:
The State Department has authorized $245 million in humanitarian aid - which represents a 57% increase from the pre-Hamas level - and $42 million in democracy building funds.
We'll resist the urge to comment directly on the irony of giving the Palestinians democracy building funds just as you're cutting off aid to them for democratically stating their desire to wipe out the Jewish state - instead, we're much more concerned with how quietly the increase in humanitarian aid is being greeted. Reducing direct aid and offsetting it with humanitarian aid isn't really a cut at all:
But we need not entertain debates about mass psychology or military ethics to understand why the State Department's distinction between "aid ot Hamas" and "aid to the Palestinian people" is just a thinly-veiled excuse to avoid having to punish terrorists... Money is fungible - not having to use it for one thing frees it up for other things. When the United States builds a hospital, that's a hospital's-worth of money that Hamas will use for suicide belts. When the United States provides a crate of food, that's a crate of food's-worth of money that Hamas will use for anti-Semitic incitement. When the United States purchases an ambulance, that's an ambulance's-worth of money that Hamas will use for infiltrating Israeli defenses.
For what it's worth, it does look like the US will be sending net $125-million-ish to the Palestinians next year. Which we imagine is a small price to pay for telling the world that you're unrepentant terrorists bent on genocide and having the world respond with "ok, if that's the way you want it, you're only getting half of your allowance this year".
[Cross-posted at IsraPundit]
The State Department has authorized $245 million in humanitarian aid - which represents a 57% increase from the pre-Hamas level - and $42 million in democracy building funds.
We'll resist the urge to comment directly on the irony of giving the Palestinians democracy building funds just as you're cutting off aid to them for democratically stating their desire to wipe out the Jewish state - instead, we're much more concerned with how quietly the increase in humanitarian aid is being greeted. Reducing direct aid and offsetting it with humanitarian aid isn't really a cut at all:
But we need not entertain debates about mass psychology or military ethics to understand why the State Department's distinction between "aid ot Hamas" and "aid to the Palestinian people" is just a thinly-veiled excuse to avoid having to punish terrorists... Money is fungible - not having to use it for one thing frees it up for other things. When the United States builds a hospital, that's a hospital's-worth of money that Hamas will use for suicide belts. When the United States provides a crate of food, that's a crate of food's-worth of money that Hamas will use for anti-Semitic incitement. When the United States purchases an ambulance, that's an ambulance's-worth of money that Hamas will use for infiltrating Israeli defenses.
For what it's worth, it does look like the US will be sending net $125-million-ish to the Palestinians next year. Which we imagine is a small price to pay for telling the world that you're unrepentant terrorists bent on genocide and having the world respond with "ok, if that's the way you want it, you're only getting half of your allowance this year".
[Cross-posted at IsraPundit]
