Italian Ambassador Comments III: This Is Where He Probably Fibs
In pathetically trying to justify why the EU is not a terrorist-appeasing hotbed of moral sanctimony (despite not recognizing the terrorists from Hezbollah as terrorists), Ambassador De Bernardin talked up the hardline stance that the EU has taken toward Hamas:
He boasted that it was in 2003, when Italy held the rotating EU presidency, that Hamas was listed as a terror organization by the block. “As you know when it comes to Hamas, Italy and the European countries are very firm in maintaining that Hamas need to accept Israel before accepting them as a political interlocutor,” he said.
First of all, whatever. Like it matters whether or not they recognize Hamas when they're pouring millions of dollars into the Palestinian areas. From something we wrote in March when the US was using the same excuse:
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 (not to mention a shiny new ambulance that their terrorists will use to move weapons). [That's]... what 'fungible' means.
But like we said, whatever. So the claim that they're not aiding Hamas is intellectually dishonest. So what? Intellectual dishonest is so passe at this point. If we took the time to point out even 1 out every 100 times diplomats claimed a pro-Israel stance that was technically true but practically false, we'd be spending all our time on blogging and we'd be seriously behind on our schoolwor... hmm.
Anyway, like we said, whatever. The bigger point is that he went on the record saying that the EU will not accept the Hamas government until Hamas accepts Israel. We suggest to you that, within a couple of months, this will turn out to be a demonstrable lie. But maybe we're wrong, and this was only intellectually dishonest.
He boasted that it was in 2003, when Italy held the rotating EU presidency, that Hamas was listed as a terror organization by the block. “As you know when it comes to Hamas, Italy and the European countries are very firm in maintaining that Hamas need to accept Israel before accepting them as a political interlocutor,” he said.
First of all, whatever. Like it matters whether or not they recognize Hamas when they're pouring millions of dollars into the Palestinian areas. From something we wrote in March when the US was using the same excuse:
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 (not to mention a shiny new ambulance that their terrorists will use to move weapons). [That's]... what 'fungible' means.
But like we said, whatever. So the claim that they're not aiding Hamas is intellectually dishonest. So what? Intellectual dishonest is so passe at this point. If we took the time to point out even 1 out every 100 times diplomats claimed a pro-Israel stance that was technically true but practically false, we'd be spending all our time on blogging and we'd be seriously behind on our schoolwor... hmm.
Anyway, like we said, whatever. The bigger point is that he went on the record saying that the EU will not accept the Hamas government until Hamas accepts Israel. We suggest to you that, within a couple of months, this will turn out to be a demonstrable lie. But maybe we're wrong, and this was only intellectually dishonest.
