You know what's so infuriating about the State Department's fake surprise? It's that everybody knew that of course this was happening:

Don't just focus on how USAID money was openly being used to celebrate terrorism, and nobody cared because - well, you know - that's just the Palestinians being the Palestinians. That's too easy to figure out. Too much unsophisticated "reality". And that's before we even get to the idea that every dollar of humanitarian aid from the US is one more dollar that Hamas can move to their terrorist infrastructure

So forget about "evidence" for now. Just think about this in the abstract - the totally, totally inevitable abstract. Hamas supporters make up way, way more than half of the Gaza Strip. And so if you pour money into the Gaza Strip, who the hell did the State Department think they were going to be helping?

That's why it's a bad idea to reward people who elect genocidal maniacs. And the Palestinians who elected Hamas have been rewarded - aid has actually increased by 10 percent since the election! Because apparently, our problem is with the Palestinian leaders... but not with the people who choose to make them leaders! How does this even make sense? Like if you're in the State Department, how do you say it to yourself and then think "yeah, that makes sense". How many years in Diplomacy School do we have to go through before we gain that level of sophistication?

When the Germans supported the Nazis, nobody said "oh, well it's just their leaders that we have a problem with - not actually the German people". You know why nobody said that? Because that's retarded. It's this stupid idea that international sophisticates know what the Palestinian public is "really" like - and coincidentally, that "real" public doesn't support terrorism at all. Even though the Palestinian public repeatedly indicates by every measure we have that yes ,in fact they really do support genocidal terrorism - they just don't know as much about themselves as international experts do. And so the US State Department and USAID insisted on giving money to the supporters of genocidal lunatics - and somehow that money ended up helping the genocidal lunatics themselves. Who could have seen that coming?

Here's our idea: when a majority of people elect a warmongering, genocide-advocating government, the US and Europe should cut their aid. We know it's a radical idea, but maybe that way we can avoid the embarrassment where ostensibly smart people pretend that funding the supporters of terrorism has nothing to do with funding terrorists.

Hamas controls the Gaza Strip. The US poured money into the Gaza Strip. Honestly, where did they think that money was going? Ponies and cotton candy?

References:
* 'US funds reached Hamas-linked institutions' [YNet]
* Palestinians' 'Saddam Street' funded by USAID [MR]
* Why "Humanitarian Aid" is a Myth (Or: the Definition of the Word Fungible) [MR]
* Foreign Aid To Palestinians Has Increased By 10 Percent Since Hamas Election [MR]

Previously:
* Not Content With Not Cutting Off Palestinian Aid, US Will Actually Increase Funding to Supporters of Terrorism
* Technical, Academic Description of EU Justifications for Palestinian Aid
* Done and Done: Abbas Takes US Money and Cutting Edge Weapons, Tells the US That He's Siding With Hamas Anyway

[Cross-posted to Israpundit]