The shoes just keep dropping in the Middle East. First Arafat's death, then Sharon's formation of a new party in Israel, then his stroke leaving the party in question, now the Palestinian election of Hamas to form a government. Hamas asks Abbas to stay in government, while his own party, Fatah, now wants him to quit. Now there's hope politics may moderate Hamas' policies, while the West prepares to cut off all aid to the new government, hamstringing any efforts they may make to improve the Palestinian's infrastructure.
There's plenty reason to believe Hamas would use at least some of that money to build an army to fight Israel, with more terrorists or just by raising a conventional army, but it's also true that they have made successful attempts to create social programs in the absence of any help from the Palestinian Authority, one of the reasons both for the new hope and likely for their election to office.
The only way I can think of to continue that kind of aid in this situation would be to take a page from the Russians in their dealing with Iran. They've offered to help Iran's nuclear program continue to develop as long as they retain control of the fuel, so that Iran can't use it to develop nuclear weapons. Perhaps the West could use a similar intermediary to control the purse strings on all the aid we've been providing, while Hamas continues to administer it to the Palestinian citizenry. (Abbas comes to mind, but even Israel is a possibility.) It all depends on how serious Hamas is about helping people as opposed to destroying them. I guess we're about to find out.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment