TRULY HAIRBRAINED FOREIGN AID

It really doesn't get much dumber then what the story below reports.

It appears the Obama administration is seriously considering giving the Palestinians almost one billion dollars in foreign aid for the rebuilding of Gaza.

Don't they know that money can't buy love? Palestinians in Gaza heart Hamas. They hate Israelis and they hate Americans. Not even a billion will change that.

Most certainly they will take the money if it is offered. They are not, after all, that crazy. Taking our money is good for them, bad for us. In Gaza, that is a winning formula. This would allow them to use American tax payer dollars to repair the damage from their recent dust up with Israel so that they can immediately get back into the business of killing innocent Israeli citizens with random rocket fire on civilian targets. And they will be able to do so from the comfort of their rebuilt digs, financed by hard working American families.

Nothing could be more wrongheaded. It is another in the long line of examples of the wrong message delivered by the West to a Hamas controlled populous. Jihadists know that people will stick with the strong horse, and by following this truly stupid path, we look like nothing more than weak and frightened donkeys.

Palestinians will take our money and spit in our faces. They know we will do nothing in return. They have no respect for cowardly offerings that beg for forgiveness and redemption. It is hard to argue with their perspective. Why should they respect a government that tries to buy their favor? It is demeaning for us, confidence building for them.

If this is the best foreign policy thinking that the Obama administration and it's all star lineup of special envoys can come up with, the next four years are going to seem more like decades relative to our relationships with the international community. Throwing around a billion dollars in order to get our enemies to suddenly become our friends has never worked and will never work. Instead it buys us their scorn and it emboldens them to further terrorize American interests abroad and American families at home.

Giving Palestinians living in Gaza a near billion to rebuild saves Hamas a billion to spend on their more deadly mission of jihad. We might as well give them the money directly. We have for years now been funding both side of the war on terrorism but, up to this point, at least we got some gas in our tanks in return. This billion dollar boner gets us nothing more than disrespect on the one hand and death on the other.

The President and his administration are responsible for this lunatic direction. If they implement this madness, they own the death and destruction that will surely follow.


U.S. plans "substantial" pledge at Gaza meeting
By Sue Pleming

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States plans to offer more than $900 million to help rebuild Gaza after Israel's invasion and to strengthen the Western-backed Palestinian Authority, U.S. officials said on Monday.
The money, which needs U.S. congressional approval, will be distributed through U.N. and other bodies and not via the militant group Hamas, which rules Gaza, said one official.
"This money is for Gaza and to help strengthen the Palestinian Authority. It is not going to go to Hamas," said the official, who asked not to be named as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton planned to announce the funding at a donors' conference in Egypt next week.
Neither the United States nor Israel have direct contact with the Islamist Hamas movement which runs Gaza and remains formally committed to the destruction of the Jewish state.
The official said the pledge was a mix of money already earmarked for the Palestinians and some new funding.
"The package is still shaping up," he said, when asked for specifics over how the money would be spent and a breakdown of old and new funding.
In December, the former Bush administration said it would give $85 million to the U.N. agency that provides aid to Palestinian refugees in the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.
The March 2 donors' conference in Egypt's Sharm el-Sheikh resort aims to raise humanitarian and rebuilding funds for Gaza after Israel's invasion last December to suppress rocket fire against its cities.
Preliminary estimates put damage from the offensive, in which 1,300 Palestinians died, at nearly $2 billion.
Clinton's bid to get "substantial" funds could face an uphill battle in Congress because Hamas continues to rule Gaza and the U.S. focus is on its own souring economy.

BOOST FOR ABBAS
Part of the goal of the new funding is to boost the Palestinian Authority of President Mahmoud Abbas, which controls the occupied West Bank.
The United States wants Abbas's PA to play a central role in the reconstruction effort in Gaza, hoping this will increase its influence in the Hamas stronghold. Washington is also putting pressure on other donors to bolster Abbas.
"We call on donor countries to focus their pledges to meet the Palestinian Authority's priorities, including budget support, and on projects that can be funded through the Palestinian Authority and other existing, trusted mechanisms," said a State Department official.
The quartet of Middle East mediators -- the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations -- are expected to meet on the sidelines of the Egyptian conference where they will work on strategy on Gaza, U.S. officials said.
After attending the conference in Egypt, Clinton is expected to go to Israel and the West Bank -- a public demonstration of Obama's promise to make Arab-Israeli peacemaking a foreign policy priority.
Clinton's special envoy to the region, George Mitchell, will be there this week trying to revive stalled Palestinian statehood talks complicated both by Hamas and political uncertainty in Israel after last week's election.

(Editing by Vicki Allen and Alan Elsner)
Copyright © 2009 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

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