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Thank you,........I will post this on my website N123@aol.com wrote: The American Conservative
The Persecution of the Palestinians
by Patrick J. Buchanan
http://amconmag.com/2006/2006_06_05/print/buchananprint.html
"Why do they hate us?" So stunned Americans asked, after 9/11, when
we learned that across the Arab world, many were saying, "The
Americans had it coming."
For a textbook example of why we are hated, consider Gaza and the
West Bank. There, a brutal Israeli/U.S.-led cutoff in aid has been
imposed on the Palestinians for voting the wrong way in a free
election.
Immediately after Hamas's victory, Israel halted the $55 million a
month the Palestinian Authority received as its share of tax and
customs revenue. Israel demanded Europe and the U.S. also end all
aid to the PA until Hamas renounces terror, recognizes Israel, and
disarms.
President Bush, though he was conducting a worldwide crusade for
democracy and had urged that the Palestinian elections be held and
Hamas participate, obediently complied. For months now, U.S. and
European aid to the PA, half its budget, has been halted.
The early returns are in. "Surgeons at Gaza's biggest hospital,"
says the Financial Times, "have suspended non-essential surgery for
lack of sutures, laboratory kits and anesthetics." Environmental
protection agency workers have no money for petrol to monitor sewage
and industrial waste entering the water supply. Some 150,000 civil
servants, 60,000 of them armed security personnel, have gone unpaid
for months.
Supermarkets have to extend credit to customers who have no money
for food. The Washington Post relates an incident that gives a
flavor of what is happening.
"In Gaza's gold market Monday, Nahed al-Zayim stared at the wedding
ring her husband, a Palestinian police officer, gave her six years
ago. She had placed it on a glass counter offering it for sale,
joining several other wives of public employees who had not been
paid in two months.
"Her head covered by a black veil, Zayim said she needed the
proceeds from her ring to buy diapers and milk supplements for her
three children, including Hazem, 4, who tugged at her tunic in the
afternoon bustle. `This is the last one, we have no more,' Zayim,
28, said of her ring."
Woodrow Wilson called sanctions "the silent, deadly remedy." Its
victims are always the sick, the elderly, the women, and the
children.
In March, the World Bank predicted the aid cutoff would lead to a 30
percent fall in average personal incomes among the Palestinians. The
bank now considers that prediction "too rosy" and expects "the worst
year in the West Bank and Gaza's recent dismal economic history."
Already, violent clashes have broken out between Hamas and Fatah.
There is a danger of collapse of the Palestinian Authority, chaos,
and a need for the Israeli army to intervene anew to restore order.
Finally, May 9, under European pressure, the U.S. relented and a
trickle of aid began to flow.
Query: who, besides al-Qaeda and recruiters of suicide bombers, can
conceivably benefit from persecuting the Palestinian people like
this? Does President Bush or Condi Rice think the Palestinians will
respect an America that did this to their children, after we urged
this election, called for Hamas to participate, and preached our
devotion to democracy?
"The aid cut-off appears to be increasing anti-U.S. sentiment here,"
writes the Post's Scott Wilson, quoting 33-year-old pharmacist
Mustafa Hasoona: "The problem is the West, not us. If they don't
respect democracy, they shouldn't call for it. We are with this
government we elected. I voted for it."
According to the Financial Times, Hamas is winning converts for
refusing to buckle. Said Khalil Abu Leila, a Hamas leader, "They
have misunderstood the Arab mentality. As long as the pressure
increases on Hamas, the more popular it will become."
The White House says we don't negotiate with terrorists. But when we
had to, we did. FDR and Truman summited with Stalin at Yalta and
Potsdam. Nixon met with Mao in Beijing. Kissinger negotiated with
the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese at Paris. Bush I allied with
Assad in the Gulf War. Clinton had Arafat to the White House too
many times to count.
Rabin and Peres shared a Nobel Prize with Arafat. Netanyahu gave him
Hebron. Barak offered him 95 percent of the West Bank.
Bush's agents negotiated with the architect of the Lockerbie
massacre to persuade Colonel Khaddafi to give up his WMD. In 2004,
Bush's men called it a victory for Bush diplomacy. Khaddafi's regime
had been at the top of the State Department's list of state sponsors
of terror.
The purpose of U.S.-Israeli policy today is to punish the
Palestinians for how they voted and to force Hamas to yield or to
collapse its government. How does such a policy win hearts and minds
for America?
Terrorism has been described as waging war on innocents to break
their political leaders. Is that not a fair description of what we
are doing to the Palestinians? No wonder they hate us.
June 5, 2006 Issue
Thank you,........I will post this on my website N123@aol.com wrote: The American Conservative
The Persecution of the Palestinians
by Patrick J. Buchanan
http://amconmag.com/2006/2006_06_05/print/buchananprint.html
"Why do they hate us?" So stunned Americans asked, after 9/11, when
we learned that across the Arab world, many were saying, "The
Americans had it coming."
For a textbook example of why we are hated, consider Gaza and the
West Bank. There, a brutal Israeli/U.S.-led cutoff in aid has been
imposed on the Palestinians for voting the wrong way in a free
election.
Immediately after Hamas's victory, Israel halted the $55 million a
month the Palestinian Authority received as its share of tax and
customs revenue. Israel demanded Europe and the U.S. also end all
aid to the PA until Hamas renounces terror, recognizes Israel, and
disarms.
President Bush, though he was conducting a worldwide crusade for
democracy and had urged that the Palestinian elections be held and
Hamas participate, obediently complied. For months now, U.S. and
European aid to the PA, half its budget, has been halted.
The early returns are in. "Surgeons at Gaza's biggest hospital,"
says the Financial Times, "have suspended non-essential surgery for
lack of sutures, laboratory kits and anesthetics." Environmental
protection agency workers have no money for petrol to monitor sewage
and industrial waste entering the water supply. Some 150,000 civil
servants, 60,000 of them armed security personnel, have gone unpaid
for months.
Supermarkets have to extend credit to customers who have no money
for food. The Washington Post relates an incident that gives a
flavor of what is happening.
"In Gaza's gold market Monday, Nahed al-Zayim stared at the wedding
ring her husband, a Palestinian police officer, gave her six years
ago. She had placed it on a glass counter offering it for sale,
joining several other wives of public employees who had not been
paid in two months.
"Her head covered by a black veil, Zayim said she needed the
proceeds from her ring to buy diapers and milk supplements for her
three children, including Hazem, 4, who tugged at her tunic in the
afternoon bustle. `This is the last one, we have no more,' Zayim,
28, said of her ring."
Woodrow Wilson called sanctions "the silent, deadly remedy." Its
victims are always the sick, the elderly, the women, and the
children.
In March, the World Bank predicted the aid cutoff would lead to a 30
percent fall in average personal incomes among the Palestinians. The
bank now considers that prediction "too rosy" and expects "the worst
year in the West Bank and Gaza's recent dismal economic history."
Already, violent clashes have broken out between Hamas and Fatah.
There is a danger of collapse of the Palestinian Authority, chaos,
and a need for the Israeli army to intervene anew to restore order.
Finally, May 9, under European pressure, the U.S. relented and a
trickle of aid began to flow.
Query: who, besides al-Qaeda and recruiters of suicide bombers, can
conceivably benefit from persecuting the Palestinian people like
this? Does President Bush or Condi Rice think the Palestinians will
respect an America that did this to their children, after we urged
this election, called for Hamas to participate, and preached our
devotion to democracy?
"The aid cut-off appears to be increasing anti-U.S. sentiment here,"
writes the Post's Scott Wilson, quoting 33-year-old pharmacist
Mustafa Hasoona: "The problem is the West, not us. If they don't
respect democracy, they shouldn't call for it. We are with this
government we elected. I voted for it."
According to the Financial Times, Hamas is winning converts for
refusing to buckle. Said Khalil Abu Leila, a Hamas leader, "They
have misunderstood the Arab mentality. As long as the pressure
increases on Hamas, the more popular it will become."
The White House says we don't negotiate with terrorists. But when we
had to, we did. FDR and Truman summited with Stalin at Yalta and
Potsdam. Nixon met with Mao in Beijing. Kissinger negotiated with
the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese at Paris. Bush I allied with
Assad in the Gulf War. Clinton had Arafat to the White House too
many times to count.
Rabin and Peres shared a Nobel Prize with Arafat. Netanyahu gave him
Hebron. Barak offered him 95 percent of the West Bank.
Bush's agents negotiated with the architect of the Lockerbie
massacre to persuade Colonel Khaddafi to give up his WMD. In 2004,
Bush's men called it a victory for Bush diplomacy. Khaddafi's regime
had been at the top of the State Department's list of state sponsors
of terror.
The purpose of U.S.-Israeli policy today is to punish the
Palestinians for how they voted and to force Hamas to yield or to
collapse its government. How does such a policy win hearts and minds
for America?
Terrorism has been described as waging war on innocents to break
their political leaders. Is that not a fair description of what we
are doing to the Palestinians? No wonder they hate us.
June 5, 2006 Issue
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