Even putting aside the safeguards that are supposedly going to be put into place to keep close to $1 billion out of Hamas hands--unlike the UNRWA supplies and unexploded Israeli arms--just spending the money on Gaza directly helps Hamas.
Claudia Rosett writes:
As for the financial safeguards--somewhere in Gaza, or maybe Damascus or Tehran, members of Hamas must be smiling. As long as Gaza is controlled by Hamas, any aid funneled into the enclave is one dollar less that Hamas might be impelled to spend on upkeep of its turf, and one dollar more available for terrorist activities.
But don't forget that besides the US aid, there is $1.65 billion from the Gulf Arab States via Saudi Arabia. And if you want to send money to UNRWA to help Gaza, one of the banks is the Commercial Bank of Syria, headquartered in Damascus:
In 2006, Treasury finalized its rule, which is still current, against the Commercial Bank of Syria. Under-Secretary Stuart Levey alleged that the bank had been used by terrorists to move money, and "as a state-owned entity with inadequate money laundering and terrorist financing controls, the Commercial Bank of Syria poses a significant risk of being used to further the Syrian Government's continuing support for international terrorist groups." Among the terrorist groups cited as examples of such clients were Hezbollah in Lebanon, and such denizens of Gaza as Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Hamas.
...It's hard to know whether it is of any concern to UNRWA that one of the conduits headlined by Ban Ki-moon for its Gaza relief appeal is a U.S.-censured bank, headquartered in a country that hosts Hamas leaders such as Meshal, and is designated by the U.S. as a state sponsor of terrorism.
Read the whole thing.
It's hard to know who will benefit more from Obama's various economic plans--the US or Hamas.
Technorati Tag: Obama and Gaza and Hamas.
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