http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=020106C
Telling the Difference Between Hamas and Shinola <javascript:;>
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By Ralph Kinney Bennett : 01 Feb 2006
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"The evil best known is the most tolerable."
- Livy, in his History of Rome.
Here's a quick way to sort out all this Hamas-Fatah business.
First, remember the old wisdom regarding basic knowledge -- the importance
of being able to tell the crucial difference between fecal matter and a
certain brand of shoe polish.
Second, look at the facts, the abundant history, and the well documented
reality of the Palestinian mess. It will lead you to one conclusion:
There is no crucial difference between Hamas and Fatah.
And shoe polish does not come into the picture.
So, hand wringing about Hamas' recent political victory over Fatah is a
little like feeling bad about the way Hitler's S.S. sucker-punched all those
nice S.A. Brownshirts back in Germany in 1934.
At least, Hamas is and always has been upfront about wanting to kill Jews
and destroy Israel.
Fatah, on the other hand, has usually dissembled and lied and sucked up to
various and sundry Western politicians -- while pretending that it does not
to want to kill Jews and destroy Israel.
Fatah, to put it bluntly, has lied a lot. And why not? The United States has
bought it. The European Union has bought it. The West has poured money on
the liars.
Fatah's founder, Yasser Arafat, was a consummate liar, who enriched himself
and his cronies on Western and Arab money while letting the Palestinian
people wallow in a corrupt, inept, pathetic demi-culture that has bred
poverty, disease, terror and hopelessness.
And now the consequences of permitting and promoting this "tolerable evil"
are all too painful. Playing ball with Arafat accelerated during the Clinton
Administration, which goaded Israel into dealing with him as the
"legitimate" leader of Palestine.
While Arafat and his wife lived the high life and socked away hundreds of
millions of dollars, the Palestinian people suffered under a "government"
that could not even collect the garbage let alone govern.
But the average Palestinian's marked and evident disaffection from Fatah and
its bureaucracy of thugs and grifters was never exploited by Israel or the
West. Trying to identify and encourage a moderate democratic movement in
Palestine would certainly have been difficult. But there is little evidence
that either the United States, or Europe, or Israel ever tried very hard.
Hamas moved into the vacuum, moving from strength to strength, bringing a
new fundamentalist Islamic dimension to the hatred already stirred up by
Fatah, and meanwhile looking hungrily at the money pouring in, mostly from
the stupid infidels, to keep the Palestinian enterprise afloat.
Sixty percent of the Palestinian "budget" -- more than a billion dollars a
year -- comes from outside donors. The United States leads the way with $368
million. The European Union is second with $338 million. Third biggest giver
is the Arab League, which ponies up $197 million. Great Britain gives $43
million, Italy $40, Sweden $32 (figures published recently in the Times of
London).
The other 40 percent of the budget comes from taxes within the Palestinian
territory, including a reported $55 million per month in customs taxes and
business taxes collected by Israel and turned over to the Palestinian
Authority.
Right now, the United Nations and the various Western nations are making a
big show of threatening to withhold funds unless Hamas renounces its death
threats against the state of Israel.
But don't hold your breath. Just hold your nose. The United States and the
West have already established a precedent of paying premium prices for
Palestinian Shinola, no matter how great the stench from the can.
Ralph Kinney Bennett is a TCS Contributing Editor.
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