Cutting Hamas Off

Fire of Liberty

This past Friday I listened to an episode of NPR's "All Things Considered" and they ran a piece on how Hamas looked like it could be a better government that we think because their new PM was more pragmatic and wasn't such a big advocate for violence as other folks seeking the post were. (I guess if you only cheered on your political party/terror organization and its policy of terror and the destruction of Israel but never participated or instructed folks to kill Israelis, you're a statesman.) The piece also noted that the West should be very cautious about cutting off support to the PA because of Hamas's victory due to the fact that they'll would force Hamas to go to folks like Iran and Saudi Arabia for money. (They still haven't sent the millions in cash that they promised to the PA years before.) Now the folks at NPR and other like minded folks throughout the world will go about promoting this lesser evil mumbo-jumbo if they will but as Charles Tannock, conservative foreign affairs spokesman in the European Parliament, points out in this opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal (Subscription required) that during all those years of handing money to the likes of Arafat has only resulted in more Israeli deaths and more than likely this same benevolence would result in something far more violent if Hamas gets the money. Instead of reading my take on the piece, just read what Tannock had to say:

Some argue that making diplomatic relations and aid conditional on Hamas renouncing violence and recognizing Israel's legitimacy would not achieve the desired effect. They say such tactics might harden Hamas's position and lose the West influence in Palestine. But what influence did the hundreds of millions of euros Brussels sunk into the PA exactly buy? Did Arafat let up in his terror war or corruption? Fact is, EU money and "good diplomatic contacts" have singularly failed to achieve their aims for the past decade. It's time to try something new.

It is therefore deeply regrettable that Russia, in spite of its own problems with Islamic terrorism, has invited Hamas to Moscow. It is less surprising perhaps that French President Jacques Chirac and Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero -- each playing to his domestic gallery -- should endorse this move.

To frame this issue as some kind of terrible moral dilemma is absurd. Of course, we all want peace in the Middle East. Ordinary Israelis and Palestinians want it even more. But to accept Hamas as a legitimate negotiating partner would be to store up still more trouble for the future. I am as appalled as anyone at the poverty and hopelessness that characterizes the lives of so many Palestinians. As a matter of fact, in electing Hamas Palestinians have given vent in part to their own disgust. But if we sent so much as a penny to a PA led by an unreformed Hamas, we would be showing that we have learned absolutely nothing from our mistakes.

We should not kid ourselves that we owe it to the Palestinians to engage with Hamas just because of a democratic election. If Hamas were a political party in the EU, it would have been outlawed years ago. In its charter, Hamas calls for a global jihad -- like the suicide bombings last year in London, the city I represent. Hamas is not committed to democracy and human rights but to a theocracy under Shariah law.

What we do owe to the Palestinian people, though, is to tell them clearly that while we stand by them in their legitimate quest for statehood, we won't tolerate such a state being run by an Islamist terror regime.

As you can tell, I'm more inclined to Tannock's way of thinking with regard to providing funds and support to Hamas. If Austria can be sanctioned by the EU for electing Haider(praised the efforts of folks like fascists and most notably Hitler) as President then the US and who ever else gives money to the PA should have the right to cut off the spigot when they elect a party like Hamas. It's good to see others expressing the same thing and hopefully the view will become morprevalentnt in Europe most notably the European Parliament. (I can wish can't I.)