T. Belman. Hamas has learned that if it is short of cash, to start a war in which Gaza get pulverized. Billions of dollars will flow into the strip affording Hamas the opportunity to skim off the top, all they need, and then some. There is no downside for them as the EU , US, UN are all committed to their survival, regardless of the fact that they are designated a terrorist organization.
They could if they wished, empty Gaza of its population thereby solving a problem that has existed for 20 years. Instead they get brownie points for supporting the the peace process through the two-state solution which they know is a dead end street.
by Bassam Tawil, GATESTONE • June 1, 2021 at 5:00 am
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- Ironically, the same Abbas who told Blinken that he (Abbas) is committed to a peace process with Israel is the same Abbas who also wants to see his Israeli “peace partners” put on trial at the ICC.
- Now comes Blinken and announces that the reopening of the consulate in the city. Here is how the Palestinians understand his gestures: If you fire 4,000 rockets and missiles at Israel, you get a US embassy in Jerusalem and millions of dollars of US taxpayer money. It works! The solution, then, is to keep on doing it!
- By reopening the consulate, Blinken is telling both Hamas and Abbas that the US does not recognize Jerusalem as the united and undivided capital of Israel.
- Blinken has also sent a message to Abbas and Hamas that former US President Donald Trump’s formula of “peace for peace” in the Middle East is off the table; they no longer need to worry.
- Abbas and Hamas are rubbing their hands because, the way they see it, the Biden administration has just achieved their goal of scrapping Trump’s peace plan, “Peace to Prosperity: A vision to Improve the Lives of the Palestinian and Israeli People.”
- By rewarding Abbas, Hamas and the anti-normalization camp in the Arab world, the Biden administration has bludgeoned its declared objective of reviving a peace process in the Middle East. It has demonstrated decisively that corruption and dictatorship pay. It has shown that terrorism pays – to the tune of millions of dollars. Palestinian incitement and violence against Israel are unlikely to recede in the context of such an encouraging outcome.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s May 25 announcement that the Biden administration will ask Congress to allocate $75 million in aid to the Palestinians and that Washington will reopen the US Consulate in Jerusalem — which previously had served as a de facto embassy handling US relations with the Palestinians — is sending the wrong message to the leaders of the Palestinians.<
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First, these overtures signal to Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas that the US will support and lavish funding on any Arab leader who seriously abuses not only his own people but also his neighbors. This policy would also include leaders such as Vladimir Putin in Russia, Xi Jinping in China and “Supreme Guide” Ali Khamenei in Iran, as well as other despots.
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The two state solution is really a three state solution. There would be one Jewish state, Israel, and the new Palestinian state, and the existing Hashemite state, which was a political payoff, not a state arising naturally from the history of the territory. It occupies a great portion of historic Palestine, is Arab, and most of its residents are Palestinians. Why do we need two Arab states in the territory of Palestine?