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How the Donors Saved Hamas
by Khaled Abu Toameh
• October 14, 2014 at 5:00 am
Rebuilding
or repairing infrastructure in the Gaza Strip is the best thing that could
have happened to Hamas. Hamas knows that every dollar invested in the Gaza
Strip will serve the interests of the Islamist movement. The promised funds
absolve Hamas of all responsibility for the catastrophe it brought upon the
Palestinians during the confrontation with Israel.
Hamas
will now use its own resources to smuggle in additional weapons and prepare
for the next war with Israel. Hamas can now go back to digging new tunnels
and obtaining new weapons instead of assisting the Palestinians whose homes
were destroyed as a result of its actions.
The
biggest mistake the donor states made was failing to demand the disarmament
of Hamas as a precondition for funneling aid to the Gaza Strip. Hopes that
the catastrophic results of the confrontation would increase pressure on
Hamas, or perhaps trigger a revolt against it, have faded.
It would be naïve to think that Hamas would not benefit from the billions
of dollars that have just been promised to help with the reconstruction of
the Gaza Strip, during a donor conference in Cairo.
The Palestinians were hoping for $4 billion, but the donor states
pledged $5.4 billion, half of which will be "dedicated" to the
reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, according to Norwegian Foreign Minister
Borge Brende.
It is not yet clear how the second half will be spent.
Qatar, a longtime supporter and funder of Hamas, promised $1 billion,
while US Secretary of State John Kerry announced immediate American aid of
$212 million. The European Union, for its part, pledged $568 million.
Donor states said they would funnel the aid only through the Palestinian
Authority [PA]. But this does not mean that Hamas, which continues to maintain
a tight grip on the Gaza Strip, would fail to benefit from the financial aid.
Turkey: Jihad-Lite
by Burak Bekdil
• October 14, 2014 at 4:00 am
Turkish
and U.S. officials are now planning to push the "moderates" onto
the battlefield. The "moderates" -- Islamists featuring lighter
shades of jihad -- will be trained at a military base in Turkey to specialize
in bombing, subversion and ambush, paid for by U.S. taxpayers, and expected
to fight Islamists featuring darker shades of jihad.
The
"moderates" are a potential threat to Western security interests.
They are potential allies of Turkey's Islamists.
If Turkey
had not funded and armed ISIS in the hope that it would bring Assad's
downfall, none of this would have happened.
In November 2013, Iran's ambassador to Ankara, Alireza Bigdeli, said:
"Just as Imam Khomeini did it in Iran, the Justice and Development Party
[AKP] have paved the way for the advancement of Islam in Turkey."
Nearly a year later, the AKP's new leader (and Turkey's Prime Minister)
Ahmet Davutoglu rephrased the Iranian diplomat's "praise" for
Turkey's Islamists: "We have made the conservative, pious (Muslim)
masses not a just a part, but the main actor, in the political system."
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Tuesday, October 14, 2014
How the Donors Saved Hamas
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