Taking the Palestinians Off the Dole

It felt like a simple-minded idea at first, but I do believe that the best way to stop Palestinian terrorism is simply to cut the funds that the rest of the world provides to that God-forsaken dysfunctional horror. If the Palestinian Authority wants to reward suicide bombers and other terrorists, the rest of the world can simply diminish its support.

After all, if terrorism pays, if it pays in hard currency, why would anyone want to stop it? It’s not as though the Palestinian Authority and its allies in Hamas have ever showed any ability to run a functioning economy.

For whatever the reason, my wishes are now coming to pass. While the Obama administration has rewarded terrorists by abstaining from a United Nations Resolution granting them authority over East Jerusalem and several major Jewish holy sites—he did it, I am certain, not only to stick a thumb in the eye of the Israelis, but to show his Jewish supporters that they had been duped—major Arab nations in the region, wanting to improve their relations with Israel, have cut back their financial support for the Palestinians. No one seems to be reporting the story, but it is surely worthy of note:

From Thompson Reuters (via Maggie’s Farm):

Foreign financial support to the Palestinian budget is running at about half the forecast level, the Palestinian prime minister told local media on Tuesday, meaning deep cuts will have to be made to the budget this year.

At its cabinet meeting, the government said it expected to run a budget deficit of 4.12 billion shekels in 2017 ($1.06 billion), approaching 15 percent of gross domestic product.

"We had expected to get $1.2 billion in (external) support and offers but we have only received $640 million so far," Prime Minister Rami Al-Hamdallah told Al-Quds newspaper.

Saudi Arabia has in the past been a reliable supporter of the Palestinians, as have the United Arab Emirates and Turkey, but it has cut back its contributions sharply in recent months.

Normally Saudi pays about $20 million a month into the budget, but it stopped making regular contributions last April, in part to apply pressure on President Mahmoud Abbas to implement political changes.

The fact that Saudi Arabia considers it more important to have good relations with Israel than to support mindless Palestinian rage strikes me as worth noting.

We note also that the European Union and the United States have reduced their subventions:

The European Union and the United States have also reduced direct budget support, preferring instead to fund development programmes that target specific areas.

How’s the Palestinian economy been doing? Glad you asked:

While the economy in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza grew by about 1.5 percent in 2015, the last full figures available, unemployment continued to rise, standing at 27.4 percent overall - 18.7 percent in the West Bank and 42.7 percent in Gaza, the ministry said. 

Take a deep breath at this picture of economic dysfunction. In the occupied West Bank the unemployment rate was a mere 18.7%. In Gaza, from which the Israelis withdrew completely, the rate is 42.7%. Put that in your pipe and smoke it. Hamas has managed to produce an unemployment rate of 42.7%. If the world handed out awards for the highest unemployment rate, Gaza would be a world beater. Now, tell me why occupation is such a bad thing?

Why does Hamas keep fomenting terrorism? Could it be that that’s all it knows how to do?