Monday, June 18, 2007
In a Telegraph editorial: How to handle Hamas
Their calculation is that economic sanctions will convince Palestinians that supporting Fatah is the only way to achieve something resembling economic normality. But they are taking a huge risk.
Palestinians are already the largest per capita recipients of foreign aid in the world, but this has not stopped them voting for Hamas before.
Revolutionary violence is not, as Marx thought, the product of economic despair; more often, revolutions happen at times of rising prosperity and rising aspirations.
By lavishly funding the Fatah administration, the international community might recreate the resentment against a corrupt elite that drove many Palestinians into voting Hamas in the first place...
Can appointments of people like Fayyad, who was also appointed during the Arafat reign for the same purpose -- to bring Western style transparency and accountability to PA finances -- actually have an effect this time out? That depends on a variety of factors all of which add up to it being far, far too early to tell. I happen to think that in the battle between an accountant and deeply ingrained corrupt tribal politics, the accountant loses.
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