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All the Troubles of the Middle East, In One Little Country

By KyleS

By: Sarah Stern and Kyle Shideler

There is a country in the Middle East accused of a brutal decades-long occupation. A country where a blockade causes starvation among a civilian refugee population. A country which violently cracks down on those who oppose it, shooting into crowds of protestors, while it receives substantial aid money from the United States as an ally in the War on Terror even as it undermines our war efforts by pursuing its own agenda.

We’re talking about Yemen, of course.

Who else did you think we meant?

The country of Yemen on the southern coast of the Arabian Peninsula has long been a simmering pot of violence.

One conflict is geographical, as much of largely secular southern Yemen (which was the independent Democratic People’s Republic of Yemen from 1967 until 1990) claims to suffer from an unwanted occupation from their more theocratic and traditional northern counterparts. This long conflict between the North and South has long been a sort of proxy between various influences in the region, whose participants included at one time or another: The Egyptians, Jordanians, Saudis, British, and the Soviets.

Another conflict is with the Iranian-backed Shiite Houthi rebels on the border of Saudi Arabia near the city of Sa’dah, stemming all the way from an ancient feud which goes all the way back to the rebellion of the Zaydi tribes in 1905.

A third, and much newer conflict is with Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), although some assert that the Yemeni government’s stance on Al Qaeda is closer to cooperative then conflicting.

In November of 2009, the government of Saudi Arabia, which is allied with Yemen against the Shiite rebels, placed a naval blockade along the coast of the Houthi-occupied Northern Yemen. The goal, to prevent the Iranians from resupplying their proxy fighters. As former Ambassador Dore Gold pointed out during the now infamous Mavi Marmara incident, there was no outcry against Saudi Arabia or Yemen for this action.

Astoundingly, the purpose of the blockade, preventing Iranian arms from reaching the conflict, was identical to the purpose of the Israeli naval blockade of Gaza which receives harsh international criticism.

In Southern Yemen, a land blockade meant to put pressure on separatists there has caused dislocation, and dwindling food and medical supplies.  But unlike the Israeli checkpoints into Gaza, which permit around 15,000 tons of supplies to cross every week, there was no such humanitarianism on display in Yemen.  In January of this year, the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees asserted that as many as a quarter of a million refugees have been dislocated in Yemen due to fighting.

Yet unlike the Palestinians, which have a billion dollar a-year agency (UNWRA) devoted specifically for their needs, the Yemeni refugees were faced with cuts in food assistance, when donors could not be found. Those who did contribute, not surprisingly, were largely Western countries, including the United States and France, while neighboring Arab states, such as Saudi Arabia, have provided little or nothing.

Police in Yemen have opened fire on Southern protestors, and conducted torture and the Yemeni military has shelled Southern homes with little provocation. American and British flags are often present at such demonstrations of secessionist protestors, although they are generally being waved in solidarity, not burned as they routinely are in Gaza and the West Bank.

And while the world screamed in protest when Israeli bulldozers demolished Palestinian houses, either for lacking legal permits or for being the hiding places of smuggling tunnels, there was no similar outcry when the Saudis annihilated an entire village, including a mosque, in Northern Yemen during its intervention against the Houthi Rebels.

Yet despite its ham-handed and bloody tactics, American assistance continues to flow to the Yemeni government. Jonathan Schanzer who testified before Congress on the subject wrote in the Washington Times,

”Yemen’s willingness… to confront the serious threat Al Qaeda poses to the nation’s stability has been inconsistent in the past, but our recent intensive engagement appears to have had positive results.”

That was the State Department’s assistant secretary for Near Eastern Affairs, Jeffrey D. Feltman, at congressional hearings on Yemen earlier this month. He repeatedly assured the House Foreign Affairs Committee that he was “encouraged” by Yemen’s new attitude.

This encouragement convinced international donors in late January to pledge $5.2 billion in aid to Yemen. It also prompted Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates this week to more than double U.S. military aid to Yemen. Taxpayers will now fork over $150 million, up from last year’s $67 million.

This is a mistake. Mr. Gates and his advisers ignore Yemen’s terrible track record. If our aid was based on Yemeni performance, Yemen wouldn’t get a dime.

Schanzer goes on to point to the repeated steps by the Yemenis to undermine our war effort against Al Qaeda, including routinely releasing dangerous terrorists from prison.

Part of the reason Yemen may be so ready to release wanted terrorists from its prisons, is that the government may use Al Qaeda terrorists as mercenaries in its fight against the Shiites, and as a tool in order to extort additional aid money from the West. From Jane Novak, writing at the Long War Journal:

Musid Ali, Director of the Yemeni American Anti-Terrorism Center, in commenting for this article said the Yemeni regime is responsible for the recent attacks, a serious charge as several foreign tourists were killed. The attacks, he said, “are a result of the good relationship between the regime and al Qaeda.” The purpose of the attacks is to “make the west in general and the US in particular believe that Yemen is an ally of the US against al-Qaeda, but what is clear to the Yemeni people is the strong relationship between al Qaeda and the regime.” As such, the counterterror assistance provided by the US in terms of funding, training, and equipment has been used “only against the Yemen people.”

Indeed the Yemeni government itself is suspected of being riddled with Al Qaeda supporters, who pass information from the Yemeni government to AQAP, and who help facilitate jail breaks, and attacks. Yet the United States continues to provide military assistance, including training, arms and munitions to the Yemeni government, with no real clear assurances whether such assistance is helping further U.S national interests such as fighting Al Qaeda, or the Iranian backed insurgency, or whether it is being used to target southern political opposition, under the guise of fighting terror.

The importance of Yemen in the global war on terror has escalated since American-born, Yemeni cleric Anwar Al-Awlaki fled there. Al-Awlaki was the confidante and spiritual mentor of many terrorist plotters, including three of the 9/11 hijackers, The Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan, Chrismas Day “underwear bomber,” Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, as well as inspiration for Time Square failed bomber Faisal Shazhad.

Yet incredibly $150 million in military aid does not even buy the United States the ability to extradite al-Awlaki from Yemen, in the event he should be captured. Yemeni authorities say instead that Awlaki will be tried in Yemen for terrorists’ acts he may have committed there, even though Yemen’s track record of keeping terrorists behind bars is abysmal at best, and conducting jihad against foreigners outside of Yemen is not even a crime, according to Yemeni law.

This is not to say that regardless of the Yemeni government’s actions, Yemen is not a crucial battleground in the war on terror, or that the United States should cease to be engaged here. On the contrary, the area is vital to both regional and American security. The region is vital for several reasons, as outlined by former EMET Speaker of the Truth, Middle East analyst Walid Phares. In this video lecture, Phares outlines the strategic interests at play for both Al Qaeda and Iran. From Yemen, Al Qaeda is pushing to acquire coastal territory which will enable it to link up with Al Qaeda affiliate Al-Shabaab in Somalia and cut off the Red Sea. It is also seeking a base of operations for movement into the crucial region of Saudi Arabia where Mecca and Medina, the two holiest sites in Islam are located. Similarly the Iranians seek to utilize the Houthi rebels to also control the Red Sea, linking up with Iranian naval bases in Eritrea and to help foment trouble among Shiite dominated Saudi provinces.

Yemen provides a particularly interesting case study because it contains within itself, three of the primary conflicts which exist throughout the Middle East. One, the conflict between the expansionist revolutionary Shiites of Iran, and their proxies, against their Sunni Arab counterparts. Secondly, the conflict of traditional versus secular Arabs, in Yemen depicted geographically between North and South. Finally it depicts the conflict between Global Jihad and revolutionary Islamism, in the form of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula in their efforts to infiltrate and overthrow the traditional governments of the region, especially Saudi Arabia.

None of which, it is worth adding, have anything at all to do with Israel.

Meanwhile, within Yemen, the government and its allies the Saudis engage in all the behaviors which Israel is accused of doing, but does not actually do. They have implemented a blockade, as Israel has (no one has complained about the Saudi blockade). They do not permit humanitarian supplies to reach the citizens of an area they are accused of occupying (while Israel does). The U.N actually downgrades its assistance to Yemeni victims (while Palestinians have an entire agency devoted to them). They wantonly destroy civilian homes (Israel practices tight controls, including the “knock on the door” policy, warning terrorists and their families to depart before even valid military targets are destroyed). Yemen receives economic and military hand outs even as it fails to provide measurable results for American National security (Israeli intelligence and military sharing has provided numerous advantages to the United States, including in the form of intelligence against terrorists, IED detection and disabling technology, and many others.)

In this sense, Yemen shows us the double standard imposed by the world, which deems actions performed by Israel as  bad, yet the same actions conducted by Arab states are deemed morally neutral, or at least, worthy of ignoring.

In reality solving the three conflicts which make up Yemen’s troubled history, would do more for regional, and indeed international security, than any number of peace agreements between the Palestinians and Israelis.

Let us point out that far greater Yeminis have been killed over the many years of in the internecine conflicts between the Yeminis and themselves than have Palestinians or Israelis.  Barak Salmoni, author of the Rand Corporation study Regime and Periphery in Northern Yemen: The Huthi Phenomenon, calls Yemen, “longest running conflict in the Middle East with 25,000 to 50,000 casualties.”

Yet, for far too many people, Middle East Peace remains synonymous with the conflict between the Palestinians and Israel.

It is essential that   people understand the real root causes of Middle East conflict, as demonstrated in a single country, Yemen. Many of these root causes point to something endemic within the sociological norms and culture of Arabic society.

Happy Birthday, America

By Sarah Stern

It is with a heart full of gladness that I wish a happy birthday to the America that I love. I had been worried for a while there, that the America that my  father  and maternal grandmother had both come to, fleeing Cossacks and Nazis, as so many other millions of other immigrants had come to before them, fleeing religious prosecution, had suddenly disappeared.

I was afraid it had been swept up in the current tidal wave of moral equivalency and political correctness and been replaced by a nation where cozying up to despots and dictators seems to be more politically expedient than long lasting alliances between friends who share common values.

In a long, personal struggle for one of my newest and dearest friends, the America that stands for freedom against tyranny triumphed this week.

At least in the following case, the America that I believe in has not disappointed me. However, the battle between the two America’s with two very distinct , conflicting philosophies remains strong, and we have to be vigilant about preserving the sort of America that many, if not most Americans of good will want to believe in.

My newest and dearest friend is Mosab Hassan Yousef. Mosab was born to a family of aristocracy within the world of radical Islam.  His grandfather was a radical Imam in Ramallah, his father a founder of Hamas.

When Mosab was 18, he participated in a youthful operation that landed him in an Israeli jail for many months. It was while serving out time in an Israeli prison that this extremely intelligent and idealistic young man was first forced to confront the sadism and cruelty within Islamic society. This is because Israel allows prisoners within the various terrorist organizations, (Hamas, Fatah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad), to live amongst themselves and develop their own internal power structures.

From a neighboring cell, Mosab could hear the constant nocturnal screams of Hamas members who were from poor, rural or otherwise not well connected families, being tortured as “Israeli collaborators” by those who were better connected. He realized that his tortured Hamas brothers had been singled out arbitrarily, and came to the conclusion that there is a deeply rooted sadism and cruelty within Palestinian society. He was also impressed by the relative compassion and humanity of his Israeli captors.

Mosab further concluded that Hamas has nurtured and exploited this sadism and cruelty for their own political muscle and hegemonic aspirations. This cruelty and sadism, according to Mosab, who has lived within the world of Islam, and is in a position to know a great deal more about it than those of us in the West, has its roots directly within the Koran.

It was from within the walls of an Israeli prison that Mosab then decided that there was something fiercely wrong with the society in which he was raised and nurtured, in which everyone he knew and loved  deeply had lived.  He began to secretly work for the Shin Bet, simply to save lives, irrespective of whether or not they were Israeli or Palestinian.  A while after that, he secretly converted to Christianity.

This was not an easy decision for the young man to have made. Mosab still feels an empathic love for his family and the people living within the culture in which he was reared.  He doesn’t blame Muslims. He simply feels that they have been misled and exploited by the teachings of the Koran, and that according to his words, (not mine), “The God of the Quran is a God of hate…I chose a God of love over a God of hate.”

For almost ten years, Mosab worked hand in hand with his Shin Bet handler, Gonen Ben Yitzchak, developing an extremely close friendship. They describe one another as “my brother”. In Fact, Gonen Ben Yitzchak , himself, has acted quite heroically, risking criminal prosecution by coming to the United States and revealing his identity publicly in order to vouch for his friend. (This is something that goes against the legal guidelines of the Shin Bet, and although Gonen has been out of the Shin Bet for four years, the statute extends to five years since retirement.)

According to Ben Yitzchak, “Mosab gave us an insight into the workings of Hamas we would never have had without him. He saved hundreds of lives, both Israeli and Palestinian…He didn’t care if it was in imam or a Knesset member, as long as he saved lives.” (Although Mosab modestly interrupts him and says,  “Don’t exaggerate..I know I thwarted dozens of suicide attacks…but we will never know exactly how many lives would have been killed…so we can’t say exactly how many I saved”)

It was Mosab’s work that had led to the capture of a Hamas terrorist and his handler, just as his handler had given the would-be- bomber  his suicide belt in the Manara Square , Mosab had warned the Shin Bet, who immediately moved in to arrest them.

In another operation five Hamas terrorists came knocking at Mosab’s door because their contact had been arrested, and had figured someone from his family would naturally want to help them. They requested money, tea and a ride to a Hamas safe house. He gave them what they had asked for and then proceeded to tip off the Shin Bet, and thwarted another suicide explosion.

Mosab had been responsible for capturing and bringing to justice the Hamas terrorists who had been responsible for the Hebrew University Cafeteria bombing of July 31, 2002, in which four Israelis and five Americans had been killed.

In 2007, Mosab began to grow tired of constantly living a life of duplicity and of struggling with profound conflicting loyalties and loves.  He came to America on a tourist visa and sought political asylum.

It is an absolutely categorical fact that if Mosab had been returned to anywhere in the Middle East that would have been the equivalent of immediately sentencing him to the death penalty. That is because he had committed three cardinal sins, according to Islam: 1.) Collaborating with Israel, 2.) Converting to Christianity and 3.) Publicly criticizing Islam.

It is an also categorically undeniable fact that heroic young men like Mosab would be terrific role models for anyone growing up within the tyranny of radical Islam. He is living proof that an intelligent person can transcend the culture of incitement and propaganda to hate and to kill, and to penetrate through to the core of what makes us all truly human. He chose a path of love for the sanctity of human life, irrespective of the accident of one’s birth.

In 2009, Mosab came out with a book, “Son of Hamas” documenting his incredible life’s story.

Unfortunately, some people from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) with either tunnel vision or another agenda entirely, (which we shall later discuss), had read discreet passages from Mosab’s book and had taken them entirely out of context.

Mosab’ s attorney, Steven A. Seick had reported that the lead attorney from the DHS that was working on Mosab’s case , Kerri Calcador had sworn that if Mosab would have won his case on June 30th, the DHS would appeal, and continue to do so.

She said that this was not her own decision, “but came from orders from above, directly from Washington.”

Why had there been so much effort to deny political asylum to someone so incredibly worthy of it?

Some investigative journalists, such as Richard Miniter have traced the difficulties that Mosab encountered with the DHS back to the time that Arif Alikhan had been appointed by President Obama as a leading official in the Department of Homeland Security.

Mr. Alikhan had recently spoken at a fundraiser for the Muslim Public Affairs Council, (MPAC) an organization with close ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. One of the founders of MPAC is Dr.Muhar Hathout . Dr Hathout credits Hassan al Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, a radical Islamist organization that was founded in Egypt in 1928, as being his primary teacher .[1]

Hassan al Banna is famous for the two extremely revealing quotes:  “It is the nature of Islam to dominate, not to be dominated, to impose its law on all nations and to extend its power to the entire planet.”  [2]

“God is our purpose, the Prophet our leader, the Quran our Constitution, Jihad our way, and dying for God our Supreme Objective.”[3]

MPAC along with CAIR, (The Council for American Islamic Relations), have become very excellent in the art of concealing their true intentions, and have masqueraded themselves as simply American Muslim Civil Rights Organizations.

Yet neither of these two groups have ever met a terrorist incident that they have not blamed on the root cause, which is the existence of the state of Israel.

Neither would ever blame the true root cause: the constant incitement for hatred of the Jew and the Christian, and the elimination of the state of Israel and its replacement with the state of Palestine, which Mosab personally experienced growing up as a young Muslim growing up in Ramallah and attending UNRWA schools that use every opportunity to preach such hatred.

It is certainly understandable that someone who was the featured speaker at an MPAC dinner would be threatened by the surgically incisive statements that Mosab Hassan Yousef dared to utter about Islam, coming out of the mouth of someone who had personally lived it and experienced it.

We seem to forget that radical Islam, the Islam of Hassan al Banna of the Muslim Brotherhood, declared war on the United States on September 11, 2001, and that  American GI’s are dying today at the hands of radical Islamists in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Our embracement of political correctness and moral equivalency tends to blindside us to the very pernicious philosophy that is at the very root of many of the organizations such as CAIR and MPAC that many Americans would like to embrace as “mainstream”.

It is with a great deal of gratitude to some remarkable individuals, such as James Woolsey, former director of the CIA, Rep Doug Lamborn of Colorado and twenty one other congressmen, and Tzachbai Hanegbi, Director of the Knesset Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee who wrote letters on Mosab’s behalf. All of this might have contributed to the fact that on June 30th at the hearing concerning Mosab in San Diego, his request for asylum in this country was granted by the government.

What worries me profoundly, however, is that the America that was born out of a deep understanding of the philosophical foundations of Western liberalism, ensuring religious liberties for all, is being eclipsed by an America that allows people into positions of great authority who might, at best, simply overlook or ignore the odious teachings of the founders of organization such as MPAC or CAIR, or at worst, secretly concur with them.

If we do not remain vigilant, we are in danger of losing the America which has been that beacon of religious freedom for the generations of immigrants that brought many of our ancestors to these shores.

In the meantime, however, let’s savor the sweet victory of my newest and dearest friend, someone whose friendship I will always cherish, as a victory not only for Mosab, personally, but for the America that most of us love.

[1] Investigative Project on Terrorism, “Behind the Façade: The Muslim Public Affairs Council,” pg 7, accessed 7/8/10 online at: http://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/misc/358.pdf

[2] Ibid.  pg 5.

[3] Ibid.  pg 5.

Breaking News: Government Dismisses Deportation Case Against Mosab Hassan Yousef

By KyleS

EMET has just received word directly from Mosab that the Government has officially dismissed its deportation case against Mosab Hassan Yousef at a federal detention center in San Diego.

Mosab has told us that it was thanks to the efforts of EMET that the government decided to dismiss its case and grant him political asylum.

EMET is enormously grateful to all those who played a part in standing with Mosab during this time, and helping the Department of Homeland Security come to understand what a grave error deporting Mosab would have been.

A special thank you is due to Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-CO), who authored a letter to DHS secretary Janet Napolitano, co-sponsored with 21 other Representatives. We wish to thank each and every representative who added their names to this call for sanity and to do right by a man who has stood up to terrorism and hatred, at a great personal cost.

Thanks also to former Ambassador R. James Woolsey, who also wrote a letter on Mosab’s behalf, and to all those who called, wrote, or emailed their congressional representatives and the White House on behalf of seeing justice done.

Emmanuel Navon: The Force of Reason

By KyleS

(Cross-posted at EMET with Emmanuel’s Permission)

By. Emmanuel Navon

René Descartes’ Discours de la Méthode opens with one of the most nonsensical sentences ever written: « Common sense is the most evenly shared thing in the world. »  Then there is Immanuel Kant, who wrote in his Zum ewigen Frieden that republics are less likely to go to war than monarchies, even though the French Republic had declared war on the British Monarchy two years before Kant published his essay.  The European rationalist mind can have it wrong, it seems.

So should we cheer at Europe’s renewed fondness for irrationality?  One only has to remember the political avatars of Nietzsche and Heidegger to answer no.  Or, playing the smart aleck à la Foucault and Derrida, I would say that the answer is both yes and no -but mostly no.

What I mean by “Europe’s renewed fondness for irrationality” is a tendency to abandon reason out of fear.  Most European politicians are no longer willing to resist the demands of their expanding and wahhabi-educated constituencies -whether it’s establishing sharia courts, wearing the burqa, or treating Israel as the enemy of the Prophet.  A new political party, “Sharia for Belgium,” intends to impose sharia law in that country and then in the rest of Europe.  Those Europeans who are not happy with sharia, says the party’s founder, will be welcome to leave.

In his new book A State beyond the Pale: Europe’s Problem with Israel, Robin Shepherd argues that Europe should be berated for “lacking a moral compass, for hypocrisy, wickedness and appeasement” and for “succumbing to an obsession, of giving in to irrationalism and anti-intellectualism.”  Focusing on anti-Israeli sentiment inside the mainstream of the public discourse, the book argues that Israel has been pushed beyond the pale of polite society across Europe and that, as a result, Europe is putting itself beyond the pale by descending into bigotry.

Shepherd’s book is more analytical than Oriana Fallaci’s passionate La Forza della Ragione, but its bottom line is similar: Europe’s irrational attitude toward Israel is the symptom of a cultural and intellectual surrender.

There are a few résistants.  José Mariá Aznar’s newly founded Friends of Israel Initiative is not altruistic.  It simply understands, to use Aznar’s own words, that “If Israel goes down, we all go down.”  There is also hope that sane Muslims will speak out and be brave.  Dr. Tawfik Hamid, for example, has become a forceful and outspoken advocate of Islam’s embrace of rationality and tolerance.

Europeans simply need to stop being intimidated.  True, Descartes and Kant sometimes wrote nonsense like everyone else, but reason is what shall set Europe free.  After all, the Discours de la Méthode’s most famous sentence (”cogito ergo sum”) could also be understood as a warning: If you stop thinking, you’re dead.

More on Material Support

By KyleS

In our article last week, we made mention of the Material Support law, and how it specifically prevents the transfer of money or other support, even on humanitarian grounds, when the provider of those funds have reason to believe that the money will go to a designated terrorist organization.We used this to point out that the Administration’s intention to transmit $400 million dollars for Gaza and the West Bank, specifically transmitting funds through UNRWA, violates the spirit of the law.

More on that subject, now that the Supreme Court has upheld the Material Support Statute as legal. From the always insightful Investigative Project on Terrorism:

The Court began by rejecting the argument that the statute was violated the Fifth Amendment because it was unclear to an ordinary person what type of activity was actually prohibited. Explaining that “perfect clarity and precise guidance have never been required,” the majority found the statute was sufficiently clear in what conduct was proscribed:

“Of course the scope of the material-support statute may not be clear in every application. But the dispositive point here is that the statutory terms are clear in their application to plaintiffs’ proposed conduct, which means that plaintiffs’ vagueness challenge must fail.”

Next, the Court rejected the claims that the law violated free speech and free association guarantees in the First Amendment. Those challenging the statute sought to provide non-violent resources to support the humanitarian and peaceful efforts of terrorist organizations. The Court found that not only was there no distinction between the violent and non-violent wings of terrorist groups, but that terrorist groups benefit from any support given to them.

Justice Scalia specifically invoked Hamas, interestingly enough, pointing out:

“The theory of the legislation is that when you aid any of their enterprises, you’re aiding the organization. Hamas, for example, gained support among—among the Palestinians by activities that are perfectly lawful, perhaps running hospitals, all sorts of things.”

Go to IPT and read the whole thing, very insightful. Now if only the administration would come to recognize the fact that funds given to Gaza will invariably benefit Hamas as surely as if you had wired the money directly too them.

Theater on the High Seas: Who in the Audience is being Duped?

By Sarah Stern

by: Sarah Stern and Kyle Shideler

Earlier this month we watched as the high seas had become the theater for staging yet another hate-infested anti-Israel drama, costumed in heart-rendering, humanitarian language.  This premeditated performance had been cynically calculated to pirate the international sympathy for the people who in open and democratic elections, freely elected the terrorist group Hamas to lead them.

It is nothing short of an outrage to see how pieces of footage regarding the Flotilla incident had been selectively edited by the media. To see the real story, please click here.

In the wake of the Flotilla incident, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ met with president Obama. As someone who showed he is not capable of stemming the rising wave of “group think”, President Obama left the meeting, and made an address in which he promised $400 million in taxpayers’ money for the people of “Gaza, as well as the West Bank”.

“Gaza as well as the West Bank”? This was a lovely piece of syntax, with dramatic emphasis in the auditory delivery clearly intended to focus on the” West Bank” segment of the sentence.

Put aside for a moment the fact that every day Israel sends approximately 15,000 tons of humanitarian supplies into Gaza. Put aside the fact that the cargo that was not intended for military usage would have gotten through after inspection in the port of Ashdod. Put aside the fact that when that offer was made the leaders in Gaza said, “We don’t want the aid if the Israelis have touched it.”

Put aside for a moment even, the fact that Hamas is a terrorist entity sworn to the destruction of Israel, and according to article 51 of the United Nations Carter, every nation has the primary responsibility to protect the lives of its civilians.

Focus for a moment, on the fact that we have statutes on the books that clearly state that it is illegal to send money to terrorist entities or to the states that harbor them.

In a move which would baffle the great military minds of the past from Clausewitz to Macarthur and Patton, The United States’ response to its ally Israel’s successful enforcement of a legal blockade is to think that we should just “loosen up a little”.

Of course, the Obama administration squares this circle, by denying that money sent to support the infrastructure of the terrorist-held enclave that is the Gaza Strip, will not, in fact, be aiding the party that governs it, namely Hamas, because, as someone close to the administration assured us, that the money, “will go to the UN or other internationally-recognized NGOs.”

We were afraid you’d say that.

According to a fact sheet issued by the White House Press Secretary, $40 million dollars will go directly to the United Nations Relief Works Agency (UNRWA)’s Emergency Appeal for Gaza and the West Bank. $10 million dollars will go to UNRWA in order to build 5 new schools in Gaza, with somewhere around $104.5 Million will be administered by USAID for a variety of school, economic, sewer, housing, and related infrastructure projects. The remaining $240 million will be used to increase homeownership by offering long-term mortgages.

So drastic and repressive is the Israeli blockade, so urgent is the need for humanitarian assistance, that the bulk of funds will be used to make home loans?

Let us focus a moment, on the $50 million that will be turned over to UNRWA. If the involvement of the United Nations is meant to belay the concern of skeptics, it’s a weak effort. As those who have followed the situation in the West Bank and Gaza are well aware, UNRWA’s relationship with the ruling Hamas regime in Gaza is a cozy one.  UNRWA directors in the past have publicly stated that Hamas members were on the UNRWA payroll.  This is not surprising, since UNRWA refuses to even ask prospective employees if they are members of foreign terrorist organizations (Except Al-Qaeda or the Taliban), and does not screen for membership in Palestinian terrorist organizations such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad, or Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade. And while having UNRWA build 5 schools in Gaza seems like a worthy project, it becomes substantially less worthy when one recognizes that as of 2009, Hamas dominated the UNRWA Teacher’s Union.  UNRWA schools have been used as mortar launching grounds and sniper posts, and UNRWA ambulances as terrorist troop carriers, in Hamas’s continued war against Israel which has seen 10,000 rocket and mortar attacks against Israel in the past years.

And while the Israeli blockade can turn back arms smuggling ships intent on delivering rockets and small arms to Hamas, it can do nothing to prevent the flow of hatred that is generated by the incitement to hate and fight the Jews, that are encouraged by Hamas and its allies, often utilizing the classrooms of the very UNRWA schools American taxpayer funds go to fund.

For too long UNRWA and the terrorists in their midst have been able to play a wink and nod game. On the one hand, UNRWA proclaims itself innocent of responsibility for the incitement found in classrooms and textbooks, pointing out that,

“UNRWA, like any other refugee organization, uses the textbooks and curriculum of the local authorities that play host to its refugees. This policy is based on long-standing agreements made with host governments that ensure that the arrival of a population of refugees does not infringe on the sovereignty of the host government or nation. Given these agreements UNRWA is in no position to unilaterally replace or amend the textbooks used in its schools…”

At the same time incitement to hate and kill Israelis and to destroy the Israeli state continues, even as defenders reject the claims of critics, since these are “UN” schools and programs, where no such incitement could possibly take place, despite the repeated reports and videos to the contrary.

For anyone who may doubt this, we ask you to this please view an excellent film produced by the Center for Near East Policy entitled, “For the Sake of the Nakba”. This film clearly documents multiple interviews of teachers in UNRWA schools who have been interviewed and the overwhelming emphasis given there is to replace Israel with one state: Palestine, and that the method of doing this is through martyrdom and jihad.

Throughout the schools are maps of Palestine, always the identical one to that you might recognize as Israel. The teaching constantly emphasizes that the greatest thing one can do for one’s country is to wage  jihad  and to die as a shaheed.

Above and beyond the moral question of American aid being used to support such activities, the transfer of funds to UNRWA may very well be against U.S law as well. Section 301 of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 as amended states:

“No contributions by the United States shall be made to [UNRWA] except on the condition that [UNRWA] take all possible measures to assure that no part of the United State’s contribution shall be used to furnish assistance to any refugee who is receiving military training as a member of the so-called Palestinian Liberation Organization or any other guerrilla type organization or has engaged in any act of terrorism.”

And indeed, given the certain knowledge by this (and previous administrations) that UNRWA has members of Hamas and other terrorist organizations on its payroll (as UNRWA has admitted it has), that UNRWA facilities have in the past served as training centers for terrorist actions, and UNRWA employees have themselves conducted terror attacks, one could make the moral, if not the legal, argument that the administration is essentially engaged in “material support for terrorism.”

The fact that the administration’s intent is a humanitarian one, does not absolve them of the knowledge that funds and materials provided to UNRWA have in the past, and likely will in the future reach Hamas. That such assistance is intended for “humanitarian” aims does not absolve the U.S government of its responsibility, any more than it resolves the responsibility of organizations like the Holy Land Foundation, whose founders were criminally convicted of providing funds to Hamas.

Related to the Holy Land Foundation, is the land mark decision by 7th Circuit court of appeals, in Boim v. Holy Land Foundation, where the court opined:

“But if you give money to an organization that you know to be engaged in terrorism, the fact that you earmark it for the organization’s nonterrorist activities does not get you off the liability hook….The reasons are twofold. The first is the fungibility of money. If Hamas budgets $2 million for terrorism and $2 million for social services and receives a donation of $100,000 for those services, there is nothing to prevent its using that money for them while at the same time taking $100,000 out of its social services “account” and depositing it in its terrorism ‘account’….Second, Hamas’s social welfare activities reinforce its terrorist activities both directly by providing economic assistance to the families of killed, wounded, and captured Hamas fighters and making it more costly for them to defect (they would lose the material benefits that Hamas provides them), and indirectly by enhancing Hamas’s popularity among the Palestinian population and providing funds for indoctrinating schoolchildren.”

We mention this, not to seriously suggest that the United States government could be legally held liable for its decision to contribute services and materials to UNRWA, some of which it must know or suspect will reach Hamas, but rather to establish that if the average citizen were to contribute funds to an organization, knowing with certainty that some of those funds or materials would go on to support a terrorist organization’s criminal or political activities, the outcome would be very different indeed.

One of the great ironies here, is that in the same week that the President announces the transfer of $400 million dollars to Gaza and the West Bank, the news broke big that the Department of Homeland Security intends to deport Mosab Hassan Yousef, the son of a Hamas Founder, and former Israeli counter-terrorism asset who used his position close to those in the Hamas top ranks to break up suicide bombings, prevent terror, and save lives. Why is he to be deported? Because during his time as an Israeli spy he had “provided material support to a [Tier I] terrorist organization…” according to the government.

While Hamas remains the ruler of the Gaza strip, there can be no doubt that the economic or financial aid to the area ultimately benefits them as the ruling party. While our consciences may dictate the distribution of basic humanitarian goods (such as the kind which Israel oversees the delivery of every day), they should likewise also prohibit us from supporting the infrastructure, finances, and economy of the territory from which Hamas wages its war to kill Jews. Our doing so makes no more sense than if during World War II, we announced a $50 million dollar fund to help repave the Autobahn.

While the situation in Gaza, and Hamas’ ongoing conflict with Israel make it the natural focus point for opposition to this funding,  President Mahmoud Abbas’ bold-faced lie that there is no incitement in the West Bank, ought to be addressed as well. The very fact that the man who said it heads a party which named a city square after a terrorist responsible for the bloodiest terror attack in Israeli history ought to have led to a field day for reporters, anxious to show up the statement for what it was.

It’s also worth asking whether the United States ought to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to help improve the economy of the West Bank, when the Palestinian Authority just the previous month, announced a $50 million dollar fund to pay Palestinians to quit their jobs, if those jobs are in Jewish settlements.

The terrorism and violence generated by the incitement spread in Palestinian society by both Hamas, and Fatah, is not a problem which can be solved by throwing money at it. Indeed, to the contrary, it makes the problem that much worse. It convinces the Palestinian people that they should continue to assert the all or nothing approach to conquest of Israel that their school textbooks and religious sermons demand of them. All the while, the West seems glad to sit in the sidelines and not be moved by the abundance of evidence that many NGOs’ such as IMPACT, MEMRI and PMW have been providing for decades now, that the text books of the Palestinian schools have been replete with steady incitement to hate and to kill and to conquer all of Palestine.

Why is it that they are so moved by the staging of the Flotilla incident, yet blind itself to the real root cause of the conflict?

If this charade continues, our children and theirs will be condemned to live in a perpetual state of violence for generations to come.

As President John F. Kennedy once said, “Peace does not depend on signed documents and charters alone. But on what is in the hearts and minds of the people”