PUT THE SHOE ON THE OTHER FOOT

...Not Europe, apparently (Michael Freund, Sep. 3, 2003, Jerusalem Post)

This Friday the foreign ministers of the European Union will gather in Italy to ponder a vexing question that has long haunted the Continent: Is paying for the murder of Jews a bad thing?

Under pressure from the United States and Israel, the 15-member states of the EU are poised to decide whether to cut off completely the flow of funds to Palestinian terrorist groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

While the Europeans did include Hamas's so-called "military wing" on their terrorist blacklist in December 2001, they have nevertheless allowed money to continue flowing into the group's coffers for "social activities" (bingo for bombers, perhaps?).

Apparently the EU finds it hard to grasp that by permitting money to go to Hamas they might actually bear responsibility for facilitating attacks against Israel.

After all, they must be telling themselves, all those Euros are undoubtedly going to feed the hungry, since Hamas would never, ever do anything so terrible as diverting funds to violence, would it?

Israel should send money to Sinn Fein and the political wing of ETA (the Basque separatist movement) and see how the Europeans like it. Posted by Orrin Judd at September 3, 2003 9:28 AM