January 29, 2006
STARTING BY FOLDING:
Hamas faces EU threat to cut Palestinian aid (Louis Charbonneau, 1/29/06, Reuters)
The European Union could not fund a Hamas-run Palestinian Authority if it did not renounce violence and recognise Israel, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in Israel on Sunday.It was the most explicit threat to cut aid from Europe, the biggest donor to the Palestinians, since Islamic militant group Hamas won a shock victory in parliamentary elections last week. The United States has also threatened to block funding.
Hamas, expected to form the new government, denounces Western threats to cut aid as blackmail and has rejected calls to disarm and end its formal commitment to destroy Israel.
It's blackmail they'll yield to. Posted by Orrin Judd at January 29, 2006 4:09 PM
Unless Ahmadinejad wants to try and be the sugar daddy to Hamas in the way that Khrushchev and his sucessors were to Fidel for the better part of three decades (and the people in Iran might not be too happy to see a bunch of their oil money going to the Gaza Strip so Hamas can be the Peter Pan of Middle East governments).
Posted by: John at January 29, 2006 4:27 PMWith a GDP of $8k per capita the Iranians don't exactly have money to toss around.
Posted by: oj at January 29, 2006 4:33 PMWith a GDP of $8k per capita the Iranians don't exactly have money to toss around.
Indeed. I understand that the Palestinians were shocked to learn how much ordinary Iraqis didn't care for Saddam giving Iraqi money to Palestinians for blowing themselves up.
Posted by: John Thacker at January 29, 2006 5:56 PMSaddam wasn't a democratic leader though, so he could get away with it.
Posted by: oj at January 29, 2006 5:59 PMIt's nice coming from Merkel, too.
Posted by: Mike Beversluis at January 29, 2006 6:39 PMThis is the most interesting development of all. Your move Iran.
Posted by: Genecis at January 29, 2006 10:18 PMNorway's new best friend, Hamas.
You're either with US.....
now we know.
Posted by: Sandy P at January 29, 2006 10:33 PM