April 11, 2006

GOT TO MAKE THE TRAINS RUN ON TIME, FELLAS:

Palestinians feel pinch: Cutting aid to the Hamas government is already having an impact on everyday life. (Joshua Mitnick, 4/12/06, The Christian Science Monitor)

Every month, Fatma Nofal cashed a $500 check from a brother who works abroad to support their family here. But on Monday the debit note from the US's Chevy Chase Bank was rejected. "This is the first time that I've gotten that answer," says Ms. Nofal, as she walked out of a central Ramallah money changer with no place to redeem the check. "I don't know what to do."

Nofal is one of many Palestinians feeling the pinch of an economic boycott of the Hamas-run Palestinian Authority (PA), as a cutoff in ties by the US, Europe, and Israel touches off a financial crisis that could snowball. Already retailers won't accept credit from public servants out of concern they will never be repaid, lines are growing at some gas pumps amid a shortage of fuel, and a top Israeli bank said it will no longer work with Palestinian counterparts.


Hamas was elected to get the economy going, not to stand up to the world.

Posted by Orrin Judd at April 11, 2006 7:10 PM
Comments

The question is, will the Palestinian Street connect the intransegence of Hamas with this result? Or will they blame it on a Zionist conspiracy which makes the crushing of Israel all the more important?

Posted by: Annoying Old Guy at April 11, 2006 10:31 PM

No, it isn't. You sound like the Left describing the angry Arab street.

Posted by: oj at April 11, 2006 10:34 PM

Oh, right, this is another example of Hamas' "capacity to govern" via destroying the financial infrastructure, something even the phenomenomally corrupt PLO didn't manage.

You sound like an Anthropogenic Global Warming booster, saying that this kind of cooling of the civil infrastructure is really evidence for it heating up.

P.S. I was trying to sound like a conservative describing the Harvard Faculty.

Posted by: Annoying Old Guy at April 11, 2006 11:03 PM

If your government doesn't run the financial structures but allows a gang of thugs to it isn't actually good government. Do we let the Mafia run the Fed?

But came off like the Harvard Faculty describing the "Arab street."

Posted by: oj at April 11, 2006 11:16 PM
Do we let the Mafia run the Fed?
We would if we voted them in to office.

Posted by: Annoying Old Guy at April 12, 2006 12:08 AM

Yes, similarly they voted the PLO out as soon as they got the chance.

Posted by: oj at April 12, 2006 12:18 AM
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