Down the Drain

Item: The Hamas-run PA has a new Prime Minister, Ismail Haniyeh. Channeling yesterday's Carterpooliza, the WaPo calls Haniyeh "a pragmatist." Nonsense, says Honest Reporting:

He served as bureau chief for Hamas head Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, but was given a higher leadership position after Yassin's death. He was arrested several times and deported to Lebanon for terrorist activities.

In 2003, Hamas took credit for a horrific bus bombing in which 23 Israelis were killed. In response, Haniyeh was placed on Israel's most wanted list. He narrowly escaped an Israeli attack as he was meeting with Yassin and other terror leaders.

According to the Jewish Virtual Library:

Haniyeh has always favored violence over diplomacy, and said the Hamas' wins in the municipal elections in 2005 were proof that the majority of Palestinians support terrorism against Israel.

There is no indication that Haniyeh is interested in changing the charter of the organization he had helped to lead for many years.

As Reuters reported:

They (the United States and others in the international community) are threatening to cut off aid to any government run by Hamas unless the group renounces violence and abandons its charter commitment to Israel's destruction. "These demands are unjust to the Palestinian people," Haniyeh said.

Item: Carter proposed restarting the Oslo process leading toward a two-state solution. So it's notable that LGF discovered a Hamas website leading with an animated graphic nuking Israel (Google cache link to avoid NSA scrutiny). In fact, the new PA policy is identical, according to Mahmoud Zahar, the Hamas legislator who finalized the coalition government:

"We are optimistic about establishing a national unity government that can represent a national attitude," Zahar said after speaking with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a small radical faction.

Hamas, which has sent dozens of suicide bombers into Israel, is listed as a terror group by the United States and the European Union. Israel and Western countries have demanded Hamas renounce violence and recognize Israel's right to exist, but Hamas has resisted pressure to moderate.

Zahar said yesterday that Hamas was willing to establish a temporary state in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem as an interim step toward taking over Israel.

All of which validates John Hawkins's logic:

if the whole two state solution is, at its heart, supposed to be all about, "land for peace," isn't it a waste of time for Israel to negotiate with a guy who obviously can't deliver the "peace" part of the deal? You'd think so, wouldn't you?

Item: Peanut Prez also supports awarding the seaport management contract to a United Arab Emirates company. So do I, but concurring with Carter is disturbing. Compare Section 721 of Pub. L. 100-418, 102 Stat. 1107, made permanent law by section 8 of Pub. L. 102-99, 105 Stat. 487 (50 U.S.C. App. 2170) and amended by section 837 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1993, Pub. L. 102-484, 106 Stat. 2315, 2463 ("Exon-Florio" provision, requiring investigation where (a) the acquirer is controlled by or acting on behalf of a foreign government; and (b) the acquisition "could result in control of a person engaged in interstate commerce in the U.S. that could affect the national security of the U.S.").

Item: An English language Swedish paper called The Local says:

Sweden's state-run aid group on Monday pledged more than five million euros in additional aid to the Palestinian territories as Israel and the United States halted much of their funding following Hamas's election victory.

"The humanitarian situation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip has worsened," the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) said in a statement, adding that it would provide 50 million kronor (6.4 million dollars) to the United Nations' aid programs there.

In 2005, SIDA donated nearly 100 million kronor to the Palestinian territories, a spokesman for the group told AFP.

Item: NRO's James Robbins:

It is hard to see what billions of dollars of Western aid money have purchased in the PA. Aid did not buy peace, nor did it garner the good will or gratitude of the Palestinian people, who, after all, were the ones who cast ballots for terrorists. Aid money did contribute markedly to the growth of the personal fortunes of corrupt Palestinian officials, but that is typical of most such handouts to authoritarian governments. I am certain politicians could find something better to do with the over $200 million we send to the PA annually. How about giving it to Afghanistan? — At least they like us. And it will be interesting to see if Hamas demands that Israel resume its payments to the PA, putting them in the position of making claims against a nation they say has no right to exist. Who then would be the hypocrites?

Item: From the AP:

The United Nations has reprimanded a security guard for drawing swastikas on a log sheet later seen by a guard from Israel, a UN spokesman said.

The guard who drew the swastikas was issued a letter of reprimand and was asked to attend sensitivity training for the September incident, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Tuesday. . .

A UN official speaking on condition of anonymity said the guard had also made Nazi-like salutes to his Israeli colleague.

Conclusion: Hats off to one Palestinian with the luck and pluck of the Irish:

Like any good entrepreneur, Palestinian beermaker Nadim Khoury knew that adaptation would be key to his brewery's survival under a government led by the Islamists of Hamas.

So anticipating the hardliners' rise to power in January's general election, Khoury decided to develop a new product -- a non-alcoholic microbrew brandished with a label that coordinates perfectly with Hamas's trademark color.

"I figured why not have a green label so it will match?" said Khoury, who runs the Taybeh Brewing Company, the only brewery in the Palestinian territories. "All customers will notice the green for the Hamas flag."

The alcohol-free version of Taybeh beer, with a label inscribed only in Arabic and whose name means "delicious," is to be released this summer and will target the "local market," he said.

Call it 'alternative dispute resolution.' "Brilliant."

(via LGF) Minor edits 1:30am