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Rushing to Rebuild Gaza Will Reward Hamas

(JNS) Jonathan S. Tobin - President Biden and Secretary of State Blinken think they can aid the people of Gaza without helping or even rewarding Hamas. They cannot. As the international community learned after it devoted billions of dollars to reconstruct Gaza after the 2014 war, it was virtually impossible to ensure that the money helped ordinary Palestinians rather than their Hamas tyrants. There has never been an example in history of cash pouring into a totalitarian regime that could be kept out of the clutches of the rulers. Most of the building material that was let into Gaza after 2014 went into rebuilding the terrorist group's military infrastructure. There is no reason to believe the next round of rebuilding will go any differently. Every step towards normalizing Hamas, rather than isolating and defeating it, is a signal to a Palestinian people who have been sold such fantasies for the last 100 years that their long war to defeat Zionism is not yet lost. Rebuilding Gaza will enable Hamas to assert that there were no long-term consequences for their actions. It will also make peace even more impossible by indicating to the Palestinians that they don't have to surrender to reality and accept Israel's permanence and legitimacy. It's hard to resist arguments that appeal to our sympathy for those who are caught in the crossfire created by Hamas terrorism. Nevertheless, the best thing Biden can do to actually advance the cause of peace is to not spend a cent on rebuilding the terrorist state in Gaza.
2021-05-27 00:00:00
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