A Delusional Foreign Policy

I have written repeatedly about the unwillingness of president Obama to take a meaningful stand against the slaughter of protesters in Syria by the Assad regime. While the decision to take military action in Libya was agonizingly slow (with the result that Gaddafi remains in power today when he could have been toppled with quick action), the US position with regard to Syria moves at such a glacial pace that Obama has not even brought himself to withdraw the US ambassador for consultations, perhaps the weakest measure of condemnation available to the USA. Instead, Obama has been too busy raising campaign cash and releasing birth certificates (oh, and appearing on Oprah).

Now comes another area where US foreign policy seems frozen like the proverbial deer caught in the headlights. Hamas, the terrorist organization running Gaza, and Fatah which controls the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank have announced that they have reconciled and that they will form a unity government. Under US law, all American aid to such an entity is supposed to be ended since Hamas is a terror group. The Washington Post reported last evening, however, that the State Department does not rule out continuing aid to the new Hamas/Fatah entity. Let's put that into perspective. It is as if the Karzai government in Afghanistan which gets enormous support from the USA announced that it had reconciled with the Taliban and Al Qaeda and was forming a unity government with those two entities. Would the US then give aid to the Taliban and Al Qaeda? Before you decide that it would be a good move towards peace, remember that Hamas (like the Taliban and Al Qaeda) has not renounced its terrorist goals and actions. Hamas still stands for the destruction of Israel and the death of all its inhabitants. But Obama and the Obamacrats can't bring themselves to say out loud that the US will not support such an entity?

Luckily for the country, there is already a move afoot in Congress to cut off all funding for any entity that includes Hamas. Under existing law there is no need for Congress to take such an action, but the Obama administration seems to be trying to thwart that law. Obama and his regime are so dedicated to looking like they are "winning" (next year is an election year, you know) that they are ready to pretend that things are going as planned rather than taking the steps needed for the security of the USA.

No matter what your view is of Obama, I strongly urge everyone to contact their Congressman and Senators to call for cutting off any US funding to Hamas.