Re: Israel's Goodwill Gestures Send Wrong Messages
※⇒ RetiredUSN; PoS; et al;
This is such old (really old news about news, and while it sound right; the implications are anything but correct.
Banks in the Gaza Strip are monitored by Israel and the US, and every single money transfer sent to Gaza -- whether for individuals or organizations -- is monitored by Israel. These transfer service outage benefit the constituency of the Gaza Strip. Periodically, the transfer limitations and protocols have to be adjusted for physical security reasons and prevent money laundering at money exchanges.
Hamas is a terrorist group. Calling them a government is today world is a joke.
(OBSERVATION)
The US FTO List was assembled by members of the government (coming up on) two decades ago; in a time when known terrorist groups and personalities were NOT targeted for specific extraterritorial focus. Rarely did the US
(any agency) go after organizations, activities or personalities engaged in terrorism it located outside the jurisdiction of the US. For nearly three decades, between 1970 and 1997
(when HAMAS was declared a terrorist organization) the US did not engage terrorist if outside the US; yet terrorist had been engaging US Citizens on a regular basis the entire period. It was in 1978
(two decade before any PLO activity or personality was declared a terrorist) that Gail Rubin, niece to Senator Abraham Ribicoff, was among those killed on an Israeli beach by Dalal Mughrabi, a Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO -- Fatah) terrorists. Mughrabi was declared a hero and role model for the Palestinians by
Sabri Saidam, Deputy Secretary of the Fatah Revolutionary Council and Advisor to President (Mahmoud Abbas) in 2011.
The application of the term "terrorist or terrorism" is political; because the purpose of the act is to spread coersion and to press intimidasion. It is a term that can be turned on/off. Example: In December 2014 the European Union Court of Justice annulled HAMAS as a designated terrorist organization, and ordered it removed from the EU List of Terrorist. Although unspoken, the action of the Court of Justice was a politically motivated action to negate a serious portion of the Israeli justification and defense --- an EU form of punishment at a time when the mainstream news media cycle on anti-Israeli Rhetoric was at its height. Although the decision by the Court of Justice did not stand long, it was very successful as a political snowball at the time.
(COMMENT)
Of course, you are correct that HAMAS is a quasi-State Sponsor of Terrorism. Not because of a US or EU generated List of FTO's, but because of the actions they commit and the various political positions they have held. They are terrorist because of what they do, and not because of who they are. HAMAS has commited acts of premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets.
HAMAS is currently a complex non-entity that is evolving toward → a binary entity --- one political and one militant
[An Evolved Examples: (The Likud {The Consolidation} ⇔ Irgun {National Military Organization}) --- (Sinn Féin - Irish Republican Political Party ⇔ Provisional Irish Republican Army). HAMAS (political) is not completely in control of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades (militant)
( BTW - that is the named after the Palestinian Black Hand). HAMAS is, for all intent and purpose, the government of the Gaza Strip. Yet, the PLO is technically the Government of Palestine, of which Gaza belongs. Having said that, HAMAS has been in violation of the 1947 UN Resolution "Measures tob be Taken against Propaganda and the Inciters of a New War" (
A/RES/2/110) for three dacades.
Well, that is much more than I originally intended to say. I hope I did not bore you.
Most Respectfully,
R