When Dealing With A Fool, Make Sure He Is Not Similarly Engaged

Photo of Ehud Olmert (he is the one on the left)

Israel is experiencing a new low. I read just recently that most of the citizens in Israel are secular and do not believe in God. Following that tract then, most of the people want Israel to make some kind of peace with the Arab world. They see the religious issues as simply obstacles to peace. Holy sites? Let the Palestinians have them. They believe that the Arabs’ heartburn is really over the Israelis religion. No religion, no more heartburn.

Israel’s Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert is immensely unpopular. However, he is for the most part, secular. He has, in all likelihood lost his majority. But no one wants an election because they fear that Benjamin Netanyahu, someone who believes in Israel’s biblical destiny, will come to power. Thus, even though Olmert has proven to be an uncharacteristically bad leader, they stick with him. They figure that their best chance is to get peace through his efforts of capitulation.

Recently, the capitulation plan leaped forward when Olmert released some Palestinian prisoners and Israel disbursed millions of dollars to Mahmoud Abbas, the leader of the Fatah party. The plan was to take advantage of the split between Fatah and Hamas. If they could underwrite Fatah, then perhaps they could help their popularity with the general Palestinian population. Hopefully that would lead to a major Fatah victory in their next Palestinian election and the militant Hamas party would find itself out of power. Then Israel could negotiate with Abbas and his Fatah party about the West Bank and about setting up a real Palestinian country. The millions of dollars that Israel released was a huge thing because all money had been cut off for a very long time. The Fatah government and their security forces were finally able to be paid. Can you imagine how Abbas must have felt? They experienced hardship for so long and now they were receiving MILLIONS! Can you imagine his popularity! He had money and he had the power. He could disburse it in ways that would help his people the most.

But wait! Something happened! In the rush to spread the wealth, $3.2 million went an unexpected direction. Who could blame Abbas if he disbursed too much to hospitals or to orphanages. Being the man with all the money, it probably was pretty hectic deciding who gets money and who doesn’t. I am sure his headquarters was a pretty busy place.

But no, the $3.2 million did not go to help the sick or the orphaned. It “accidentally” went to the HAMAS MILITARY!! Abbas “accidentally” paid his “enemies” $3.2 million! He is reported to be really embarrassed about it.

Poor Ehud Olmert. He has put his money and his faith in Mahmoud Abbas. Israel has spent the last year holding onto the theory that Abbas would overcome the dangerously militant Hamas party. They fought a small war with Hamas and they suffered so much for this plan. Hamas was out of money and losing popularity. Then, somehow a clerical error happened and some of Israel’s millions ended up breathing life into the very terrorists they have been fighting against.

Things are very complicated in the Middle East. They are never as they seem. Olmert has chosen to back a man who learned everything he knows from Yassar Arafat. Mr. Olmert is a fool.

Read about the payday for Israel's enemies here: Hamas Payday