Choosing Misery

The pressure is on.

The international aid agency Oxfam has urged the Quartet to end its boycott of the Palestinian Authority and pressurize Israel into releasing the Palestinians' confiscated tax monies.

Why? Because the situation in the West Bank and Gaza is dire.

-conditions in the Occupied Palestinian Territories were close to melt-down"
-Palestinian poverty levels rapidly increasing and basic services such as health and education crumbling
-creating a social crisis that is hitting families in the Occupied Territories
-recent internal conflicts in the occupied Palestinian territories have been greatly exacerbated by the inability of the PA to deliver essential services
-poverty has shot up. Two thirds of Palestinians now live in poverty, a rise of 30 per cent last year
-The number of families unable to get enough food has risen by 14 per cent
-More than half of all Palestinians are now are 'food insecure', unable to meet their families' daily requirements without assistance
-The health system is disintegrating
-Public servants, such as doctors, nurses, teachers and police officers, are worst hit. They haven't had a regular income since February 2006
-Their poverty rate has risen from 35 per cent in 2005 to 71 per cent

According to Oxfam, it's all because of blinding blinkers.

"The Quartet needs to take off its blinkers and see the damage its policies are having on ordinary Palestinian families."

In other words, international aid should be given to terrorist-supporters with no strings attached. The West has the moral obligation and duty to give money to the Palestinians because it is their right to receive it.

Using international aid as a battering ram to force through political change is not only immoral but also counter-productive.

Listening to Oxfam, one would conclude that the West is just sadistic and loves to watch people suffer. The truth is that the Quartet is absolutely dying to give money to the Palestinians if they will only do three simple, peace-helping things to receive the charity:

[R]ecognize the state of Israel's right to exist, renounce violence and adopt the previously signed peace agreements between Israel and the PA.

That's it. No more, no less. And as bad as the situation sounds, one would think that the Palestinians would do whatever it will take to improve their lot, even something as simple as what the Quartet asks. But, apparently it is a price too high for them and they flatly refuse.

They are free to make their own choices. As the saying goes, "You make your bed, you lie in it".