While Amira Hass rightly says the Palestinians are being robbed by Israel, Haaretz offers some perspective on the Jewish state’s current stance:
It is not realistic to think about separating Hamas rule from the Palestinian people, or about starving government institutions while sending humanitarian assistance directly to the population. The Palestinians chose their leadership democratically, and any such separation is arrogant and has no chance.
The unsuccessful comments by Dov Weissglas – whose position and source of authority in the present government is difficult to understand – regarding the need to put the Palestinian nation on a diet, but not to starve it, symbolizes more than anything the humiliating way in which Israel relates to the Palestinians, which was one of the factors in Hamas’ rise to power. It is unnecessary and degrading to recommend a diet to a hungry and unemployed nation, in addition to which Israel is still responsible for preventing hunger in all parts of the West Bank that it controls as an occupying power.
And the paper offers this statement:
At this stage Hamas is acting more responsibly than the Israeli government. Its representatives speak of a new era, of a transition from terror to politics, of continued opposition to occupation via other means, and of aspirations to a long-term hudna (cease-fire).
Meanwhile, back on planet paranoia, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations says a new “terror axis” could form between Iran, Hamas and Syria and start “the first world war of the 21st century.”