Last Sunday Secretary of State Kerry was in Egypt donating $212 American dollars to help rebuild Gaza and coordinating a donors conference which in total pledged over $5.4 billion for the rebuilding ($1 billion of which was from the terrorist and Brookings Institute sponsoring Qatar).
It certainly is in America's interest to help rebuild Gaza. But it is in neither this country nor Israel's interest to pledge money to Hamas-controlled Gaza without first securing the disarmament of Hamas and the demilitarization of Gaza. An action the U.S., EU, and others agreed to in principle at the end of Operation Protective Edge.
When you think about it, is there any greater danger to the future of Gazans than an armed Hamas? Secretary of State Kerry said as much at the conference, “as long as there is a possibility that Hamas could fire rockets on Israeli civilians at any time, the people of Gaza will remain at risk of future conflict.”
It wasn't just Kerry, at the Egyptian conference, the potential contributors worried about the inevitability of future military confrontations between Israel and Hamas and called for sustained efforts to resolve the issues between Israel and the Palestinians. Yet no one at the conference including the United States pushed the agreed upon solution demilitarization as a condition of giving the money.
On Thursday John Kerry was speaking in front of a Muslim organization pushing the false meme that the lack of an Israeli/Palestinian peace was a factor behind the growth of ISIS.
The foreign policy voice of the Obama administration, Secretary of State John Kerry told a reception in honor of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha that the absence of peace between Israel and the Palestinian Authority is “a cause of recruitment and of street anger and agitation." And added the anger “has something to do with humiliation and denial and absence of dignity,” words usually spoken by the Palestinians to describe Israeli rule over the Judea and Samaria.
"And so we have to stop and think about that in the context of this challenge that we face today. I think that it is more critical than ever that we be fighting for peace, and I think it is more necessary than ever. As I went around and met with people in the course of our discussions about the ISIL coalition, the truth is we – there wasn’t a leader I met with in the region who didn’t raise with me spontaneously the need to try to get peace between Israel and the Palestinians, because it was a cause of recruitment and of street anger and agitation that they felt – and I see a lot of heads nodding – they had to respond to. And people need to understand the connection of that. And it has something to do with humiliation and denial and absence of dignity, and Eid celebrates the opposite of all of that."The creation and growth of ISIS has nothing to do with Israel or the Palestinian territories. First of all it formed in Iraq. In fact one of the reasons Democrats and Republicans have been able to blame the other for the rise of the terrorist group is that ISIS used to be al Qaeda in Iraq. They were thrown out of the Bin Laden group because the ISIS leaders did not play nice with the al Qaeda leaders.
Most experts will tell you that the single most important factor in the growth of ISIS was the conflict between Iraqi Shias and Iraqi Sunnis. ISIS fighters themselves are Sunnis, and the tension between the two groups is a powerful recruiting tool for ISIS. The Shia government of Iraq refused to share power with the Sunnis (who held power under Saddam Hussein). The Shia/Sunni fight began as a battle over who would take power after the Prophet Muhammad's death and has been going on for almost 1400 years--way before ISIS, and long before the Six-Day-War.
Many observers, including people like Bob Gates and Leon Panetta who were part of the Obama administration, believe ISIS was able to grow because American troops pulled out of Iraq too early and didn't help out in Syria until it was too late. That American policy had nothing to do with Israel and the Palestinian Territories.
You see it was a lucky magical week for the Obama administration while the mainstream media was watching the their actions toward Ebola, the other hand---Secretary of State Kerry was appeasing Hamas, giving them money without insisting they disarm and inciting greater hatred against Israel by blaming them in part for the growth of ISIS. Even when unintentional, Sleight of hand works very nicely in politics.
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