Articles, poems and commentaries
By Jean L. P. Brunel
Euromoney Institutional Investor Plc, 2006, London
NOTES:
p. 38, Heidi L. Schneider and Alyssa A. Lappen, “Behavioral Finance: Old Wine in a New Bottle,” Journal of Wealth Management, Fall 2000, p. 11.
By Alyssa A. Lappen
FrontPageMagazine.com | February 1, 2006
An influential foreign policy advisory group recommends that the U.S. and European Union continue to fund the Palestinian Authority despite the terrorist group’s landslide victory in the January 25 Palestinian elections.
The International Crisis Group (ICG) in a press release announcing its January 18 study entitled “Enter Hamas: The Challenges of Political Integration” bemoan the fact that both the U.S. and E.U. bar contacts with Hamas, deny funding to projects with Hamas-run municipalities, and have threatened to halt assistance to the PA if Hamas joins it. This attitude has had several, essentially negative, results: estranging Palestinians from Western donors; losing touch with an increasingly large segment of the population; jeopardising projects; and reducing accountability. Meanwhile, Hamas participates in elections without having to fulfil [sic] any prior conditions.” The ICG changed neither its report nor press release after the Wednesday poll.
Rather, the group recommends that the West adopt a policy of gradual, conditional engagement to encourage Hamas to choose politics over violence. Incorporation into local and national governance may cause it to move away from the military path by giving it a stake in stability and emphasising the political costs of a breakdown.” Of course, Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar declared that the group will not change a single word of its charter,” which calls for Israel’s complete “obliteration”, using that precise term. But never mind. Continue reading “Funding Hamas”