The "welfare state," Palestinian style.

Well, the truth is out. In response to this piece in the Globe regarding the recent Palestinian elections and the surprising Hamas victory, we have "n atkins" from Austin, Texas, exposing those Palestinians for the lazy, shiftless wards of the international community that they are (emphasis added):

This is the best thing that could happen in the middle east.Hamas is going to fold very quickly when they discover that the U.S. and other governments that aided their 50 year "refugee" status have ceased making payments to continue their welfare lifestyle.And then hamas will discover that their arab "brothers" have no desire to fund their welfare lifestyle.The arab peoples in Gaza and other places wanted fatah gone because it was a corrupt mafia style gang left over from the arafat cabal.They don't have a desire to fight with Israel or convert to radical religious superstition embodied in the hamas cult.

They just want to keep getting the free handouts and being taken care of.Soon, they will learn that they need to get jobs.And those jobs aren't in Iran or Egypt.The jobs are in Israel.And if Israel closes it's gates, the arabs will starve.

Yes, by God; apparently, this entire struggle can be resolved if those parasitic Palestinians just put away their Cheetos, get off those couches, straighten up, put their caps on forward and get a freakin' job. Lazy bastards.


AFTERSNARK: It's amusing to hear anyone refer to the Palestinians as representing any kind of "welfare state," given the obscene amount of U.S. foreign aid that goes to Israel:

• Since 1987, the US congress has annually been approving a foreign aid bill totaling an average of $3 billion of American taxpayers' money to Israel, $1.2 billion in economical aid, and $1.8 billion in military aid.


• After the gulf war in 1991, the US has additionally been offering Israel $2 billion annually in federal loan guarantees, which brings the total US foreign aid to Israel to about $5 billion, or $13.7 million per day.


• Other forms of aid to Israel are a result of "consequential" aid, such as the approximate $1.5 billion in total tax-deductible private donations from numerous Jewish charities and individual donors. "Consequential" aid to Israel adds up to an approximate $8 billion in total US foreign aid to Israel.


• All in all, this is the largest amount of foreign aid given to a country, and constitutes over 30% of the total amount of US foreign aid budget.

And what about U.S. foreign aid to the Palestinians? Apparently, there's a little political expediency mixed in with that cash (emphasis added):

The United States spent about $1.9 million of its yearly $400 million in aid to the Palestinians on dozens of quick projects before elections this week to bolster the governing Fatah faction's image with voters and strengthen its hand in competing with the militant faction Hamas, American and Palestinian officials said Sunday...

American and Palestinian officials who spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to speak to the news media said the program, which started in August, was aimed at helping defeat Hamas and the government had done a detailed political analysis to try to aim at the various constituencies where Hamas was doing well.

USAID's Office of Transition Initiatives was allowed up to $30,000 in discretionary spending for each project instead of the $10,000 usually allotted.

The Bush administration: spreading democracy throughout the Middle East, one well-positioned bribe at a time.