Reaping the Hamas whirlwind.

Years ago, I was among a small group of dinner party guests at the home of some friends who owned a dog. The dog was your basic nondescript pound puppy, friendly and well-behaved without being a slobbering nuisance -- all in all, the perfect family pet.

Unfortunately, one of the couples who had been invited to the party brought their son -- I would guess about six years old -- who made it his divine mission to harass and torture this dog mercilessly. Ear pulling, hair pulling, sitting on it, you name it.

The dog tried unsuccessfully to slink away every time this brat came near it, but the kid was determined to make the dog's life a living hell and the parents (you know the type) were of the opinion that little Johnny could do no wrong and wasn't it delightful that he was "playing" with the dog, etc, etc?

Eventually (and not at all surprisingly), the dog finally had had enough and, when the little monster approached it yet again, there was a very quiet but ominous growl you could hear across the dining room. Well, holy shit, you'd think the sky had just fallen.

That little fucker suddenly started whining about what kind of mean old dog that was, and his asshole parents laid into the hosts about how they should have warned them about the dog's "temper" and that it was clearly not safe to have around children, yadda yadda yadda. Idiots, the whole family.

Which brings us to the state of Israel, who are apparently just as big a collection of boneheaded dumbfucks as this family. Clearly not happy with the Hamas-oriented results of the recent Palestinian elections, Israel has threatened to "withhold millions of dollars worth of tax and customs revenue that it collects on behalf of the Palestinians."

Note carefully -- we're not talking about voluntary donations or charity to the Palestinians. We're talking about money that Israel legally owes the Palestinians but now, in a fit of pique and unfathomable stupidity, it's thinking about hanging onto.

A couple of observations for the Israelis. First, given all of the colourful praise for the delightful virtues of "democracy" that's been bandied about lately, it's more than a little hypocritical to suddenly decide you want to be just a wee bit selective about its results.

And second, having made this kind of threat, it's more than a little unrealistic to suggest that you're not going to pay up until Hamas renounces its commitment to the destruction of the state of Israel. You can only mistreat that poor dog for so long before it's finally going to growl back. And when it does, you don't really have the right to blame the dog anymore, do you?

Let the accusations of anti-Semitism begin.