That's gotta be a new record!

I'm referring, of course, to the elapsed time between when the EU threatened to cut off all PA funding if the Palestinians were to throw in their lot with Hamas, and when they totally caved and announced that they would, in fact, continue sending the monthly blood money, er, funding.

Look, I'm a relative political neophyte so don't take anything you read here too seriously... but I think I'm sophisticated enough to understand that cutting off funding to the PA 'cold turkey' would probably create a humanitarian disaster on the ground.  And the Europeans are nothing if not big humanitarians.

But at what point do the Palestinians stop being the world's responsibility?

The outgoing Fatah cleptocracy had no reserves (not counting their personal reserves in Swiss bank accounts, of course), on which the 'governing administration' could draw during a transition.  So come the first of the month all the lackeys, relatives and thugs who have been given patronage jobs in the PA's civil administration and/or security forces will all start rioting.

The Palestinians are like a welfare mother who squanders the monthly government hand-out on beer and cigarettes and then hauls her puppy-eyed kids in front of the TV cameras to demonstrate who was going to starve if some supplementary funding isn't immediately forthcoming.

The PA is not responsible for providing any of the usual stuff that a civil administration is supposed to oversee such as electricity, running water, medical services, or a host of other basic infrastructure needs.  All of these things are provided free of charge by Israel or one of the external sponsoring agencies (UN, EU, US, etc.). 

So the question that nobody seems willing to ask is 'what have they been doing with the billions of dollars in foreign aid that have been flowing into their coffers for decades'?  When anyone does hint at this sensitive topic the Palestinians and their supporters shout "How dare you ask such an insensitive and accusatory question?  Don't you see those starving kids over there with the big puppy-dog eyes?"

I'm not saying I'm surprised that the EU caved and is going to remove the only consequence that loomed over the Palestinian electorate for having defied the word's warnings about Hamas.  I'm just surprised it happened so quickly.  I really figured that the Europeans would have at least had the good graces to funnel the money through some third party under the guise of emergency humanitarian aid.

Robin Williams used to have a funny bit about the British police (back when they were unarmed) where he would imitate the uniformed 'Bobbies' shouting "Stop, or I'll say 'stop' again!"

Sad as it is to say, that is exactly the comically sad state to which the EU has reduced itself.

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