It looked like Hamas may not survive. Conditions in the territories had deteriorated: Provision of basic services was breaking down; unrest by unpaid government employees was boiling over; May 6, hundreds of government workers went on strike.

These were promising signs to those in the West who insisted that the new Palestinian government, controlled by Hamas terrorists, would have to abandon its goal to eliminate Israel if it wanted to stay in power. Perhaps international pressure on the terrorists-turned-politicians was working. Perhaps the Hamas-controlled government would capitulate and change its stance toward the Jewish state. It seemed to vindicate the tough strategy that the United States and Israel had taken: Cut off all aid to the Palestinians after they had voted in terrorists as their leaders. Hamas, and those who support it, must learn a lesson: A terrorist-controlled government is not acceptable in the international community.

At the beginning of May, it appeared the U.S. was standing its ground, with diplomatic sources revealing that it planned to block EU, Russian and UN proposals to pay Palestinian salaries “because Washington does not want to reduce the pressure on Hamas” (Stratfor, May 1; emphasis ours throughout).

A few days later, Hamas—and the whole world—got to see just how strong that commitment to keep up the pressure on it was.

It should hardly come as a surprise that an organization with an ideology of martyrdom, when thrust into a choice of compromising basic ideology or sacrificing the wellbeing of its own people, would select the latter. It didn’t take long to see who would blink first at the deterioration of conditions in the territories.

On May 9, the U.S. yielded and agreed to support a plan to channel aid directly to the Palestinian people.

Aside from emergency funds for health and education that have already been prepared, the scheme under consideration involves the setting up of an international body, supported by the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (imf) or the United Nations, through which to pay Palestinian government workers. The plan would pay the salaries of teachers and health workers, although ideas have also been floated to pay security personnel through a similar system (ibid., May 11).

The compromised aim on the part of the U.S. and Israel is to financially isolate Hamas (albeit by funding the electorate which brought Hamas to power) through bypassing the Palestinian Authority (pa). The European Union, however, is perhaps a little more realistic when, in an April 27 European Commission report, it stated that the purpose of the funding would be to “avert or delay” the collapse of the Hamas-controlled pa. It has also acknowledged that the scheme currently under consideration would indeed likely involve some contact with Hamas officials—precisely what it was intended to avoid (Financial Times, London, May 10).

Just what message does this move send to both Hamas and those who elected these Jew-hating leaders to office? It’s okay to vote in a government composed of terrorists. If we just stick to our guns, the West will cave.

Even while insisting that Hamas primarily is responsible for the pending humanitarian crisis, the U.S. continues to class as innocent victims the very populace that brought Hamas to power.

The “humanitarian” card has worked many times before. In fact, in the words of Asaf Romirowsky, “The perception of Palestinians as victims has become the most powerful marketing tool Palestinians have and no one uses it more effectively” (FrontPageMagazine.com, May 10). Organizations like the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (unrwa)use that perception for their own financial interest, to attract more funds from donors such as the U.S. With the U.S. donating more than $100 million annually to the unrwa, it “is perpetuating a state of utter dependency in which the Palestinian upper class fobs off all economic responsibilities onto the international community.”

More than that, by paying Palestinian government employees’ salaries, the West is propping up a terrorist government. It could be argued that Hamas survives politically because of the West’s stupidity.

The West’s aim wasn’t even regime change. The U.S. demanded only that the ruling Hamas party renounce violence. Seems a pretty basic request of a democratic government—except that it goes against the very purpose of the ruling party’s existence. Somehow, the West seems unwilling to accept that reality. If they have been elected to office, somehow that will make them change, the thinking seems to go.

No conditions have been imposed for the renewal of aid. Hamas has not renounced violence—though, admittedly, it appears to be refining its goals a little: First step, reclaim Israeli territory according to pre-1967 borders; after that, the rest of Israel. In fact, instead of acquiescing to any demands, Hamas, as stated by its political leader Khaled Mashaal on May 3, has made its own set of demands as preconditions to it considering peace—including retreat by Israel, dismantlement of settlements, release of Palestinian prisoners, the surrendering of much of Jerusalem.

This is not the first time the scheme of using international bodies through which to provide funds to the Palestinians has been used. From 1994 through 2001, an imf fund was used to channel aid into the Palestinian territories. Problem was, under Yasser Arafat, a good portion of the us$250 million was siphoned off for terrorist purposes, which eventually led to the fund being shut down. Are the chances of avoiding misappropriation any better today—with Hamas in charge?

There are other precedents one may also consider. Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship was propped up by the oil-for-food program that not only made Iraq’s population dependent upon it, but through corruption handed Hussein a tidy sum of money to perpetuate his crimes. The argument, “But the aid is for the people,” only prolonged their suffering.

What’s more, Israel—the very entity most at risk because of Hamas taking over the Palestinian government—has followed suit and caved in to international pressure. Associated Press reported on May 11 that Israel has agreed to release millions of dollars to the Palestinians that it had held in protest of the election of Hamas.

How little time it took for Israel to back down! As we wrote in our MayTrumpet magazine, “Israel is tired of fighting. Hamas hasn’t even started.”

On May 14, the Palestinian prime minister reiterated Hamas’s refusal to back down: “The siege and pressure on us will not succeed and will not force the government into political concessions,” Ismail Haniya told a group of Hamas-supporting health workers in Gaza City.

While on the one hand blaming the West (most particularly the United States) for the problems in the territories arising from poor administration and lack of funds, Hamas is relying on aid from that very same source to make its position tenable—to pay the wages of its government’s employees. Such hypocrisy is typical of this organization that vows to eradicate the State of Israel—albeit one step at a time. And the West accepts it.

Consider: With the West taking care of payments to education, health and other public sector workers, Hamas will be free to use the aid it receives from its Muslim friends on the sectors closest to its heart, to promote terrorism.

Sure, pa Prime Minister Haniyeh claims the U.S. has blocked payments from Arab and Muslim states by pressuring banks not to transfer the funds—which, he also claims, would be enough to pay the salaries of pa government employees—using the opportunity to blame the West. Convenient. We need funding from you because you are preventing the funding we have been promised from getting to us. Countries such as Iran and Syria have managed to finance Palestinian terrorists for years just fine. Do not believe they would allow pressure from the U.S. to deter them now!

America’s feeble efforts to thwart Hamas have actually worked to the terrorist group’s advantage. Hamas has gained a great deal of sympathy and support from Iran and much of the Islamic world, which it has called upon to provide (in the words of Hamas leader Mashaal in a May 10 speech) “weapons, money and men.” Not only has support for Hamas from Muslim countries increased, but Norway, for example, which never did cut off direct funding to the pa, has actually raised its contributions by 50 percent.

Hamas is not without its internal political challenges, however. Observers have noted the outbreak of violence between Fatah and Hamas militants last week, raising the prospect of Palestinian divisions destabilizing the Palestinian government. Not to disregard the clashes on the ground, a closer look actually reveals an increasing alignment of Hamas and Fatah politically—most probably advanced by the pressure of fighting between their foot soldiers. Senior Hamas and Fatah officials currently imprisoned by Israel have come up with an agreement (ironically, facilitated by Israel) to work together to establish a Palestinian state and, though not renouncing violence, aim to limit terrorist attacks to land occupied by Israel in 1967. The draft agreement is currently being considered by both Hamas and Fatah officials, with pa President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas leaders in the territories already having endorsed it (Stratfor, May 11).

Meanwhile, Hamas continues to cement its hold on the territories. Although holding political power, Hamas has had to deal with the fact that the security forces are dominated by Fatah. To help rectify the situation, Hamas has established its own security force—made up of terrorists, of course. The new Police Support Unit is a paramilitary force currently consisting of 2,000 militants from such terrorist groups as the Popular Resistance Committee, which has dedicated itself to rocket attacks against Israel and targeting Israeli Army vehicles. In a further act of defiance, Hamas put a terrorist who is on Israel’s most-wanted list in charge of heading up the new force. In perhaps the understatement of the year, a U.S. Embassy spokesman in Tel Aviv commented that the terrorists Hamas “is putting in these positions is discouraging.”

Israeli army reserve Col. Yoni Fighel, an analyst at the Institute for Counter-Terrorism, was a little more succinct when he stated that the new security force is a Hamas proxy that might “provide law and order in the morning and terrorism in the evening.”

In any event, whatever difficulties Hamas now faces, there are no signs of capitulation either by it, or by the Palestinian populace that elected it. The daily newspaper Al Hayat Al Jadida quoted a senior Hamas official, Hassan al-Saif, “as warning of a ‘third intifada,’ or violent uprising, should the conflict over the new unit bring down the Hamas government” (USA Today,May 14).

As Khaled Abu Toameh and Larry Derfner, reporting from the West Bank, stated, “If the Palestinians are learning a lesson, it doesn’t appear to be the one the United States, Europe, and Israel intended. Even though the pa’s 140,000 salaried employees haven’t been paid for two months, as the population sinks still further into destitution, there have been no popular voices calling on Hamas to meet the West’s demands for conciliation with Israel” (U.S. News & World Report,May 15).

“If anything,” Abu Toameh and Derfner continued, “the worsening economy and political vacuum may be radicalizing Palestinians even further—and there is now a local alternative, albeit still a start-up here, that is even more radical than Hamas. Referring to Abu Musab Zarqawi, the Jordanian-born head of al Qaeda in Iraq, Hamas legislator Yunis el-Astal warned, ‘If Hamas collapses, Zarqawi and his men will take over.’ This may be a nightmare scenario, but so was the prospect of a democratic Palestinian election being won by Hamas.”

When will Israel and its Western supporters learn that appeasement does not work?