You know as well as I do how Israel have thwarted the PA and enabled funding for Hamas, because they do not want to see a strong PA that would unite Gaza and the West Bank and push for a Palestinian State. Abbas is a crony and he needs binning off, but that doesn't mean the PA shouldn't have a seat at the UN General assembly. If anything they need better representation on the global stage, precisely so that they can be supported to reform. Anyway, how many other 'incompetent' leaders have been invited to the General assembly over the decades ? This isn't about cretins being allowed access to the event, this is about trying to pour cold water on the idea of a Palestinian state, because Benny the Butcher has got Trump exactly where he wants him.
Perhaps this snub will be the final catalyst in triggering a general election that will give the Palestinians a voice they've been denied for 13 years. Also the sentence I've highlighted in bold is absolute pish. The PA in its entirety is broken and needs binning. The single main reason Hamas came to have so much power and influence is that the people were fed up with how useless the PA are. For decades they've been siphoning hundreds of millions in foreign grants and aid money that should have been going to ordinary citizens but instead went to the Qatari bank accounts of Abbas and his cronies. This snub isn't enough. They should be tried for embezzlement and fraud.
No, the main reason for the rise of Hamas was Israel trying to thwart the PLO and actively fund the Muslim Brotherhood, which gave rise to Hamas. In an interview with Politico in 2023, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said that "In the last 15 years, Israel did everything to downgrade the Palestinian Authority and to boost Hamas." He continued saying "Gaza was on the brink of collapse because they had no resources, they had no money, and the PA refused to give Hamas any money. Bibi saved them. Bibi made a deal with Qatar and they started to move millions and millions of dollars to Gaza."At a Likud party conference in 2019, Benjamin Netanyahu said: "Anyone who wants to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state has to support bolstering Hamas and transferring money to Hamas ... This is part of our strategy – to isolate the Palestinians in Gaza from the Palestinians in the West Bank." Netanyahu is to this very day, still funding Islamist terror groups in Gaza, because his pet project Hamas, blew up in his face. Netanyahu defends arming Palestinian clans accused of ties with jihadist groups The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has admitted arming clans in Gaza that he says are opposed to Hamas, after allegations that members of these criminal gangs looted humanitarian aid and have ties to jihadist groups.
Maybe the Jordanians of Gaza deserve to be isolated from the Jordanians of the West Bank. Maybe it would be absolutely mental to have them as a real country either side of a few million Jews given current form.
Once again, none of that addresses the fact that Israel guided that funding towards Hamas in order to thwart the PA and prevent a Palestinian state.
Anyway, the PA needs reform and it needs support to do so instead of moves by Israel to try and stymie it. What it doesn't need is Trump freezing it out of the UN General Assembly
You seem to be labouring under the misapprehension that aid money to the Palestinians has to first go via Israeli banks. This is complete nonsense. The majority of donations are either made directly or via Qatar, the latter being where a lot of it mysteriously goes missing and *cough* accidentally makes its way into personal accounts.
Not nonsense at all You seem to be clouded by the misunderstanding that Israel had no involvement in funnelling that money, often lots of it in cash, over the border into Gaza. Qatar started sending money to the Gaza Strip on a monthly basis in 2018. $15 million worth of cash-filled suitcases were transported into Gaza by the Qataris via Israeli territory. In February 2020, former Mossad Director Yossi Cohen and Israeli general Herzi Halevi, under Netanyahu's orders, went to Qatar to plead Qatari officials to continue the payments for Hamas Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has defended allowing transfer of millions of dollars to Hamas-run Gaza despite criticism from within his own government, including the education minister Naftali Bennet.[45] After the October 7 attacks, Netanyahu went on record denying the claims that he facilitated financing of Hamas in order to create a 'divide and conquer' situation. He also said that he transferred funds to avoid "humanitarian collapse" in Gaza.[10] Israeli intelligence officials believe that the money had a role in the success of 2023 Hamas-led attack. Netanyahu also suggested Turkey support Hamas. Netanyahu reportedly said, "Hamas also has bank accounts for aid in banks, we help them too, you [Turkey] can help too
@Citizen Kane. should be concentrating on how that Spurs defence is leakier than an Israeli Gaza checkpoint faced with a suitcase full of Qatari cash
Use of Hamas to undermine the Palestinian Authority In an interview with Israeli journalist, Dan Margalit in December 2012, Netanyahu told Margalit that it was important to keep Hamas strong, as a counterweight to the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. Netanyahu also added that having two strong rivals, this would lessen pressure on him to negotiate towards a Palestinian state.[11] In an interview with the Israeli Army Radio in August 2019, Ehud Barak, the former Prime Minister of Israel from 1999 to 2001, said that Netanyahu's main strategy is to keep Hamas "alive and kicking" in order to weaken the Palestinian Authority, even at the expense of "abandoning the citizens [of the south]."[48] In an interview with Politico in 2023, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said that "In the last 15 years, Israel did everything to downgrade the Palestinian Authority and to boost Hamas." He continued saying "Gaza was on the brink of collapse because they had no resources, they had no money, and the PA refused to give Hamas any money. Bibi saved them. Bibi made a deal with Qatar and they started to move millions and millions of dollars to Gaza."[49] At a Likud party conference in 2019, Benjamin Netanyahu said: "Anyone who wants to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state has to support bolstering Hamas and transferring money to Hamas ... This is part of our strategy – to isolate the Palestinians in Gaza from the Palestinians in the West Bank."[50][51] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_support_for_Hamas Worth a read of the whole article.
This is such a Monday conversation. We’ve got the religious tolerance of Rangers v Celtic to teach us the way forward for Israel. As I agreed at my last North Hertfordshire book club and wine night, if the Good Friday Agreement can be achieved then this definitely can because it’s absolutely the same.
Just thought, why would/should Palestinian officials be at a united NATIONS meeting when they aren’t even a nation
