Obama Asks Congress To Send Aid To Palestinians Via Hamas

I've slammed Obama quite a bit the past week or two, and it was all well deserved. However, this move is a positive one.

I don't support any foreign aid, what-so-ever. It typically lands in the hands of corrupt governments and groups that do not disperse it with the best intentions, and I don't believe the government has a right to determine where to donate the money I worked for. If I wanted to donate it to a particular country, I would.

In the political landscape of today, foreign aid is inevitable, I guess. The best we can hope for is that governments which do provide foreign aid do so in a fair manner. I'm not exactly sure how the US government is still able to provide any aid to countries though. If I were a US citizen I would wonder why the government is transferring so much wealth outside of the country when the unemployment rate has hit double digits in 10 states.

The Palestinians have had a hard go of it, partly because of the Unite States subsidization of the Israel military. For them to be willing to provide aid to the Palestinian government, dominated by Hamas, to be distributed to their suffering people is a step in the right direction. Hamas might be one of those corrupt governments I mentioned before, but they were elected and do represent the Palestinian people.

You can read about Obama's request in the LA Times.

I'm not a big fan of the article. The writer has referred to Hamas as a "militant group". I doubt he would ever give such a biased label to the governments of Israel, United States, Canada, or England, even though, given their very militant actions of the past decade, it would be completely accurate.