Yeah, yeah. We get it. You hate America:

America’s current economic turmoil is “divine punishment” for Washington’s treatment of the Palestinian people, a Hamas leader said during a Friday sermon.

Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip said God was penalizing the US for supporting an Israeli-led blockade of the Strip. Haniyeh said God’s punishment would also extend to America’s allies.

“This is divine punishment, because of America’s embargo of the Palestinian people,” said Haniyeh, who devoted much of his 45-minute sermon in a Gaza City mosque to attacking the US.

But excuse me, Prime Minister Haniyeh. How exactly is the Palestinian economy faring?

As of December 2006, unemployment has risen from 23% in 2005[1] to over 50%. Two-thirds of Palestinians are living below the poverty line. In the last four months, approximately 10,000 have emigrated from the territories, and approximately 50,000 have applied to do so. For the past nine months, the 160,000 civil service workers, who are the primary breadwinners for a third of households, have not received their full salaries due to the cuts in foreign aid.[2] As a result of the Israeli blockade on the territory, 85 percent of factories are shut or operating at less than 20 percent capacity. Israel estimates that its own businesses are losing $2 million a day from the closing, but Gaza is losing $1 million a day, an amount it is less able to afford.[3]

That’s what I thought. Insert foot in mouth whenever you’re ready, Haniyeh.

Popularity: 2% [?]

It’s the Jews, of course.

The Hamas militant group on Tuesday accused the Jewish Lobby in the United States of fomenting the global financial crisis.

The crisis was the result of “bad administrative and financial management and a bad banking system put into place and controlled by the Jewish lobby,” Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum said in a statement.

Barhum said that despite approving a bailout plan of $700 billion dollars, the U.S. government was ignoring the role of “the Jewish lobby that put the U.S. banking and financial sector into place.”
This lobby, said Barhum, “controls the U.S. elections and defines the foreign policy of any new administration in a manner that allows it to retain control of the American government and economy.

Whew. Glad we got that one cleared up.

Thanks for your idiocy, Hamas.

Popularity: 3% [?]

It was fun laughing at Sarah Palin for a few weeks.   She essentially writes her own jokes.  Just ask Saturday Night Live.

But when it comes to answering questions about the Middle East, you’d think every politician with interest in holding a high ranking Federal position could AT THE VERY LEAST be able to answer questions fluidly about three things; The Israeli/Palestinian conflict, Iran, and Iraq.   Those are the big three.  You should know your shit.  Especially if you’re running for Vice President.

Then WHY is it so hard for Palin to communicate clearly about Hamas?  We all know she doesn’t support the Palestinian government labeled as a terrorist organization by the U.S. government.  Then why does she give shit-ass answers like this?

Couric asked, “What happens if the goal of democracy doesn’t produce the desired outcome? In Gaza, the U.S. pushed hard for elections and Hamas won.”

“Yeah, well especially in that region, though, we have to protect those who do seek democracy and support those who seek protections for the people who live there. What we’re seeing in the last couple of days here in New York is a President of Iran, Ahmadinejad, who would come on our soil and express such disdain for one of our closest allies and friends, Israel … and we’re hearing the evil that he speaks and if hearing him doesn’t allow Americans to commit more solidly to protecting the friends and allies that we need, especially there in the Mideast, then nothing will.”

WHAT?  The question asked to Palin was her opinion of Hamas as a democratically elected government and she answered with a shpeal about protecting those who seek democracy?  (And then jabbers on about the Iranian President visiting New York to boot.)

It’s quite easy to interpret her answer as encouraging the terrorist organization Hamas.  I know that’s not what she meant by the answer, but that’s exactly what it sounds like.

The confusion results in articles like this:  Sarah Palin Endorses Hamas.

You won’t find either a Republican or a Democratic candidate come out right and say that they support Hamas.  This is a no brainer.

What you do get (as with Sarah Palin), are misinformed or simply ignorant politicians with little experience in foreign policy spouting random answers to questions they simply don’t understand.  These ill formulated answers then evolve into politicians like Palin sounding, well, completely stupid.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Not even Jordon or Lebanon want the Palestinians. So much for Arab brotherhood:

With reports about the Israeli proposals to the Palestinians replete with hints about progress on the issues of the refugees and border demarcation, Jordan and Lebanon have cause for concern - particularly with regard to the refugee question.

“The Jordanian option does not exist,” King Abdullah made a point of declaring last week in an interview to the French weekly L’Express. Abdullah is worried about what Abbas told Arab newspapers last month after visiting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Back then the Palestinian president said he could not demand that Israel accept all the refugees, but that this need not mean that none of them would return. “It is untenable for me to propose that five million refugees return to Israel, because they [the Israelis] will immediately tell me that I am out to liquidate the state. But it is also untenable for me to say that none of them will return. Compensation must be paid to those who return and to those who do not return, and also to the countries that hosted the refugees.”

For Jordan, whose population is more than 60 percent Palestinian, the problem concerns the country’s character and identity. Even before the second intifada, and more so in its course, when concern arose that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians would cross the border into Jordan, the prime minister at the time, Ali Abu al-Ragheb, announced that his government would not grant citizenship to even one additional Palestinian. That approach is even more deeply ingrained today.

With nearly two million Palestinians and another 700,000 refugees from Iraq living in Jordan, the country is barely able to create its own national identity. The slogan “We are one family,” intended to show Jordan’s solidarity with the Palestinian problem, was changed to “Jordan first.” Publicists in Jordan have written that the slogan should really be “Jordanians first,” implying that the Palestinians who hold Jordanian citizenship are not truly brothers.

Read the complete article here.

Popularity: 2% [?]

….or, “Highly Effective Camouflage Renders Palestinians Invisible”.

From the Kuwait Times:

Hundreds of pro-Hamas demonstrators gathered yesterday at the Rafah crossing in the Gaza Strip to demand that Egypt open its border to relieve a months-old Israeli siege.

Around 600 demonstrators waving green flags deployed in front of the crossing under the watchful eyes of Egyptian security forces on the other side, an AFP photographer said. Hamas-run security forces prevented anyone from approaching the crossing itself-which is the only Gaza frontier post that bypasses Israel.

Popularity: 5% [?]