Israel, US, EU Sever Ties With Hamas-Controlled PLO

Breaking News On January 26th, 74 members of the radical Islamic group HAMAS were elected as members of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) Parliament. This gives the terrorist organization a majority for the first time in PLO history. With the swearing in of Hamas leader Abdul Aziz Duaik as the Parliament Speaker yesterday (see image at right), the PLO is now controlled by a terrorist organization, making it an official terrorist state. In response to the abrupt shift in power, the U.S., EU, and Israeli governments have closed commerce with the PLO, Israeli interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert even going so far as to freeze $50,000,0000 in tax receipts which was to constitute almost a third of the Palestinian budget. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has begun a Middle Eastern tour cautioning countries against giving financial support to the Hamas-controlled government. What she fails to understand is that for Middle Eastern countries, Hamas policies equal Islamic policies which demand fanatic support from every Muslim. It remains to be seen whether the more moderate governments in the area will succeed in stemming the flow of cash to the terrorist's coffers. The less moderate governments have no qualms about supporting the PLO. Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told the Hamas political chief Khaled Mashaal that "Annual financial assistance to Palestine is one way that Muslim nations can share the responsibility of Palestine." In other words, it is our job as Muslims to help you terrorists kill all the Jews. It is interesting to note that Saudi Arabia, the number one supplier of oil for the U.S., is the only Middle East country fulfilling its full promises of support to the PLO. The dollars you spend at the pump go directly to the pockets of Hamas, with the federal and state governments and the Saudi oil sheiks getting a buck or two in the transit.

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With their cash flow thinning, the new, more terroristic PLO will revert to its old tactics of simple military might. The other leading party in the PLO, Fatah, will also be striving to regain power, and the only way Hamas will be able to curry favor and unite the country is to focus on what unites Palestinians: attacking Israel. Jerusalem Post columnist Barry Rubin (left) predicts that a shadowy Islamic group which consists of Hamas people but lets Hamas deny responsibility will emerge to claim "credit" for renewed full-scale military attacks on Israel. " 'Hamas will not attack Israel until it decides to do so, but it reserves the right to commit genocide against Israel.' " My prediction: with the new, overt terrorist control of the PLO, the blinders will be partly removed from the Israeli leadership. They have already broken off economic and political ties with the Muslim aggressionists and will begin to treat terrorist bombings as direct military attacks - unless, of course, they are fooled by a shadow terrorist organization as predicted by Mr. Rubin. This in turn will bring an end to the deceptive "Roadmap to Peace" plan and will trigger full military aggression from the boiling PLO government. Israel will be forced to respond with military rather than police force, and we all know where that will lead. So what is going to happen? Opinions, anyone? In Him, David S. MacMillan III