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MIDEAST: Israel Targets Hamas Orphanages

Via:Obsidian Wings whose headline was a beaut : Charm Offensive

Shopping malls. Schools. Medical centres. Charities, orphanages. Soup kitchens. These are the latest targets in the campaign the Israeli military is waging against Hamas in the West Bank.

Israeli military officials have identified Hamas's civilian infrastructure in the West Bank as a major source of the Islamic group's popularity, and have begun raiding and shutting down these institutions in cities like Hebron, Nablus and Qalqilyah.

Last week, troops focused their efforts in Nablus, raiding the city hall and confiscating computers. They also stormed into a shopping mall and posted closure notices on the shop windows. A girls' school and a medical centre were shut down in the city, and a charitable association had its computers impounded and documents seized.

This policy, officials say, is meant to deny the Islamic group, which is committed to Israel's destruction, the ability to use these institutions as a pipeline by which money is channelled to finance attacks on the Jewish state. But the main goal of this campaign is to stem Hamas's growing popularity in the West Bank, and ensure it does not seize control of the area as it did in Gaza a year ago, when its forces vanquished the more moderate Fatah movement headed by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Pause. Think a bit. HAHAHAAHAHAHAAHHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAAHAHAHAAHAHA

Back to the rest of the article:

In Gaza, Hamas was able to capture the hearts and minds of the residents not just because it offered an alternative to the corruption-tainted Fatah leadership, but also because its network of schools, clinics, summer camps, after-school activities and charitable associations provided impoverished Gazans with the type of institutions and welfare alternatives that the Palestinian Authority failed to.

As part of the campaign, Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak recently issued orders outlawing 36 NGOs that function abroad because he said they were raising money for Hamas. According to estimates by defence officials, anywhere between 120 to 200 million dollars has been funnelled to institutions associated with Hamas in Gaza and the West Bank over the last year. The money has come from institutions in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the Gulf States, Europe, South America and the U.S.

In recent months, the army has also closed down an orphanage, a bakery and other institutions in Hebron, which Israel believes are associated with Hamas. In Gaza, meanwhile, Israel and the Islamic group are observing a truce, but this does not pertain to the West Bank where the Israeli military operates freely.

... Writing in the daily Haaretz newspaper this week, columnist Gideon Levy calls the move against Hamas-related institutions "ludicrous." Residents of the West Bank, he concludes, "cannot be simultaneously imprisoned, prohibited from earning a living and offered no social welfare assistance while we strike at those who are trying to do so, whatever their motives. If Israel wants to fight the charitable associations, it must at least offer alternative services. On whose back are we fighting terror? Widows? Orphans? It's shameful." More

Lord knows why that nit of common-sense really has to be pointed out, but one can never underestimate humanity's stupidity...