Crossposted from European Tribune.
From the Gulf Times:
CAIRO: The Arab League condemned as “reprehensible” yesterday a decision by the European Union to suspend aid to the new Palestinian government formed by Islamic militant group Hamas after its January poll win. “This decision is totally unacceptable,” the League’s assistant secretary general for Palestinian affairs, Mohamed Sobeih, told reporters in Cairo.
“It’s strange and reprehensible… that the Palestinian people are punished for being undemocratic and also punished for exercising democracy.”
When you think about it, this is nonsense. There may be pragmatic reasons to fund the Hamas government, but declining to do so over its vow to annihilate Israel is not hypocrisy by itself. To insist on democracy does not obligate anyone to fund whatever government is elected, irrespective of policy. In other words, it’s a coherent position that being elected is necessary but not sufficient to merit support, because respecting international law is necessary too.
To see that the Arab League has no case, it’s enough to recall its objection to US funding of democratic Israel.
Which leads us to the real sense of double standards here. What is hypocritical is not to hold the Hamas government to certain standards. It is to give Israel a free pass on same.
