#WTH The “pro-Pal” scam

 by Danielle Pletka

Much of the world’s media tried to conceal the prevalence of Palestinian flags in the riots that swept through France, and are now making their way across the rest of Europe. But candid shots seen on Instagram and Facebook from participants make clear that what Euros like to call the “pro-Pal” were everywhere.

There’s a lot to criticize about the meeting of far Left, Islamist, and petty criminal on display in the streets of Paris, Milan, etc. But one of the most offensive claims — dare I, a pro-Israel Jew say so — was of being pro-”Palestine.” Because these flag waving sheep are not actually supporters of “Palestine.” Indeed, it is unlikely they can place this non-existent state on the map. Instead, they are more accurately supporters of Hamas (whose flag looks different) and haters of Israel and the Jews.

A supporter of the people of the West Bank and Gaza, and even those millions of claimants the United Nations continues to insist are “Palestinian refugees,” (the longest existing refugee class in the world) would know that Hamas and the Palestinian Authority have stolen everything from the people they ostensibly serve: power, money, and a future.

A supporter of the “Palestinian people” would know that the President of the Palestinian Authority has just canceled, again, elections in the West Bank. He is now in the 22nd year of his four year term. They would know that even as they don performative keffiyehs à la Arabia, almost everyone in the Arab world reviles the Palestinians, who, because of decades of terrible choices (taking sides in Lebanon’s civil war, supporting Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait, supporting Syria’s Hafez al Assad, supporting 9/11 and on and on) have worn out their welcome in almost every Arab state.

(As an aside, did you ever wonder why Egypt wouldn’t take in any Palestinians from Gaza? Why Gulf states welcomed precisely zero refugees from Hamas? Why Jordan kicked out the “legitimate representatives of the Palestinian people” lo these many years ago?)

And most importantly, supporters of the “Palestinian people” would recognize that those Palestinians who are not terrorists or grifters are victims? Not of Israel, though for some, that too is true. They are victims of one of the worst governments the Middle East has to offer; serially impoverished, their people press-ganged into terror service, stolen from, refused decent education, decent lives, and a future for their children. They are denied democratic, religious, and civil freedoms; denied everything but service to the leaders whose commitment is to themselves and their fanaticism.

All these pro-Pal fashionistas — because let’s admit this is more about fashion than justice — want us to focus on Israel: Israel’s “crimes,” Israel’s “genocide,” Israel’s culpability in the sorry fate of their Palestinian fantasy friends. But the heart of the problem of “Palestine” is a Palestinian problem.

Per capita assistance to the West Bank and Gaza is among the highest in the world, and has been for decades. Once upon a time, before the intifadas, Palestinians had work inside Israel. But Israel has now found alternatives. Joint industrial zones that once provided locals viable employment have fallen to a combination of security challenges, investor frustration, and left-driven sanctions on products from the so-called occupied territories. (Read the sad but typical tale of the BDS “victory” in closing down the Soda Stream factory that employed hundreds of Palestinians in high paying jobs.)

These are the boring details about the real lives of Palestinians. Money comes in, it’s stolen. Elections happen rarely, but they don’t matter. Children are radicalized by the very aid givers intended to help them. Water pipes become weapons. Money to sustain life funds terrorism. Hospitals are bases for Hamas. Food is stolen and hoarded. Medicine is stolen and resold. The United Nations and NGOs meant to be helping are too often only helping the terrorists. And it’s not just happening in Gaza.

In the magical world in which Israel stops paying attention to the West Bank and Gaza, or better still from these Hamas-parroting terrorist wannabes, Israel disappeared and Palestine existed “from the river to the sea,” life would still be hell for Palestinians. But no one cares, because the flags are not about them. They are about the Jews, about the Hamas narrative, about political conformism, and about a made up world that will never exist. Because no one really cares about the Palestinian people. Not at all.

https://whatthehellisgoingon.substack.com/p/wth-the-pro-pal-scam