Double standards.

I had recently linked to Scott Adams' post about the Hamas victory in the Palestinian polls. Apparently now, Hamas is desperately trying to form a government so that it can establish self rule.

Apparently the new government faces a financial crisis, as the Israeli government has refused to send in the tax money it collects on behalf of the Palestinians !

If Israel, and the rest of the world, is concerned about bringing in a change in the policies of "terrorists", then the only way is to bring them in to the democratic process and work with them at diplomatic and political levels. I don't think that any party in power, no matter what the ideology, would work towards violence that hurts its own people, or evern something that is remotely detrimental (well, except maybe the Indian commies !), as their only concern would now be to stay in power ! And that automatically means that they will have to come off the violent path. Already they're inviting other violent factions to join in their government.

The only thing that Isreal and the other countries achieve by such hard methods as witholding necessary funds, is to ensure that the anger and outrage against them escalates as normal Palestinian citizens suffer...and the irony is that the very money that they pay out for their welfare, is being held back. This only increases the sympathy towards Hamas-like organisations.

First there's the charade of wanting to involve the Palestinians in a democratic process, and then they say that we don't recognise their choice of government...