In “Punishing Innocent Palestinians Is a Crime” in Der Spiegel (thanks to DFS), the great ex-President and Nobel laureate demonstrates a persistent, incorrigible unwillingness or inability to see what is in front of his face:
Depriving the people of Palestine of their basic human rights just to punish their elected leaders is not a path to peace.
Where is there established a basic human right to live off the largesse of others while spending all one’s time plotting the downfall of a sovereign state?
Innocent Palestinian people are being treated like animals, with the presumption that they are guilty of some crime. Because they voted for candidates who are members of Hamas, the United States government has become the driving force behind an apparently effective scheme of depriving the general public of income, access to the outside world and the necessities of life.
Treated like animals? Because they were for an all-too-brief period refused money they have done nothing to merit and which only encourages them to continue down their murderous path?
Overwhelmingly, these are school teachers, nurses, social workers, police officers, farm families, shopkeepers, and their employees and families who are just hoping for a better life. Public opinion polls conducted after the January parliamentary election show that 80 percent of Palestinians still want a peace agreement with Israel based on the international road map premises. Although Fatah party members refused to join Hamas in a coalition government, nearly 70 percent of Palestinians continue to support Fatah’s leader, Mahmoud Abbas, as their president.
If all this is true, these nurses and shopkeepers shouldn’t have voted for Hamas.