“There is a lot of money in Hamas.” Yes, terrorism is profitable these days. By Joshua Mitnick in The Washington Times :
RAMALLAH, West Bank — A U.S.-led funding squeeze, which has paralyzed the Hamas-led Palestinian government, has had the unintended effect of bolstering the militant group’s network of schools, hospitals and alms societies.
Foreign donations, often consisting of cash in suitcases smuggled across the border, have permitted Hamas’ vast social-welfare network to thrive, say officials and analysts.
“All charitable organizations affiliated with Hamas are still functioning,” said Sheik Yazeeb Khader, an editor of Hamas’ West Bank newspaper. He said the charities in Gaza have especially benefited from money “brought across the border and not checked.”
For years, while Hamas’ military wing dispatched suicide bombers to Israeli cities, the group’s civilian wing quietly built up a grass-roots following with its network of Islamic social-welfare organizations.
The charities went far beyond anything established by the secular government of Yasser Arafat and helped give Hamas the support needed to oust Arafat loyalists in January elections and take power in March.
Unable to pay for supplies, government ministries have since ceased to function, and without salaries, civil servants have gone on strike.
The charities, however, openly boast that they continue to get money from Muslim communities in the Persian Gulf, Europe and the United States….
“There is a lot of money in Hamas,” said Abdel Nasser Najjar, a columnist for Al Ayyam, a newspaper of the opposition Fatah party.