The not-so-broke palestinians

First, a Hamas member reported $450,000 stolen from a hotel room in Kuwait. Pretty large amount to have just lying around, especially for someone from an organization that is supposedly broke.

Then, Mahmoud Abbas told the EU that the situation is so desperate that there will be an “explosion of anger” if the world doesn’t hand over money to the desperate, impoverished, poverty-stricken, poor, poor, pitiful pals.

Now, monitors snagged Hamas spokesman (that appears to be his official title) Sami Abu Zuhri trying to smuggle $800,000 into Gaza.

Sami Abu Zuhri was caught trying to smuggle the money into Gaza from Egypt earlier in the day, a possible sign of how desperate the cash-starved Hamas government is for money. He was stopped at the Palestinian-controlled Gaza-Egypt border.

Abu Zuhri told Arab broadcaster Al-Jazeera that the money was donated privately by individuals he met during a tour of Arab nations.

Palestinian officials said he was on his way back from Qatar, whose government pledged $50 million to the Palestinian Authority but hasn’t been able to transfer the cash because of Western economic sanctions on the militantly anti-Israel Hamas government.

Julio De La Guardia, a spokesman for a European Union contingent that monitors the passage, said travelers crossing through Rafah must declare all sums over $2,000.

“He (Abu Zuhri) did not declare that money, he tried to smuggle it,” De La Guardia said.

So let’s review. Large sums of cash. PA is broke. If the money were going to feed palestinians, there would be no need to smuggle it, right? Sami could just declare that he’s carrying close to a million dollars, and say, “This is from the generous donors of Qatar, who have pledged much more to the palestinian people, and will go to feed the hungry!”

And yet, instead, he put giant wads of cash underneath his clothes and tried to get into Gaza without declaring the money. And get how they found it:

The money was discovered by European monitors on the border and confiscated by Palestinian security officials. The cash was hidden in a special belt worn by Abu Zuhari, and while trying to cross the border, the belt fell, and the money was uncovered by the monitors.

Gee. I wonder what the money is going to be used for? Could it be the shiny new uniforms of the shiny new Hamas “security” force? Could it be the shiny new guns for the shiny new Hamas “security” force? Could it be the shiny new bullets for the shiny new guns for the shiny new Hamas “security” force? Or could it be for other important things, like, oh, suicide bombs, kassam rockets, katyushas, and the like.

My guess is “All of the above.”

And you just have to love the balls on these people.

Dozens of Hamas gunmen blocked the crossing after the money was confiscated. Abu Zuhri was escorted out of the terminal by Ghazi Hamad, a Hamas government spokesman, and a political adviser to Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas.

“We are upset to be dealt with this way at a time when the Palestinian people are suffering from siege and starvation,” Abu Zuhri told Al-Jazeera.

According to Reuters, there was a lot of posturing from both sides as Sami refused to leave without his money, but wound up doing exactly that.

Around 100 Hamas gunmen raced to the Rafah border crossing, which is guarded by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s presidential guard, raising fears of fresh fighting.

Witnesses said presidential guard reinforcements were also sent to the area.

Hamas spokesman, Sami Abu Zuhri, initially refused to leave the border terminal without the money, which was confiscated by Palestinian customs agents. But witnesses said he later left and that the gunmen withdrew.

Hamas lawmaker Mushir al-Masri said Abu Zuhri was carrying “donations from Arab nations to the Palestinian government and it was meant to pay for prisoners in Israeli jails.”

Abu Zuhri, who is the official spokesman of the Hamas movement rather than the Hamas-led government, told Reuters he left after an agreement was reached for the money to “soon be released”.

Uh-huh. All of it, I’m sure.

Let’s stop pretending that the pals don’t have money for food. They have it. They’re just using it for guns, instead.