Gazans grow weary of Hamas

Good.

"I'm angry at Hamas," said [Fawzi] Wadee, 32, whose 10-year-old child [Muhammed] succumbed Tuesday morning to the wounds in his head from three shards of metal. "Before I supported them. Now I don't."

Wadee spoke softly but firmly, standing meters away from where neat rows of white plastic chairs were lined on the street under a long, green-colored mourning tent – all courtesy of Hamas. But the unemployed 32-year-old father of four was unimpressed by the gesture from the group that had called his son a "martyr" at the hands of the Israelis.

"When my son was in the hospital, no one came," said Wadee. "But when he died Hamas came and claimed him as 'their martyr.' They did it to get money from donors around the world. It's like a business. But no one gave us money."

I certainly sympathize with anyone who's lost a child, but maybe if Wadee hadn't "supported" Hamas, his son might still be alive.

And notice Wadee's peevish tone about the lack of money coming his way. Most people would rather have a living child than a $25,000 check. But the widespread corruption within the Palestinian territories, coupled with a lack of any cohesive government structure that would enable people to earn their own livings, have turned the whole "nation" into beggars.

Hamas' "humanitarian" largesse is often pointed out in MSM stories about the Palestinian situation.

Hamas, like many other terrorist organizations, conceals its activities behind charitable, social, and political fronts. Hamas's infrastructure of social-welfare institutions, the backbone of its proselytizing efforts (dawa), generates both popular support for the organization and logistical support for its terrorist attacks.

Yasir Arafat, too, was notorious for handing out money "like a Chicago ward boss," going so far as to tour the camps with suitcases full of money to be doled out to grateful supplicants.

Likewise Saddam Hussein's contribution of $25,000 to families of Palestinian "martyrs" earned him the open support of Palestinians.

Until Palestinian parents value the lives of their children over the breadcrumbs left to them by theior murderous overlords, more children will be killed. But maybe this was a wake up call.

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