Desperation = violence?

"In the fourth month without salaries from the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority, the Abu Rizek family scours greenhouses after the harvest, looking for potatoes left in the ground.

Mariam Al Wahedi no longer receives her $21 a month from social services and is living off the $200 she got last month by selling her last piece of jewelry, a bracelet given to her 30 years ago. Khalid Muhammad, a policeman, moonlights in a friend's shop, selling used cellphone batteries for $2.25, and says he now yells at his wife and sometimes hits his children. Umm Jihad, with six children, begs in the market."

This sobering and sad report from the IHT highlights what must surely have been seen as an idiocy from the beginning - that is, not providing money to the Hamas-led PA. Blind-freddy could have foretold what the result would be. And this is the way to win over hearts and minds? - never mind that desperate people will do desperate things! Read the full IHT article here.

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Mahler's Prodigal Son

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