In the Daily Telegraph, Daniel Hannan argues that Palestinian dependency on Western aid only fuels their anger at the US and Europe:
To be fair, Eurocrats also think they can smother Palestinian terrorism under a landslide of euros. This aim is tacitly backed by many in Tel Aviv. An Israeli official told me, on condition of anonymity: “None of our politicians can argue for giving money to Palestine while Hamas is in charge. But we don’t want people to go hungry and fall into the hands of the jihadists. So if you guys can figure out how to get the money to ordinary Palestinians, you’ll be doing us a favour.”
This sounds reasonable, but it is based on a false premise, namely that political violence is caused by economic deprivation. This notion derives ultimately from Marx and, like many of his ideas, it looks plausible on the page, but turns out not to be true….
Easing these restrictions would not solve everything. Trade and investment would not, in themselves, end a conflict with ethnic, religious and territorial dimensions. But a capitalist Palestine, in which citizens looked to themselves rather than to the state, would be more stable. Its propertied classes would have a stake in civil order. Its businessmen would have an incentive to remain on cordial terms with their customers, including those in Israel.
None of this will happen, however, as long as Palestinians remain trapped in the squalor of dependency. The EU, in its well-intentioned but doltish way, is fuelling the conflict.
