US House votes to cut all aid to Hamasistan

Today, the House Voted to cut all aid to Palestinians , defying President Bush's disapproval. The bill, H R 4681 was approved 361-37 and would cut off aid to non-governmental groups working with the Palestinians except for health programs.The bill calls for the Palestinian Authority to be designated a "terrorist sanctuary," and bans visas for entry into the United States of any official or member of the PA or any component of the PA.


It also recommends withholding U.S. contributions to the United Nations proportional to the amount the world body provides the PA.It also would ban contacts with Hamas because of its classification as a terrorist organization and limit the president's authority to waive the aid bans.

Of course, the Bush administration wasn't too happy about this. It criticized the bill as unneeded and overreaching in its restrictions. And besides that, it might upset our Eternal Friends, The Saudis and the UAE.

The State Department intoned that 'The bill is unnecessary as the executive branch already has ample authority to impose all its restrictions and it constrains the executive's flexibility to use sanctions.'

Of course, if the Bush Administration was using those sanctions the way it's supposed to, the bill wouldn't be necessary, now would it?
















Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (r-FL), a chief sponsor of the bill, said, "The United States must make it unambiguously clear that we will not support such a terrorist regime, that we will not directly or indirectly allow American taxpayer funds to be used to perpetuate the leadership of an Islamic jihadist group."

Damn right.


The bill still has to get through the senate, and I'm sure some wiggle room will be negotiated so that Bush can continue to prop up Abbas and the PA for the remainder of the time they exist. But this is an important step in cutting off the flow of Jizyah to the Palestinians, who (a) Don't need it and (b) don't appreciate it.

By the way, here's a link to the final results of the roll call, showing the 37 congressmen who voted against it. Guess which party almost all of them belong to?

Needless to say, the nays included such notorious Israel bashers as Nick Rahall (d-MI), Cynthia `it was the Jews' McKinney (d-GA), John Conyers (d-MI), Pete Stark(d-CA) and of course Jim McDerrmott (d-WA).

The usual suspects.....