PA Cutting Off Nose to Spite Its Face

The Economist points out how the self-imposed Hamas refusal to recognize Israel is beggaring its own businessmen, as crazed religious fanatics commit economic suicide one shrimp at a time. Nuggets quote:

...a forklift loads pallets of seafood onto conveyor belts, which feed them through the wall into giant X-ray scanners. As the Gazan exporter watches, the invisible Israeli operator shifts the belt backwards, and a pallet of jumbo shrimps falls off the end, spilling them into the dust. The forklift operator—the only one allowed into the lane under Israeli security rules—sighs, bends down and begins shovelling shrimps and dirt back into the boxes.

The problem is that everything is interconnected. The shrimps should be in sealed containers, says Mr Dotan, because leaking fluids can damage the scanners. But the exporter, who cannot afford a refrigerated truck, has to keep his produce fresh in the heat as it waits to be scanned, so he leaves the boxes open and stands at the ready with bags of crushed ice—itself hard enough to get since Israel destroyed Gaza's power plant in June.

The exporter risks losing the whole stock because of Karni's erratic opening hours, which are partly because Mr Dotan will not open the gates unless Palestinian security men show up, and they are sometimes on strike and sometimes lack even the bus fare to get to work, because the Hamas-run Palestinian Authority (PA) is not paying them, because Israel and the world have suspended funds to the PA, because Hamas will not recognise Israel, and so on into ancient history.

Long ago, an Israeli Defense Force COS said that the PA could rest behind its borders "like roaches in a bottle." Yesterday PA PM Haniyeh repeated his boss Mishaal in Damascus's Thursday statement that Hamas will "never" recognize Israel. Mishaal gets his money from Iran and his orders from Syria. The pot is simmering, but might bubble over again soon. Sounds like they enjoy their roach motel.

Oh yeah. The terrorist Hamas organization still holds an Israeli soldier hostage.