Comments Elsewhere

scott: Rad Geek, From the comments here and at your site, I think we’re just coming at things from totally different angles. I’m looking at these things as givens, for the time being, that have to be considered regardless of if we support them or not. You’re looking at the more theoretical aspects of all this – governments, elections, etc – which are important questions on the whole, but not as immediately pertinent to me at the moment.

Well, I’m sure there is a difference of focus here, but I’m not convinced that it’s best understood in terms of the distinctions between theoretical and practical. It seems to me that the very real problems with government-to-government aid make for good practical reasons to take the “purist” stance: because government-to-government aid is actively harmful (in particular, in the P.A., it has propped up and lined the pockets of a corrupt, unaccountable, and co-opted one-party state under Fatah for years), complaining about it being cut seems rather like complaining about someone getting a reduction in their dose of arsenic-laced wine.

scott: At the same time, because of the occupation and destroyed economy, the Palestinians need aid right now. I don’t see anarchists stepping up, or the left, so until then, we’re left with the Japanese government giving UNWRA $500,000 donations, and the EU funding PA programs. Certainly not an ideal situation.

Well, so why not make an effort to get anarchists (and for that matter, statist Leftists and humanitarians of various stripes) to step up like they should and give direct mutual aid? It seems to me that they’re probably more open to persuasion than U.S. policy makers, more likely to give money to the right people, and, if you fail to hit the goals that need to be hit, that’s still more money to people who need it than the nothing that results from failed political pressure campaigns.

scott: Rad Geek, From the comments here and at your site, I think we’re just coming at things from totally different angles. I’m looking at these things as givens, for the time being, that have to be considered regardless of if we support them or not. You’re looking at the more theoretical aspects of all this – governments, elections, etc – which are important questions on the whole, but not as immediately pertinent to me at the moment.

Well, I’m sure there is a difference of focus here, but I’m not convinced that it’s best understood in terms of the distinctions between theoretical and practical. It seems to me that the very real problems with government-to-government aid make for good practical reasons to take the “purist” stance: because government-to-government aid is actively harmful (in particular, in the P.A., it has propped up and lined the pockets of a corrupt, unaccountable, and co-opted one-party state under Fatah for years), complaining about it being cut seems rather like complaining about someone getting a reduction in their dose of arsenic-laced wine.

scott: At the same time, because of the occupation and destroyed economy, the Palestinians need aid right now. I don’t see anarchists stepping up, or the left, so until then, we’re left with the Japanese government giving UNWRA $500,000 donations, and the EU funding PA programs. Certainly not an ideal situation.

Well, so why not make an effort to get anarchists (and for that matter, statist Leftists and humanitarians of various stripes) to step up like they should and give direct mutual aid? It seems to me that they’re probably more open to persuasion than U.S. policy makers, more likely to give money to the right people, and, if you fail to hit the goals that need to be hit, that’s still more money to people who need it than the nothing that results from failed political pressure campaigns.