On Friday’s episode of Bloomberg’s “Balance of Power” podcast, Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.) admitted that the humanitarian aid Joe Biden committed for Gaza is “being stolen by Hamas” and “is not being given to the civilians, the elderly, the pregnant women who are in Gaza, who I certainly pray for every single day.”
Stevens added, “There’s been tons of aid that has gone into Gaza that the U.S. has helped to fund, and it’s being stolen by Hamas. It is not being given to the civilians, the elderly, the pregnant women who are in Gaza, who I certainly pray for every single day. Human life matters. We know that. We don’t want to see war in the Middle East. Hamas needs to surrender, Israel needs to secure its borders, and we need to stand up for our democratic ally. That is not Hamas.”
I can’t say I’m surprised. As soon as we learned that Joe Biden was going to send millions of dollars in humanitarian assistance to Gaza, it was obvious what was going to happen. Two months ago, I wrote, "By sending money to Gaza instead of actual humanitarian aid, Biden is essentially promising millions of dollars to Hamas, which controls Gaza. And the worst thing about it is that he seems to know that’s exactly what’s going to happen."
He knew it would happen, and it is happening. But Biden, trying to play it tough, claimed at the time that he wouldn’t tolerate Hamas stealing aid. “Let me be clear, if Hamas diverts or steals the assistance, they will have demonstrated once again that they have no concern for the welfare of the Palestinian people,” Biden said. “And it will end.”
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The Biden administration insisted there would be safeguards in place to prevent Hamas from stealing humanitarian aid. However, no one actually believed that it would work. Not even the folks over at the pro-Biden network CNN.
In October, CNN correspondent Hadas Gold and CNN military analyst Col. Cedric Leighton (Ret.) both agreed that preventing humanitarian aid from being seized by Hamas in Gaza would be extremely difficult because there are no mechanisms in place to ensure how the aid is distributed and used.
“Just, in hearing what he had to say about the conditions, really, of being in compliance or going along with what President Biden has said, the conditions about hostages being released, the ideas of how to ensure that the aid is not going to be essentially taken and siphoned off by Hamas. Is it realistic to think that could actually be a condition that could be met before aid gets there?” host Laura Coates asked.
“Well, I think it’s possible, but there’s no peacekeeping mechanisms. There are no troops on the ground to keep anybody away from these stores, any mechanism to prevent Hamas from going after these things,” Leighton replied. “So, it’s a bit touchy, and I think there are — because there are no mechanisms of enforcement, I think it’s going to be a bit of a problem, Laura.”
So, as expected, Hamas is stealing aid. It seems like everyone but the Biden administration would admit this would happen. Was it incompetence or did they not care? I’m not sure I even want to guess, as neither option is that great.
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