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Iran and Palestinians Are Wrong Candidates for Aid at Wrong Time
(National Review) A.J. Caschetta - Imagine if FDR had offered a multi-million-dollar aid package to Germany before the Nazi surrender in 1945. Or if Truman had air-dropped food, medicine, and cash on Japanese cities before Emperor Hirohito announced his country's surrender. But today, pundits and politicians are advocating sending aid to Iran, a sworn enemy of the U.S., to combat the coronavirus. They are also urging the release of aid for the Palestinians, whose leaders range from hostile (Fatah) to terrorist (Hamas). These proposals would aid and empower our enemies, and undermine rather than serve U.S. interests at a critical moment. While Israeli missile companies convert their production lines to make ventilators, Hamas' money is used to make more missiles. As Michael Milstein, head of the Palestinian Studies Forum at the Moshe Dayan Center in Tel Aviv, put it, "Hamas is doing almost nothing for the people of Gaza....All the money needed today to confront the coronavirus is going towards rockets." Demands that the U.S. dial back its "maximum pressure" campaign on the Iranian regime ignore the fact that Iran is engaged in a disinformation campaign to convince the world that the coronavirus originated in the U.S. as a biological weapon. There should be no Marshall Plan for Iran as long as the present regime continues on its belligerent track. The writer is a fellow at the Middle East Forum and a principal lecturer at the Rochester Institute of Technology.