The Palestinian Authority as a mental institution

Once I read somewhere a political joke, which to the best of my recollection was to the effect that the difference between Israel and a mental hospital is that the latter is run by sane adults.

Whoever thought of the joke, he or she spoke too soon. The joke  should have been be told by substituting the Palestinian Authority for Israel, as the P.A. keeps besting herself to convert the joke into an astute observation.

The latest example that illustrates this proposition is the statement of Nabil Abu Rudeineh, an aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas who, this Monday past, condemned the US plans to secure Gulf funding for major economic projects in the Gaza strip, on the ground that the plan aims to further separate Gaza from the Palestinian Authority.

This is said on behalf of someone who has being doing his level best to force Gazans into submission and towards this end has among other things,

1. a) Reduced, and then sought to cut altogether the flow of Israeli electricity into Gaza;
2. b) Cut the salaries of its staff in Gaza;
3. c) Refuses to share with Gazans a share, let alone a fair one, of the vast sums of foreign aid lavished on the P.A, and
4. d) Prefers to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in salaries to terrorists who kill Israelis and in pensions to their families in the event of death, rather than to relieve the hardships of its very own population in Gaza.

It is no wonder that well over 80% of the Gazans are very keen to see the back of Mahmoud Abbas.

The sad thing about this is that Federica Mogherini, the head of the mental ward  of the European Union,  the affectionate friend of Abbas, has yet to condemn the P.A.’s inhumane behaviour toward Gazans with the kind of  manic-alacrity she condemns  the  imaginary sins of Israel.