Hamas and Israel: scapegoating crypto again
A barrage of US government leaks accuses crypto of financing Hamas terrorism, obfuscating the US government's direct and indirect contributions to this disaster.
The WSJ set off an anti-crypto firestorm yesterday with an inflammatory article about crypto’s role in financing Hamas’s terrorism against Israel.
Different variations of this theme were highlighted by many other publications.
The amount of US assistance provided to Hamas and its terrorist allies since 2012 has truly been stunning.
1. HEZBOLLAH: The Lebanese govt has been a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hezbollah, the Iranian supermilitia which joined the war against Israel today, for >10 years. US aid to Lebanon was $100m/year to the government of Lebanon, pre-Nov. 2022; another $2bn was announced by Joe Biden in November 2022.1 2 Despite this aid, the Lebanese government is bankrupt, its currency is bankrupt, and it’s universally understood that government coffers are plundered by Hezbollah and their political allies. The US government also separately gave $236 million to the Lebanese Armed Forces in 2022 alone.3 The LAF has been so obviously Hezbollah-controlled that Hezbollah military units have been photographed flaunting US heavy weaponry that could’ve only come from the LAF since at least 2016.4 Total: $500m++
2. IRAN: At least $1.7bn in the infamous "cash on pallets" in 2016 to the IRGC, which killed hundreds of US soldiers in Iraq, to get Iran to sign the nuclear deal5; $6bn of sanctioned assets unlocked by Biden a month ago. Both of these agreements were personally written by Anthony Blinken, Biden’s Secretary of State. Total: $7.7bn
Separately, the Biden regime had basically ceased sanctions enforcement against Iranian oil, presumably fearing the impact on inflation if both Russian and Iranian oil are cut off from the global market at the same time.
3. QATAR: The US has headquartered its Mideast operations in Doha, Qatar's capital, to serve as a human shield for the Qatari regime.
Qatar has given Hamas $100m per year and gives Hamas's leadership safe haven in Doha.
The Qatari royal family is hated by the rest of the Gulf monarchs for playing all sides (Iran, jihadist terrorists, and the West), and its regime exists at the pleasure of the United States. Total: priceless
4. HAMAS: In March 2022, the US State Department bragged about “over $500 million for the Palestinian people” provided just since April 2021.6 The vast majority of this aid was supposedly funneled through UNRWA, which is mostly active in Hamas’s home base in the Gaza Strip. Total: $1bn+
Uncle Sam discretionary contributions to Hamas & allies: >$10 billion
Hamas/PIJ funds laundered by crypto: $135 million, minus whatever Binance just seized on behalf of the Israeli government.
On the one hand, the Obama/Biden regime’s entire foreign policy (alienate the Gulf/Israel, embrace Iran, clink champagne with Europe) of the past 15 years was bankrupted on Saturday. Heads should have rolled across the liberal foreign-policy establishment, but (of course) none did. DC’s iron law of upward failure — the more grandly you fail, the higher you rise, so long as you do a passable job spinning it — held strong yet again.
On the other hand, the Warren Mafia within the Biden regime never lets an opportunity to wage war on political enemies go to waste, and the WSJ article felt like their opening shot of another round. Meanwhile, the DC GOP, never known for a steel spine, is even more feckless than usual thanks to Kevin McCarthy’s ouster as House Speaker.
I think the timing of the WSJ story, and its attendant firestorm, is no coincidence, and presages a new PR blitz (combined with the SBF trial and probable Binance charges) to get GOP senators to turn a blind eye towards cutting crypto’s throat in upcoming Ukraine/Israel bills.
I hope I’m way-overreading into one WSJ article, but I fear that another March of 2023 (when crypto was scapegoated for the FDIC’s utter failure to police lending at SVB and Silvergate) is coming: the Biden regime would sooner burn industries to the ground than hold any part of itself accountable for its own blunders.
https://lb.usembassy.gov/the-united-states-announces-more-than-72-million-in-additional-humanitarian-assistance-for-lebanon/
https://www.state.gov/u-s-relations-with-lebanon/
https://www.state.gov/u-s-security-cooperation-with-lebanon/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2016/11/16/hezbollah-has-u-s-armored-personnel-carriers-but-how-did-they-get-them/
https://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-iran-payment-cash-20160907-snap-story.html
https://www.state.gov/u-s-support-for-the-palestinian-people/
great to see this in perspective