Qatari Emir Hamad al-Thani with Ismail Haniya, Oct. 2012, Photo NY Times.

In October, 2012, Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, the Emir of Qatar, as reported in the NY Times, here, “pledged $400 million to build two housing complexes, rehabilitate three main roads and create a prosthetic center, among other projects” in Gaza.

The $400 Million could have built 133 MW of offshore wind or 100 MW of PV Solar electricity generation capacity.

Amusement Park

Other projects could have been libraries, like the great library at Alexandria, Egypt. They could have been roller coasters and amusement parks, like the small ones at Coney Island, Brooklyn, Seaside, NJ, or big theme parks like Great Adventure in New Jersey, Disney Land, in California or Disney World in Florida.

Disney offers people happy fantasies, vacations, movies, television, amusements and fireworks.  As a look at The Walt Disney Company on Google Finance (Table 1, below) and a glance thru Disney’s annual report (Table 2, below) shows, there’s money in fun.

Hamas may not “do fun” but it is guided by fantasy.

Tunnel from Gaza

Recent news from BBC, NPR, the Washington Post and other sources indicate that Hamas offers the Palestinians, the Qataris, and the Persians the fantasy that they can destroy Israel. It offers them bombs, bullets, tunnels,, and martyrdom. Hamas used the aid from Qatar to build tunnels, miles long and as deep as 66 feet underground to Kibbutz Nir Am, Kibbutz Hashlosha, Kibbutz Chuliyat in Israel.

In the Washington Post, Terrance McCoy wrote,

“Israeli forces estimated that Hamas had dumped $10 million and 800 tons of concrete into the two-year project.

Such “terror tunnels,” the Israeli military said in a statement Friday, are “complex and advanced.” And their use, Israel said, is “to carry out attacks such as abductions of Israeli civilians and soldiers alike; infiltrations into Israeli communities, mass murders and hostage-taking scenarios.”

Describing this emerging “tunnel war,” a Palestinian militia document obtained by the  news Web site al-Monitor said the objective of the underground network was “to surprise the enemy and strike it a deadly blow that doesn’t allow a chance for survival or escape or allow him a chance to confront and defend itself.”

…

While the Gaza Strip remains mired in poverty — the 2011 per capita income was $1,165 — Hamas is thought to have sunk more than $1 million into the excavation and maintenance of every tunnel. “Much to the misfortune of the people of Gaza, Hamas has invested far more resources in ‘underground Gaza’ than in ‘upper Gaza,’” wrote al-Monitor’s Shlomi Eldar. “The ‘change and reform’ that Hamas offered its voters was invested in its tunnels at the expense of the people of Gaza.”

Over $1.0 million per tunnel, 36 known tunnels: over $36 Million.

The real crime in Gaza is not the Occupation by Israel that began in 1967 and ended in 2005. The real crime in Gaza is Hamas rule of fantasy, war and death that ignores poverty and stores weapons under homes, hospitals, mosques and schools.

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Appendix – Current financial data, as of 7/22/14, regarding The Walt Disney Company, DIS.

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Larry Furman, MBA, an analyst with Popular Logistics is available for consulting. He would probably not be effective in negotiating a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.