In 2006, a movie came out starring Matthew McConaughey and Sarah Jessica Parker, about a man who still lived with his parents despite being well into his 30s. The romantic comedy isn't necessarily a fictional premise. A "failure to launch" is a real thing, with plenty of people living with their parents, even into their 30s, with the case usually being a case of over-provision.
If mom and dad provide everything on the cheap, if not for free, then why leave? This interferes with the journey into adulthood in huge ways as ambitions and goals get shunted to the side in favor of easy days and fun distractions.
Or, in some cases, genocidal agendas and launching actual rockets at civilians.
I can't help but see the people of Gaza as such a case of not growing up thanks to getting everything they need from mom and dad. Morbidly, this child wants to kill their mom and dad, and yet the parents still seem to feel the need to funnel cash and resources Gaza's way. The people of Gaza then turn the things they get, such as water pipes, into rockets to launch at Israel.
Notice I say "the people of Gaza" and not Hamas, which is the terrorist group responsible for these terrorist actions. It's because the people of Gaza overwhelmingly support Hamas and its actions with a whopping 70 percent, being a country of people who are rabidly antisemitic themselves. Hamas is empowered by the people of Gaza, and the idea that Gazans are just poor innocents caught up in a terrorist organization's plot isn't accurate.
Yet, this is a narrative that I think a lot of people in the West buy, and we're totally okay with sending supplies and money to Gaza to help, because we're a compassionate country who thinks Western values are a commonality across the globe. They aren't, and a lot of the aid we send gets used to wage war against our ally, Israel.
As reported by the Times of Israel, Hamas's war spending is around $100 million:
As the residents of the Gaza Strip endure daily hardships due to the dire economic situation in the enclave, their Hamas leaders spend over $100 million a year on the group’s military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, according to estimates by both Israeli and Palestinian sources. Spending on digging tunnels accounts for some $40 million of that annual sum.
By way of comparison, the budget of the last Hamas government, which dissolved in April 2014, was $530 million. In other words, some 20 percent of the budget was funneled toward arming the group with advanced weapons, digging tunnels, training, and salaries for Hamas fighters.
Hamas didn't get that money from a money tree. They don't really trade or produce. They got it from aid money countries like the U.S. give them. Even the various supplies we give them end up becoming weapons.
If Gaza is using these supplies to create weapons, then maybe we should stop giving them supplies.
To be clear, I realize there are blockades to stop supplies from getting to Hamas for the very reason that they use aid materials for war, but perhaps it's time to put them into a situation where they have to choose war or civilization. They know that anything they use to create missiles will be replaced, so why not cease replacing them and make them choose?
Do you want a missile, or running water?
Hamas will, of course, say "missile," but the people of Gaza may slowly but surely start to wonder if it's worth it. Hamas may start to lose popularity as Gazans are watching as their standard of living devolves swiftly.
With the cessation of USAID's dollars, the opportunity is already rising. Pipes are in need of repair, and it sure seems inconvenient that American taxpayer dollars aren't fixing it for them anymore.
"These water pipe and road projects in the West Bank are no longer making progress without the USAID" pic.twitter.com/TVpMIR5P5t
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) February 23, 2025
Seems like the perfect time to learn the importance of self-sufficiency and keeping up infrastructure.
It's hard to have a genocidal agenda when you need to wake up in the morning and work to keep afloat. While I'm not going to say that stopping Hamas is as simple as taking away their goodie bags, I am saying that it puts a tremendous rock in their shoe to have to make sure there's some level of civilization to uphold for themselves.
As it stands, they're spoiled children. Their money is provided. Their supplies are provided. Their food is provided. They are hardly a self-sufficient people, and it's time we allow them to stand up on their own two feet and learn how to invest themselves into their country. As it stands, they clearly see it a staging ground, not a home to care for.
It's hard to want to support a terrorist group wanting to use your infrastructure for war, when you spent years building and maintaining it yourself.
We need to withdraw our hand, and let these people figure it out. Let them actually have to choose whether to use that pipe for clean water or a rocket, because no replacements are coming.
