The recent Conference of donors for Palestine is the effect of a well-meaning attitude redponding to a desperate situation. It happened a few years ago in Brussels too, when the donors had been summoned one more time to find the funds needed for calming down the Balkans after the Kosovo war. At that time they invoked the real state to be born now, the independent state of Kosovo. They claimed the region would find peace only if they injected huge funds to rebuild infrastructure and arrange the first functional democratic institutions... They were right to say then that peace might not be born out of povery and dirt, that neither democracy nor tolerance could work in communities obsessed with surviving each and every day. Against the background of prevailing good intentions and enthuziasm at the victory over the evil forces represented by Miloshevik's murderous regime, the whole debate focussed on the forms of democracy. They forgot something and now Europe and not only Europe may pay a blood price for this omission: no matter how much, the money can't change the root of the regional conflict or the hatred accumulated generation after generation. They can burst out again any minute in regions closer or further from Kosovo, apart from the antagonical relations between the Albanians and the Serbians. The independent state of Kosovo, the first Islamic entity to be established in Europe due to the common decision of the EU and the Americans was meant to be a clue for the Muslim world, supposed to become aware that the war against terror was not against one faith, but against some Islamist Islamic groups and organizations. Due to the same idea, right now the money from donors is reaching the Palestinian moderates, in the hope that this will be the decisive argument to make supporters of the Hamas drop their weapons and put up with reasonable survival with Israel. Will the money manage to make fanatic organizations like Hamas or Hizbullah go extinct? This is a question asked at times of true crisis, as it was seen that the other bait, namely their international legitimization by participation in the government, had no effect whatsoever. Moreover, the money now collected in Paris, including the US proposal for extra, is just a tiny part of what the US invested in Iraq or Pakistan. But the outcome was disastrous. As it is now growing obvious to everyone, some of the funds were simply delapidated or they even got to support the movements of Islamist fanatics. Fate is sadly ironical, since they could imagine no other diplomatic solution except for a future Kosovo state, headed by the former boss of the UCK Guerillas and by the Al Fatah guys, identified with the saviors of the peacemaking process in the Middle East. Since things have got to this point, it means someone may have been completely wrong. When this becomes obvious to everyone, the final stage will open at once. The answer to the question: whose hand will they use to take the chestnuts out of the fire?

Cristian UNTEANU