US agrees to double emergency equipment in Israel

[Scurrilous]

<snip>

"The US Congress provided Israel financial and security encouragement when it approved to double US emergency equipment stored in Israeli stockpiles, valuing $100 million.

Within the next two years Americans will fill the military emergency stockpiles in Israel with double the equipment they now hold. In addition, the US will allow Israel to use the remainder of the US's monetary guarantees, which are to total $4.5 billion by 2011.

The stockpiles are US military equipment in case of an emergency in the Middle East, which Israel has permission to use.

When the government restocks, the value of the equipment will double to $200 million and an additional $200 million the year after.

Congress decided to give special aid to Israel in order to minimize war damages, without having to give Israel additional direct financial aid."

http://www.israeltoday.co.il/default.aspx?tabid=178&nid=10674

[Tom Joad]

1. Congress should have acted this decisively when New Orleans was devasted.

Even today, i expect a hundred US cities could very much need this kind of emergency aid.

[TomInTib]

4. My thoughts, exactly when I saw the OP

Well, I suppose the government has its priorities.

[idontwantaname]

2. shits gonna hit the fan in the ME huh? n/t.

[oberliner]

3. From the same source:

Heading For Civil War? America beefs up Abbas’ security force

<snip>

Under an American plan, Abbas’ “Presidential Guard” will be expanded by about 70 percent. Since Hamas came to power, the unit went from 2,500 troops to around 4,000 with plans to reach 6,000.

Palestinian and Israeli security sources say the US is raising $20 million for the program, which includes American training, European equipment and Egyptian and Jordanian weapons. A team of US security trainers has already been working secretly with Presidential Guard members at a smaller, existing base in Jericho. It’s part of America’s strategy in the region: Strengthen Arab moderates, while weakening the radicals.

http://www.israeltoday.co.il/default.aspx?tabid=132&view=item&idx=1159

Interesting in the context of the orginal article.

[Tom Joad]

5. Me thinks this is really -- US pushing for Palestinian Civil War.

[bemildred]

6. Not exactly.

It means the effort to strangle Hamas has failed, and so, all of a sudden, these fuckwits have noticed that the loss of Fatah/Abbas could be a bad thing. And so, consistent with their "thinking" elsewhere, instead of working with Abbas and supporting him long ago, addressing the grievances that push the Palestinian citizenry into the arms of Hamas, now we get inadequate attempts to redress the matter by use of force.

[breakaleg]

7. And now if Fatah could be viewed as in bed with the US which may not get them

the kind of support they need.

[bemildred]

8. I think PLO/Fatah are kind of toasted, for that reason.

The one thing that might fix it is the resurrection of Barghouti, which does seem to be under discussion at this point (shhhh). It's getting a bit hard to follow the script, though, hard to predict what comes next. Olmert is thrashing around like a harpooned whale.

[Tom Joad]

9. I think the PLO can be fixed, because it includes all the factions,

theortically.

I do think the relese of Barghouti is very important. It would help ease the situation tremendously (but i doubt that the US/Israel wants the situation eased) Another key would be to end sanctions against a people under military occupation.

[bemildred]

10. Contrary to what you might think, the US/Israel is not a monolithic entity.

Israel is not a monolithic entity even all by itself. One of the things that seems to be happening right now is that some elements in the US ruling elites are fed up with Bush's disastrous foreign policy, one aspect of which is the US' lickspittle support for the Israeli governments disastrous policies. Similar disputes are occurring in Israel. Chickens are coming home to roost. This pre-positioned stuff is just emergency aid, which indicates how much was pissed away for nothing in Lebanon, and the fact that Israel has no quick organic means to restore the resources squandered there. Stay tuned.

The situation with the Palestinians now is governed mainly by that fact, the failure of the Lebanon war and the need to reform and refit and retrain and resupply, and of course the fact that stability in the Middle East in general is circling the drain is a relevant cause for that concern about military readiness.

[Lurking Dem]

11. Here's where I part ways

with some of my pro-Israel brethren.

I think Barghouti may be Palestine's (and, hence, Israel's) best hope.