Resumption of US aid to Palestine

[jimlup]

As always the Bush administration is the last one to get a clue that they need to act. This is probably too late to help:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/06/18/palestinian.cabinet/index.html

God, this administration is so helpless and clueless!

[kenny blankenship]

1. What are the chances that this aid will take a form (guns, training) that'll exacerbate the crisis?

Like the arms and training which the Bushler Administration (and Israel) supplied to the Fatah gunmen who just bought the farm in Gaza.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/17/AR2007051700419.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/28/AR2006122801126.html

[Bragi]

2. On the upside...

The fact that the US is supporting the party that was defeated in last year's elections after undermining the government elected by Palestinians (a fact now lost in the mists of time) has at least halted to flow of sickening blather from Bush about how the US is committed to democracy in the Middle East. In bleak situations, one must be thankful for even the smallest of blessings...

- B

[Scurrilous]

3. U.S. Unfreezes Millions in Aid to Palestinians

<snip>

"The United States on Monday ended an economic and political embargo of the Palestinian Authority in a bid to bolster President Mahmoud Abbas and the new Fatah-led emergency government he has established in the West Bank as a counterweight to Hamas-controlled Gaza.

The American decision freed up tens of millions of dollars in aid to the Palestinians that has been frozen since the Hamas victory in legislative elections in early 2006. The European Union similarly announced plans to resume direct aid to the Palestinians, while Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel would release to Mr. Abbas Palestinian tax revenues that Israel has withheld since Hamas took control of the Palestinian parliament.

But in siding so firmly with Mr. Abbas, the Bush administration steered into new territory in its dealings with the Palestinians, as it essentially threw its support behind the dismantling of a democratically elected government. Mr. Abbas’s decision to strip Hamas of its representation in the National Security Council to form a new emergency government has already kindled a legal battle over whether he has overstepped boundaries laid out in the Palestinian constitution.

The American moves amount to a major step toward what some call a “West Bank first” strategy in which money, aid and international political recognition would be heaped on the West Bank, leaving Gaza to be ruled by Hamas, largely as its fief.

But Middle East experts said the Palestinian constitution might allow Mr. Abbas’s emergency government to remain in power for only 60 days, and Hamas, which won the last legislative elections, has indicated that it will not agree to new elections on Mr. Abbas’s timetable."

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