Ros-Lehtinen: Obama wrong to give ‘blank check’ to PA

[azurnoir]

WASHINGTON – Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, incoming chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, blasted the Obama administration on Wednesday for giving the Palestinian Authority a “blank check” while pressuring Israel, signaling that a Republican-led House would complicate one of the major prongs of the White House’s emerging strategy for moving forward with the peace process.

With direct talks between the two sides stalled, the administration announced last week it planned to intensify Palestinian state-building as a means of making progress on the ground toward a peace agreement for a two-state solution. The US has supplied hundreds of millions of dollars toward this end, with the expectation that it would now, if anything, be increasing its assistance.

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“It’s a bailout for them which provides no incentives for them to reform. So they know they don’t have to do a darn thing – with this administration they will get a blank check and they will always get helped out,” she said of over $200 million in American funds the Palestinians received this past year alone.

“I think that’s the wrong approach, when we’re forcing the Israelis to make concessions and we’re giving the Palestinians anything they want,” she said.

Though many in the US administration and even some in Israel’s government have praised the work of PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, who under President Mahmoud Abbas oversees the institution-building and training of Palestinian security forces facilitated by the United States, Ros- Lehtinen urged close scrutiny of their activities.

http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=199819

[flamingdem]

1. She has no problem handing over blank checks to anti_Cuban terrorists in Miami nt

[Ken Burch]

2. Well, other than the fact that Obama did no such thing, I suppose she COULD have a point...

She probably thinks it's the Palestinians' fault that Fidel is still alive and the Cuban people haven't willingly redegraded themselves by inviting the Miami Gusanos to come back and rule again.