U.S. Unfreezes Millions in Aid to Palestinians

[Scurrilous]

Source: New York Times

<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."

<snip>

"The Associated Press reported that a Hamas spokesman, Sami Abu Zuhri, accused the international community of hypocrisy, noting that Hamas had defeated Fatah in parliamentary elections in 2006. “This confirms the falseness of the international community’s support for democracy,” he said."





Read more: http://nytimes.com/2007/06/19/world/middleeast/19diplo.html?ref=europe

[Amonester]

1. Constitution ... Democracy ...

No:

Money ... Oligarchy ...


No:

Constitution ... Democracy ...


No. No, no, no:

Money. Oligarchy.


(Heck of a job, Repugnant$.)

[aquart]

2. Oh, brilliant.

They couldn't let them have it when they were elected, only now that they're running for their lives?

BushCo genius strikes again.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

3. a day late and a dollar short.

talk about a screwn policy.
WE FORCE an election on an unready Palestine, WE GET PISSED when people we don't like win, WE CALL them terra-ists, WE CREATE a deadly embargo, only to have it explode in our face, WE SCREW UP Israel by pushing them to invade another country, and now we turn around and say, oh, say, let me have a mulligan. "FORE".

[Thor_MN]

4. Standard * rules, if you aren't winning, change the rules.

Little shit grew up doing it, and Babs didn't have time to waste her beautiful mind to teach the little bastard anything like morals. Lord of the Flies, on a National scale.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

6. but * is inconsistent at the same time.

He is all "stay the coarse" about Iraq, then he jumps from one bad policy to another in Palestine.

[maddezmom]

5. Hamas accuses West of playing politics with aid

Hamas accuses West of playing politics with aid by Adel Zaanoun
26 minutes ago



GAZA CITY (AFP) - The Islamists of Hamas accused the West on Tuesday of playing politics with Palestinian aid after it resumed assistance to the government in the West Bank while their Gaza bastion remains under Israeli blockade.

The United States and Europe restored direct aid to the Palestinians on Monday in a show of support for president Mahmud Abbas, who set up an emergency government when his Hamas rivals seized power in Gaza last week after days of brutal bloodletting.

"By announcing their political and financial support for the Palestinian Authority, the West is backing an illegimate government," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said.

EU and US support for the government of prime minister Salam Fayyad was "an attempt to manipulate the Palestinian people and distance it from Hamas," he charged, adding that the strategy would not work.

Hamas's seizure of Gaza after vicious street battles with loyalists of Abbas's secular Fatah faction that left more than 110 people dead has driven a deep wedge in Palestinian society.

more:http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070619/wl_afp/mideast_070619114849;_ylt=AtR2KhFDn8SDmqZYqtN0DTuQOrgF

[bemildred]

7. I doubt whether making Abbas look even more like a stooge will

improve the situation at this point, although releasing the stolen funds is of course the right thing to do.

[Scurrilous]

8. Jimmy Carter says U.S. aims to split Palestinians

<snip>

"Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter said on Tuesday Washington's support for the Palestinian Fatah group and the blocking of aid to Gaza were part of a mistaken policy aimed at dividing Palestinians."

<snip>

"Carter, on a visit to Dublin, said the United States and Israel had done "everything they could to prevent accommodation between Hamas and Fatah".

"Lately, the United States has been giving military aid to Fatah in order to conquer Hamas in Gaza," Carter told reporters after addressing a human rights forum in Dublin.

"Fatah could not prevail because of the fervent commitment of some of the Hamas fighters and because of their discipline," he added."

<snip>

"Carter, who brokered the Camp David accords between Israel and Egypt in 1978, said moves to give Palestinians assistance in the West Bank was an attempt to "reward them", while continuing to "punish" the 1.5 million aid-dependent Palestinians in Gaza.

"This effort to divide Palestine into two peoples now, I think it is a step in the wrong direction," Carter said."

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L19320798.htm