Imagine that George Bush and Nancy Pelosi had private armies. Mostly, they shoot at Canadians, but every once in awhile they shoot at each other. Can you imagine that it would be a good idea to give “security” — military — aid to one side or the other? Even if one side promised that they really wanted peace with the Canadians (but still shoot at them)?
The US has recalibrated its “security assistance” package to the Palestinians, and it will be somewhat less than the $86 million originally planned:
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Wednesday she would soon send Congress a revised package that will ensure only security elements loyal to PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas receive the aid.
“I have reformulated the plan, its almost ready to come to you,” Rice told lawmakers. “It will request less money, precisely because some of the money I would have requested I could not fully account for.”
She did not provide specifics of the reduction but said the new plan would leave intact a “firewall” aimed at keeping the money away from Hamas, a partner in the new Palestinian Authority unity government established last weekend. — Jerusalem Post
How can anything good come out of putting more weapons and ammunition in the hands of anyone in the PA? Israel tried it during the Oslo period (they gave Arafat weapons that had been captured from the PLO in the first Lebanon war!), and of course the guns were soon turned on Israelis. I don’t know how the “firewall” is supposed to work, but some of the $100 million of tax money which Israel recently gave Abbas was used to pay Hamas “security” forces.
The Palestinians received $1.2 billion in aid in 2006 (up from $1 billion in 2005), mostly from Europe, despite the alleged “sanctions” against Hamas. Of course almost none of this ‘humanitarian’ aid reached any hungry humans; most went to the private armies.
Technorati Tags: Israel, Palestinians, Rice, Hamas, Abbas