Posted on 05/09/2006 3:39:58 PM PDT by SmithL
The United States bowed to pressure from its allies on Tuesday and agreed to support a new program to temporarily funnel additional humanitarian aid directly to the Palestinian people.
A statement by Mideast peacemakers, issued after a day of closed-door diplomatic meetings, did not suggest precisely how much or what kind of aid they would provide. But the agreement seemed to underscore a concern that months of withholding most aid from the Palestinians, part of an effort to pressure the new Hamas-led government toward a more accommodating stance with Israel, was harming the Palestinian people.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the European Union would take the lead in the new effort. The United Nations and Russia, the other partners in the Quartet peacemaking group along with the U.S., also endorsed the program.
"The thrust of this is the international community is still trying to respond to the needs of the Palestinian people," Rice said.
The U.S. and European Union have cut off much of the aid that had flowed in the past to Palestinian programs, working to prevent any of it from helping Hamas, the militant Islamic group that has conducted numerous terrorist attacks.
The cutoff has left the Palestinian government virtually broke and increasingly unable to provide basic services. Some 165,000 government workers, whose incomes had supported one-third of Palestinian families, have not been paid for the past two months.
Going into Tuesday's meetings at the United Nations, Rice said she was urging the allies to retain a hard-line approach toward aid that could end up benefiting Hamas.
After a second session, the diplomats produced a statement expressing their willingness "to endorse a temporary international mechanism that is limited in scope and duration, operates with full transparency and accountability, and ensures direct delivery of any assistance
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Hilter was democratically elected as well
And the rich Arab countries won't support their own why???
Part of the War on Terror, I'm sure. :(
The west never learns.
Send them Pat Buchanan. He can keep the Catholic Mexicans out.
This is great news, why are we going to aid terrorists? WTF
My beliefs changed a lot once that I read Natan Sharanksy's book "The Case for Democracy".
From that book, just because there's a "free" vote doesn't mean that there is a democracy because the institutions are not in place so that people can be free. Clearly, the institutions in "Palestine" and Iraq did not meet that minimal criteria.
I am sure that Bush knows this because it was one of his favorite books and he invited Sharansky to the White House. I am guessing that he figured that these forced elections before the foundation for democracy existed was better than having nothing.
It's not a perfect world.
We are well past dumber, we are in an uncharted, never before reached, areas of stupid.
We are fighting the War on Terror and we are aiding terrorists? So we don't look mean? WTF
ummmm.........................why?
"We give you the freedom to vote, but along with that freedom comes a responsibility... A responsibility to vote for the correct party"
~ Lee Kwan Yew
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