EU Releases Aid to Palestinians

AP via Newsday ^ | June 19, 2002, 3:31 PM EDT | PAUL GEITNER

[Jean S]

European Union lawmakers voted Wednesday to release $17.7 million in aid to the Palestinians that had been held up over accusations some of the money was going to fund terrorism.

The vote included a demand for disclosure about how the money is spent. It came after EU external affairs commissioner Chris Patten defended efforts to track the more than $1.3 billion spent in the past decade on projects in the occupied territories.

[DoughtyOne]

The usual suspects are tied at the hip. I wonder how much UN funds, translate that donated US funds, are going to the Palis.

[Shermy]

"If we turn our back on this, any words about Europe having a part in the Mideast peace process are pretty worthless," he said."

Stockholm Syndrome, liberal self-hate, or he's been corrupted. If he wants his "Europe" to have any part, he should withhold every penny. Then they'll come hat in hand.

KN - perhaps more Eurocrat v. National action here, trying to usurp foreign policy?

[Puppage]

Well, I guess the Israelis will just have to do 17.8 million in attack damage.

[SJackson]

Does this mean the PA is out of explosives or nails? They don't seem to run out of bombers.

[knighthawk]

I thought the money was hold back because the Palestinian schoolbooks preached violence. The new schoolbooks don't do that anymore, according to the EU.

But that still leaves the PA media, who go on inciting hatred and violence.

[rageaholic]

Another attempt by the cowardly EU to appease the Arabs. When their imported Islamic "population bomb" detonates, they'll be crying to us for help again.

[Malcolm]

I tell you what. Seeing how our European "allies" have acted towards us over the last 20-30 years, the next time they need us, we ought to pass on that one. They're at such odds with us over a plethora of issues, it's as if the USSR and Europe have exchanged their former roles, the Russians now relatively more helpful allies, the EU constantly criticizing a nation much more free than their own. Who are the Europeans to criticize the US on ANYTHING???

[Clive]

Somehow the fact that money is a fungible seems to have escaped the EU parliament.

If you give money to the Palestinians, it increases their wealth and increases their ability to fund terrorism.

Wheat is a fungible, If the wheat that was used to bake my bread came from a Saskatchewan elevator after the last harvest, which farmer's wheat was used to bake my bread?