Plan to pay Palestinian wages faces US objections - Bush says let em starve

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L01694173.htm

JERUSALEM, May 1 (Reuters) - The United States is trying to block Arab and European proposals to pay salaries directly to Palestinian Authority workers to ease the Hamas-led government's funding crisis, Western diplomats said on Monday.

The Authority is $1.3 billion in debt and has no income to pay long overdue salaries to 165,000 government employees.

It has been unable to receive funds from abroad because local, regional and international banks fear sanctions by the United States, which regards Hamas as a terrorist organisation.

Diplomats said U.S. pressure on banks could scuttle plans by the Cairo-based Arab League to sidestep U.S. restrictions by making direct deposits into the accounts of Authority workers.

[gratuitous]

1. That'll learn Hamas!

Just because they won a popular election is no reason the Palestinians should think they govern themselves.

We're letting another historic moment slip away, thanks to the chowderheads in the corrupt Bush administration. This is a golden opportunity to make Hamas accountable for something other than violence, yet for an administration that only knows how to use a hammer, every situation inevitably looks like a nail.

[DBoon]

3. elections work only if "your" candidate wins

Bush knows from personal experience

[Fredda Weinberg]

4. Hamas had their moment

I was actually hopeful for a moment, then Hamas declared they wouldn't accept previously negotiated agreements.

It's not like the Palestinians didn't know the consequences.

[gratuitous]

5. But what's the alternative?

And who is to decide when a people's "moment" is over? You? Me?

Like it or not, Hamas is in power over the Palestinians. Simply saying you're not going to play ball with them, and cutting off all aid to the area, is no way to "negotiate" with the folks in power.

It further radicalizes the Palestinian people, who, I'm loth to say are a great deal more aware of the consequences of their actions than little old me, sitting in relative safety thousands of miles away. What is it about their current situation that makes a horrible death in an explosion preferable? Why would a plurality of Palestinians prefer to be represented by a "terrorist" organization than the party of the man who represented them (Arafat) to the world for so many years?

Until we start getting behind these questions, and stop treating the Palestinians like some mongrel people that isn't smart enough to manage its own affairs, we're going to continue to have an intolerable situation. If you cage a people and treat them like mad dogs long enough, it shouldn't be surprising that they'll bite when they have the chance.

[Fredda Weinberg]

7. And if they stay in a cage?

For me, the people's "movement" ended when Clinton gave up - and it bothers me that the refugee camps still exist so the Palestinians don't surrender their "rights" to return to cities like Tel Aviv or Haifa.

If you truly believe in democracy, then the Palestinians have the government they deserve - and knew the consequences of electing it.

Mad dogs? Hardly, but after a half-century of foreign assistance, I think we could agree it's time for the Palestinians to indeed manage their own affairs - and accepting Israel as their neighbor should be a necessary first step.

[gratuitous]

8. Are we talking about moment or a movement

And remember that the Bush campaign signaled to the Israeli government that if it just stalled for a little while late in 2000, they'd get much more favorable treatment should the Bushistas come to power in the United States. What consequences should be visited upon the Israelis for electing a man with the track record of Ariel Sharon? The same consequences that should come to the Palestinians?

Considering that the ruling authority in Israel has not accepted a de facto legitimacy for the Palestinians to exist for 50 years, it seems to me that both sides are locked in their intransigence. But only one side seems to merit consequences for that intransigence. While the Bush administration cuts off all aid to the Palestinians, billions continue to flow to Israel uninterrupted every month. Palestinian refugee camps might not have to exist if Israel granted building permits to the Palestinians or stopped bulldozing "illegal" houses, but strangely that subject never quite makes the news.

[Fredda Weinberg]

9. Ah, where do I begin?

Are you aware that Sharon dismantled the settlements in Sinai so there could be peace with Egypt? No? I'm not surprised.

I know it's fashionable to blame him for the Phalangist massacre in Sabra and Shatilla, but I remember the situation was more complicated.

As for his track record, his reputation was as a maverick commander who won decisive victories. I wasn't happy that he decided to visit the Western Wall while Barak was waiting for Arafat, but I also resent those who seem to feel that Jews have no rights to our homeland. When Jordan controlled it, Jews weren't allowed to pray at our holiest shrine ... now, you have a mosque where demonstrators regularly throw stones down on other worshippers.

You claim that Israel has not accepted a "de facto" legitimacy for the Palestinians; may I remind you that it was the Oslo accord that brought the PLO back from exile, agreement with the Israelis that established the PA and the transfer of millions in tax revenues that kept the authority running.

I wish Israel were responsible for the refugee camps - but Palestinians remain there voluntarily to continue receiving benefits and retain their rights.

[Burning Water]

2. Well, the merits of this

proposal could be discussed. But how is this actually any different from paying the money to the PA? Except probably much less would be skimmed off by corrupt bureaucrats, I don't see that it keeps the pressure on Hamas to renounce violence. In other words, it lets them slide. Whether or not that is the desired outcome should be considered.

If their people starve, the responsibility would belong to Hamas, IMO

[MisterP]

6. cake first, ingredients later!

[Yupster]

10. I thought Iran and Saudi Arabia

said they'd pick up the tab for the Palestinians?

No?