Israel’s acting finance minister Ehud Olmert ends Washington talks without US commitment on Israel's $2.1bn aid request for disengagement costs. Can you believe that?
“It would be strange,” Olmert said after meeting secretary of state Condoleezza Rice Wednesday “If America withheld the grant,” which Israel has sought to help defray the costs of relocating Gaza communities and army infrastructure.
Strange? Talk about understatement...........it would be perverse, depraved.
DEBKAfile’s Washington sources note that, while heaping praise on Ariel Sharon for his courage in going through with the dismantling of 25 Israeli communities, the Bush administration will hold back financial assistance until he makes good on the “understood” position. This means that the West Bank security fence must exclude Maale Adumim, Gush Etzion, the Binyamin bloc near Ramallah, Ariel and the Beit Arieh region commanding Israel’s international airport. Israel will also be asked to continue pulling back from West Bank territory.
Are they kidding? They must be kidding. Billions to those dancing in the streets on 9/11.
Caroline Glick writes eloquently and sorrowfully of the disengagement;
And so, even as our souls cry out in pain as we stare wild-eyed at the sight of 8,000
Jewish patriots, transformed in a moment into homeless, wandering Jews in the Land of Israel, our duty is to soldier on and work to preempt further destruction.
The foundational myth of the Left is that Jewish extremism, not Palestinian terrorism, is the cause of Israel's present security woes and the source of the constant wars that have plagued us since the dawn of modern Zionism. What we saw this week was that these people – whom one British reporter standing outside the synagogue in the now-ruined city of Neveh Dekalim ever so eloquently referred to last Thursday as "the hardest of the hard-line settlers" – are anything but extreme.
The expelled residents of Gush Katif – from the farmers of Atzmona,
Katif, Netzarim, Netzer Hazani and Kfar Darom, the surfers and fishermen of Shirat Hayam, the Torah scholars of Neveh Dekalim and the mothers of Gadid – are not "hard-line" or "extremists." They are the finest sons and daughters of Israel. They are the bravest soldiers in the Israeli military and the most patriotic citizens that Israel has produced.
The heroism the Jews of Gaza and northern Samaria displayed in the face of their own destruction is of another order altogether. Standing before their own army, on the surface, they were faced with a terrible choice. Do they fight their countrymen to maintain their communities, or do they accept their cruel and inexplicable fate?
and the US is playing hardball with assistance? Look at what Israel contributes to the world and to the greater good. And what have the Palestinians done? Taught the world to mercilessly murder to get anything you want. Is this what we, a free people, are advocating?
Palestinian aid boost backed, 3 Billion
The leaders of the Group of Eight gave strong support Friday to a new initiative to give $3bn a year in aid to the Palestinian authority once Israel withdraws from the Gaza Strip this year.
No firm decisions on the aid package were taken at the G8 summit in Gleneagles. But diplomats from some non-UK countries suggested that significant momentum had built up among the leaders to agree a package this year.
This is on top of the 350 million Bush just gave the Palis back in February
WASHINGTON — Eager to help Middle East peacemaking and combatPalestinian poverty, President Bush said Wednesday he would seek $350 million to support the Palestinians.
"The beginnings of reform and democracy in the Palestinian territories are showing the power of freedom to break old patterns of violence and failure," the president said, noting that he is sending Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to the region early next week.
He said the money would go toward political, economic and social reforms for the Palestinians. (photo: Palestinians dancing in the streets on 9/11)
I am sure President Bush would like very much to see these funds go toward political, economic and social reforms for the Palestinians, "ending poverty". But that is self deluding. Keeping the Palis in abject poverty is the objective of Islamic Jihad as it provides a priceless marketing tool in the war against the existence of Israel.
The Arab states have done nothing, nothing to alleviate Palestinian "suffering". To the contrary they have gone out of their way to keep the Palestinians in refugee camps, in squalor, for all these decades.
I think it is disgusting that we are playing possum with Israel. We should be ashamed of ourselves.
Israeli success in curbing Hepatitis A to be model for other countries
Israel's
'Accordion Pill' unfolds according to plan -
Using the secrets of the brain to promote scientific cooperation
Israeli breakthrough - Frozen ovarian tissue transplant reverses infertility
Israeli researchers bring nanotechnologies to life
Israeli researchers coax liver cells to produce insulin
Israeli breakthrough: Cholesterol drugs reduce risk of cancer -
Israeli technology unmasks Internet scam artists
Israeli device goes straight to the bone
Investors converge on Israel for bio-technology meet -
California VCs look to Israel for the next big thing
Israeli 'baseball' camera spies out terrorists
Israel lauded for pioneering work in VoIP
Israeli discovers way to breathe underwater without oxygen tanks
and thats just a few of the contributions Israel has made to humanity over the past couple of months. Who can the Palestinians rely on for their economy and healthcare if not Israel? Terrorist organizations like Islamic Jihad? Hamas? Hizbollah? Is that what the money is for?
Think about it.
