Abbas aides: U.S. pledges end to embargo

[rodeodance]

Source: ap



Abbas aides: U.S. pledges end to embargo

By KARIN LAUB, Associated Press Writer 7 minutes ago

RAMALLAH, West Bank - The United States strengthened its offer of support for President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday, telling him an international aid embargo against the Palestinians would end as soon as he forms a new government without Hamas, aides to Abbas said.

Hundreds of Fatah gunmen stormed Hamas-controlled institutions across the
West Bank, seeking revenge for the Islamic group's takeover of the
Gaza Strip, while Hamas forces blew up the home of a prominent Fatah family and deployed at strategic locations to solidify their control of Gaza.

The battles between the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip and the Fatah-controlled West Bank have effectively turned the areas into separate political entities, endangering the Palestinian dream of forming an independent state in the two territories.

The aides to Abbas, speaking on condition of anonymity because the talks were closed, said the U.S. consul general in Jerusalem, Jacob Walles, told Abbas that the U.S. supports his recent steps and that the foreign aid embargo on the Palestinian government would be lifted the moment the new government is formed.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070616/ap_on_re_mi_ea/israel_palestinians;_ylt=AvpL9_Te5nrd4c3pPzwUbNms0NUE

[ohio2007]

1. Hamas will just invade the west bank and take whatever aid we send to Fatah

Hamas is going to take the West Bank, probably within a month, definitely within six months. Arafat's Fatah party has as much future as the Stegosaurus.

Certain items shouldn't be allowed through as "aid" but we never learn...
ie
Every dollar, round of ammo, intelligence document, troop carrier, box of C4, everything, that we send to Fatah is going to end up in Hamas' hands. Why don't we save everyone the time and just give it directly to Hamas?

We play with fire,
we get burned when
we choose sides.

Why is it that the majority of aid has to come from the US,EU and Canada anyway ?

They hate everything that is western yet...............
hey, let them work out their differences between themselves,let nature take its course,let survival of the fittest run its course,
let them survive without U$ help.

[IndianaGreen]

2. You can't "invade" your own country!

Gaza is culturally and religiously different from the West Bank. Had Israel withdrawn to the pre-1967 borders, it would have been a matter of time before Gaza and the West Bank split apart the Palestinian state, much as East Pakistan split from West Pakistan.

[ohio2007]

5. They are a "non country" looking for statehood

Who will grant statehood to these gang banga's ?
They deserve a state as much as the bloods or the cripts .

[IndianaGreen]

8. They have as much right to their own country as that European enclave next door

America's mistake was in failing to recognize the results of the Palestinian elections and trying to micromanage Palestinian politics, all of it without having a peace process in place.

[ohio2007]

9. America's mistake ?

You don't remember why the EU,Canada and the US suspended foreign aid to support when Hamas was asked a certain question about sitting down to discuss peace with "the European enclave".

I'd prefer we prop up our own dysfunctional systems in america as opposed to aiding to maintain the dysfunctional status quo systems set up outside our borders.

[maddezmom]

3. U.S. strenghtens support offer to Abbas

RAMALLAH, West Bank - The U.S. strengthened its offer of support for President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday, telling him an international aid embargo against the Palestinians would end as soon as he forms a new government without Hamas, aides to Abbas said.

The United States and European Union have backed Abbas in light of the upheaval that has remade the Palestinian territories. Jacob Walles, the American consul-general in Jerusalem, said Saturday he expects Washington to lift the 15-month economic embargo.


more;http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070616/ap_on_re_mi_ea/israel_palestinians

[CONN]

4. Another example of US supporting Democracy...

...or is it an example of doing everything to overthrow democratically elected government. Perhaps if the US had been more supportive they could have nudged the elected government to an amicable arrangement of coexistence with Isreal.

[ohio2007]

6. Get Hamas to coexist with Isreal ? They have sworn to wipe Israel

from the face of the map. They have sworn NEVER to recognize Israel.EVER.It is who they are.
Put down the crack pipe.

[azurnoir]

10. As did Egypt and Jordan at one time

but eventually they did "recognize" Israel, it is possible Hamas would have too, in time. Mean while they do not have the capability of "wiping Israel from the map", but what Gaza does have is a huge off shore natural gas reserve, discovered 6 years after the agreement to make Gaza an autonomous zone.

[ohio2007]

11. Hamas only needs to launch a few more rockets into Israel

and the world can start to blame Israel for causing the fallout and reoccupation of the Gaza Strip

Israel plans attack on Gaza
snip

According to senior Israeli military sources, the plan calls for 20,000 troops to destroy much of Hamas’s military capability in days.

The raid would be triggered by Hamas rocket attacks against Israel or a resumption of suicide bombings.

snip
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article1942918.ece

Is this not a case study to proove Hamas will NOT talk to Israel ? If ever they were in a position to talk peace it is now. They are the undisputed voice in the Gaza strip.

Hamas has a chance to "extend the olive branch" of peace to Israel right here, right now. In a token jesture of not attacking Israel with home made rockets would be a sure sign of maturity.
right?



http://conflictblotter.com/2007/06/15/hamastan-day-one
LOL
like that is going to happen.
How long til the suicide border attacks resume by the masked gunmen ?

[azurnoir]

12. The stage is already set

Just what inducement has Israel to deal with Hamas now? With Abbas being "declared" the official Palestinian leader, Haneya will be declared an outlaw illegally occupying Gaza and will be removed by force, most likely by an Israeli invasion.

[MrPrax]

7. Do everything but talk...

Robert Fisk: Welcome to 'Palestine'

Saturday, June 16, 2007

How troublesome the Muslims of the Middle East are. First, we demand that the Palestinians embrace democracy and then they elect the wrong party - Hamas - and then Hamas wins a mini-civil war and presides over the Gaza Strip.

And we Westerners still want to negotiate with the discredited President, Mahmoud Abbas. Today "Palestine" - and let's keep those quotation marks in place - has two prime ministers. Welcome to the Middle East.

Who can we negotiate with? To whom do we talk? Well of course, we should have talked to Hamas months ago. But we didn't like the democratically elected government of the Palestinian people. They were supposed to have voted for Fatah and its corrupt leadership. But they voted for Hamas, which declines to recognise Israel or abide by the totally discredited Oslo agreement.

No one asked - on our side - which particular Israel Hamas was supposed to recognise. The Israel of 1948? The Israel of the post-1967 borders? The Israel which builds - and goes on building - vast settlements for Jews and Jews only on Arab land, gobbling up even more of the 22 per cent of " Palestine" still left to negotiate over ?

....

So what will we do? Support the reoccupation of Gaza perhaps? Certainly we will not criticise Israel. And we shall go on giving our affection to the kings and princes and unlovely presidents of the Middle East until the whole place blows up in our faces and then we shall say - as we are already saying of the Iraqis - that they don't deserve our sacrifice and our love.

How do we deal with a coup d'état by an elected government?

Belfast Telegraph

Good points...and probably the first time in history an elected government staged a coup against itself...

All sorts of little brush fires going on over there...