[Marxism] U.S.: "Our fingers were crossed on Palestine aid"

[Eli Stephens <elishastephens@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Links and formatting in the original:
 http://lefti.blogspot.com/2009_03_01_archive.html#7099350939033287178

When the U.S. "pledged" $900 million for Palestine (of which from the start not 
one penny was going to be allowed to be spent on Gaza reconstruction, 
notwithstanding that the destruction of Gaza was accomplished with U.S. 
weapons), I wrote:

    We underscore that word "pledging," and remind readers that 50% of people 
in the United States who "pledge" their eternal loyalty in marriage end up 
divorced, indicating the tenuous reality of that word.

Well, I don't want to claim prescience (oh hell, why not?), but here's the news 
today:

    Some $900 million pledged by the United States to the Palestinians will be 
withdrawn if the expected Palestinian Authority coalition government between 
Fatah and Hamas does not recognize Israel's right to exist, Western and Israeli 
diplomats said Wednesday.

    During her visit to the region last week Secretary of State Hillary Clinton 
warned Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas against forming a 
coalition with Hamas that will not meet the expectations of the Quartet.

    Clinton told Abbas that Congress will not approve funding of a Palestinian 
government that does not recognize Israel's right to exist and renounce 
violence.

Requiring Israel to recognize Palestine's "right to exist" and renounce 
violence as a condition for its $3 billion/year in aid? I must have missed that 
part in Clinton's speech.

What this is really about, by the way, isn't aid at all. It's the U.S.' way of 
once again interfering in the internal political affairs of the Palestinian 
people, blackmailing Fatah in order to prevent any coalition government with 
Hamas.



Eli Stephens
 Left I on the News
 http://lefti.blogspot.com


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