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Obama Follows Bush Line on Aid to Gaza
SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt - The US was last night expected to pledge $US300 million ($A470 million) in humanitarian aid for the Gaza Strip after the 22-day Israeli offensive but will maintain restrictions to stop any of the money getting to Hamas.
In this photo released by the U.S. Embassy in Egypt, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, left, meets with Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa on the sidelines of the Egypt-hosted international conference on rebuilding Gaza, in Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt Monday, March 2, 2009. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, on her first foray into Middle East diplomacy, declared the Obama administration committed to pushing intensively to find a way for Israelis and Palestinians to exist peacefully in separate states. (AP Photo/U.S. Embassy in Egypt, Sameh Refaat) US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who arrived in Egypt on Sunday to take part in a donors' conference for the reconstruction of Gaza, was also expected to announce $US600 million in help to the Palestinian Authority. The Palestinian Authority is controlled by Hamas' main rival, Fatah, which is ruling by emergency decree in the occupied West Bank.
The extra money not aimed at Gaza includes $US200 million to pay Palestinian Authority wages - much of which was previously announced - and $US400 million to support development in the West Bank. The full package awaits congressional approval.
Taken together, the announcements underscore how little the Obama Administration's policy towards the Palestinian issue has so far differed from the Bush administration's.
Although Mr Obama has named a Middle East envoy, a step George Bush resisted, the policy to be outlined at the conference indicates that the Administration will maintain a tough stance on Hamas, seeking to bolster the Islamist movement's rivals and keeping its distance from Palestinian efforts to create a unity government.
Mrs Clinton, making her first visit to the Middle East as chief US diplomat, did not speak to reporters on her arrival in Egypt.
Although the international quartet - the US, European Union, United Nations and Russia - has set conditions for dealings with Hamas, the EU has been looking for some sign of greater flexibility from the US on helping Gaza.
The question of engagement with Hamas will become more acute if negotiations between it and Fatah on a unity government are successful. The Bush administration shunned the previous unity government between March and June 2007.
"We're talking about an administration that is only one month in," US State Department spokesman Robert Wood said, when asked why Mr Obama appeared to be keeping to Mr Bush's path.
Gaza, where unemployment tops 40 per cent and 80 per cent of the population lives below the poverty line, was devastated by the recent offensive, which Israel launched after a ceasefire broke down and Hamas rockets rained down on Israeli towns.
Former British prime minister Tony Blair, a special envoy of the quartet, visited a UN school in the Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun on Sunday and later told al-Jazeera TV the devastation was "very shocking".
Mr Blair, accompanied by the UN Relief and Works Agency's head in Gaza, John Ging, said Israel should immediately lift its economic blockade of the strip.
"I think there is a recognition that we have got to change our strategy towards Gaza," he said.
"I don't think anybody can come here and not be appalled by what is happening."
Mr Blair also visited Sderot, an Israeli town that has been frequently struck by Palestinian rockets in recent years.
Palestinian officials hope to raise as much as $US2.8 billion in humanitarian relief and reconstruction aid for Gaza. But Israel maintains tight control of crossings into Gaza and will not allow entry of any items that it says could be used by Hamas to re-arm. It bans or restricts the importing of cement, steel rods and other material necessary for construction.
International aid groups and Hamas have called for the crossings to be opened, saying the closures unfairly punish civilians.
The US position on humanitarian aid has been similar to Israel's stance, although on a recent visit by US politicians Massachusetts senator John Kerry complained to Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak about Israel's refusal to allow pasta through the crossing.
Israel insists that any humanitarian aid should pass through established agencies such as the UN, said Jonathan Peled, spokesman for the Israeli embassy in Washington.
Mrs Clinton is expected to hold talks today with Israeli officials, including Mr Olmert and Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu.
Agencies
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17 Comments so far
Show AllThe more it "changes", the more it looks the same.
US politicians are bought and sold by the like of AIPAC.....
So much for Clinton's "bold" comments about Gaza.
q
If Israel believes so much in the United Nations, perhaps they should welcome United Nation Peacekeepers to the area, and abide by their authority. Israel is so much like the U.S., wanting everything their own way and only deferring to internationally accepted behavior when it serves their interests. I see this world divided between terrorists and bullies and law-abiding citizens bear the brunt of the struggle between the two. We all suffer at the hands of both, and being a citizen of America doesn't save us. We also suffer at home as a result of America's behavior in the world. It almost seems like the terrorists represent religion(including Christianity and Judahism)and the bullis represent Corporate dominance.
Israel, the US, and Britain will profit the most regarding reconstruction in Gaza. Always followm the money trail-see whom it is that profits!
Support for Israel has become too expensive.
"will maintain a tough stance on Hamas, seeking to bolster the Islamist movement's rivals"
I will translate the above into English: America will use its money and the money from the surrounding Arab dictatorships, to attempt, once again to reverse results of the free and fair elections that were held in the occupied territories, and won by Hamas.
Obama is starting to look a little tarnished isn’t he?
Starting?
AG Holder called the USA a nation of "cowards" for failing to even discuss the issue of race. Then the USG withdraws from the a UN forum on Race and Racism because the opening statement correctly describes Isarel and its actions. Talk about who is the coward.
I am growing to "deeply dislike" Obama and his administration, in part because of their stand on human rights.
I can't believe that 5 months ago I had an argument with two strangers in a grocery store parking lot who kept saying that Obama "would not be good for America". What their reasoning was, I don't know, but I live in a very conservative state. No doubt they didn't vote for him.
I defended him left and right, voted for him, and now feel like a fool....
Buyers remorse...
Pan
The Lobby kicks in ... thought there was going to be fairness from the Lady from New York.
Liberty and Justice for ALL
And BILLION and BILLIONS Forever for the Greatest Welfare State of all time Forever, and hold the mediciine and food for the Palestinians please till they all leave.
OH! Hold the Pictures also!
Compliments of the USA
I agree in that we are paying way too much and this is becoming totally to expensive for us. Nothing seems to be ending this issue.
Lynda from Prior Lake
Maybe Clinton just wants to help Israel out by starving as many Palestinians as possible, before the one-state solution kicks in and the Israeli Zionists find themselves outnumbered and outvoted:
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22049.htm
According to a CIA study currently being shown to selected staff members on the US Senate Intelligence Committee and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Israel's survival in its present form beyond the next 20 years is doubtful.
The Report predicts "an inexorable movement away from a Two State to a One State solution, as the most viable model based on democratic principles of full equality that sheds the looming specter of colonial Apartheid while allowing for the return of the 1947/1948 and 1967 refugees. The latter being the precondition for sustainable peace in the region."
...The Report concludes that what went wrong will be debated for many years. In essence the problem was the premise, that a 'chosen people' with no link or rights to a land could impose a state by force. Many Middle East observers believe that the Two State solution is essentially over, but for the packing, finger pointing and assuredly more violence.
Increasingly repelled by Israeli crimes, the international community is moving toward the majority position of Palestinians and is coming to believe that the realistic solution to the Middle East conflict is one State, secular, multicultural, democratic, and based on one person one vote.
No surprise. This Gorgon of State was "chosen" like the last one - by Tel Aviv through AIPAC.
Now watch her push Moscow to abandon Iran to the genocidal pleasures of Israel.
Anney, Everyone who votes for the one party system (war&corporations) should feel like a fool. It's time to save America, throw AIPAC out of our country, cut off all aid to the murdering Zionists, and hold the scum bags in Washington to answer. "Better to vote for what you want and lose, than vote for what you don't want and win"