U.S. To Restore Aid to Palestinian Government

Jun 19, 05:00 AM

Current Headlines: By Barbara Slavin

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration said Monday that it would end a year-long embargo on direct aid to the Palestinian government, which no longer includes members of the militant Hamas movement that seized control of Gaza last week.

The announcement was part of a broad effort by the United States, Europe and Israel to strengthen relatively moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who told President Bush by telephone Monday that he was ready to resume peace talks with Israel.

"A fundamental choice confronts the Palestinians and all people in the Middle East," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said. "It is a choice between violent extremism on the one hand, and tolerance and responsibility on the other."

The ban had been in place since early last year, when Hamas won Palestinian parliamentary elections but refused to recognize Israel or renounce violence. The European Union, which, like Washington, considers Hamas a terrorist organization, also plans to resume aid to the Palestinians.

Abbas expelled Hamas from the Palestinian government after it defeated members of his Fatah faction in an armed uprising that left dozens dead.

The violence has split the Palestinian territories into two politically distinct entities: Fatah controls most of the West Bank, and Hamas is in charge of Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert meets Bush today in Washington. Olmert said Sunday in New York that Israel would consider releasing a portion of a half-billion dollars in Palestinian taxes collected by Israel and impounded after the Hamas victory.

Rice said the United States would use $86 million in U.S. aid to help Abbas' government and give an additional $40 million to the United Nations agency that provides food and medical care to Palestinians in refugee camps. Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza in 1967 but withdrew from Gaza in 2005.

Middle East experts said they doubted it would be possible to bolster the West Bank while isolating Gaza, which is home to roughly a third of the Palestinian population Abbas says he governs. Hamas controls several municipal governments in the West Bank and has refused to accept its exclusion from the Palestinian government.

Hamas could easily incite violence in the West Bank "if they feel they are losing" the power struggle with Fatah, said Robert Malley, Middle East director for the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based organization that seeks to end conflicts.

"The 'West Bank first and forget Gaza' strategy is an illusion," Malley said. "You're going to have to deal with Gaza, and that means dealing directly or indirectly with Hamas."

Rice canceled a trip to the region this weekend that would have brought Palestinian and Israeli officials together with representatives from the United Nations, European Union, Russia and the United States to discuss the outlines of an eventual Palestinian-Israeli peace agreement.

"She will choose the right moment to go back out there," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said. "You have a new government that needs some time to settle in."

Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice president of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, said Abbas had been unable to control Fatah splinter factions responsible for attacks on Israel and "that is not a good sign."

He urged Bush, who five years ago called for creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, to be cautious.

"U.S. policy can't be rooted in the idea that democracy will come to the Middle East and that negotiations can turn all this around," Hoenlein said.

Contributing: David Jackson (c) Copyright 2005 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.