President Bush and the Palestinians
I was wondering what to make of the visit from Abbas to the White House and President Bush's pledge of $50M to the Palestinian government.
Jay Tea at
Wizbang has a great thought:
The visit and the $50,000,000? It is rope.
From Wizbang:
Last week, when President Bush met with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and pledged $50 million dollars in aid, a lot of people whom I respect were outraged. There has been absolutely no sign of a true crackdown on terrorism by the Palestinian Authority, and the "cease-fire" the pundits bring up whenever Israel strikes back is a joke. To these folks, what Bush is doing is rewarding the Palestinian intransigence and encouraging more violence against Israel.
I see it a little differently. I have absolutely nothing to back up this theory, but I think it makes sense.
And the Coda:
(I hope) watching to see just how that money gets spent. If it goes towards humanitarian efforts, and truly benefits the Palestinian people, then that would be a good indicator that there is real progress to be made by working with Abbas. But if it goes towards weapons or to line the pockets of the Palestinian kleptocrats that have been stealing from their own people for decades, that, too, will be an indicator about how Mr. Abbas should be treated.
That $50 million is a huge amount of money, but think of it another way: most people won't play a lottery until it gets up to around $100 million -- and at least half of that would go to taxes, anyway. In international circles, it's chump change. It's walking-around money. It's pimp-flash.
But politically, it's a $50,000,000 length of rope. Mr. Abbas could use it as a lifeline, or make a noose and hang himself with it.
I hope that Abbas is sincere in his statements calling for peace, but I'm cynical enough to believe the latter -- especially since a good deal of the Palestinian's income dried up with the fall of Saddam. And once Abbas gives in to his baser nature, we can (at the very least) freeze him out the way we did Arafat. Or we can simply let Israel deal with him however they see fit.
Memo to Mr. Abbas -- the world is a very large stage and there are many players.
Wake up and smell the cappuccino!
Or as my beloved wife says:
They want a state -- Let's give them one:
PLASMA!
Posted by DaveH at May 30, 2005 12:06 AM