Posted on 03/23/2013 7:42:12 PM PDT by EinNYC
The US State Department announced on Friday that nearly $500 million in aid had been unblocked for transfer to the Palestinian Authority, months after Congress froze the funds in late-2012.
“To date, we have moved $295.7 million in fiscal year 2012 money… and $200 million in fiscal year 2013 assistance,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters.
The announcement came on the heels of US President Barack Obama’s first trip to Israel and the West Bank since assuming office in 2009.
The Palestinian Authority has been in the grips of a deep economic crisis, largely due to promised aid going undelivered. Additionally, Israel has stopped delivering Palestinian tax revenues to the PA — with the exception of a one-time payment of $100 million in January — following Palestine’s approved petition for non-member observer state status at the UN last November.
The Obama administration has been pushing for release of Congressional aid funds for some time, and it was unclear if any conditions were placed on the PA in exchange for delivery.
In a meeting with PA President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday in Ramallah, however, Obama reportedly asked the Palestinian leader to refrain from turning to the International Criminal Court “for any reason,” including settlement expansion. The PA has consistently threatened to address its grievances against Israel at the Hague in recent months.
According to London-based daily Asharq Al-Awsat, Abbas said he would turn to the Court if Israel began to build in the controversial E1 corridor that connects East Jerusalem with the West Bank settlement of Maaleh Adumim, but that he would wait two months before doing so. Israel announced plans to build in the area after Abbas’s unilateral move for a status upgrade at the UN.
In an apparent reversal from his first-term policy of supporting a settlement freeze, Obama stated Thursday that Palestinians cannot expect for Israel to agree to preconditions for negotiations. The New York Times also reported a softening in Abbas’s position, citing talking points leaked before the PA leader’s meeting with the US president. According to the report, Abbas is so eager to resume peace negotiations that he is now willing to forgo a public Israeli announcement of a settlement freeze.
Same with fixing the border or keeping the airports
open, or keeping the Chicago schools open.
but don’t worry there will be enough money
for hollow point bullets for the IRS and Obama’s brownshirts.
Ping
If congress froze the funds, how were they unfrozen?
Obama could not start them fighting while he was there,but he did find the Palestinians needed money so they can
$500 million dollars of borrowed money to placate a gaggle of thugs. What a wonderful foreign policy. The central socialist government of Amerika mugs us and takes our hard-earned shekels then shells it out to foreigners who hate us and doles the rest out to the lazy asses in this country who have no desire to work.
Back in my teaching days, many years ago, one of the things I liked to ask the class to consider was this: Imagine a government agency with only two tasks: (1) building statues of Benedict Arnold and (2) providing life-saving medications to children. If this agency's budget were cut, what would it do?
The answer, of course, is that it would cut back on the medications for children. Why? Because that would be what was most likely to get the budget cuts restored. If they cut back on building statues of Benedict Arnold, people might ask why they were building statues of Benedict Arnold in the first place.
Building statues of Benedict Arnold? No -- we don't do that. But we do send hundreds of millions of dollars to terrorists. The budget cuts won't stop that. The budget cuts will just stop the things that benefit American children and stuff like that.
“If congress froze the funds, how were they unfrozen?”
yeah kinda wondering that myself....
No matter what you do for or to a muslim, at the end of the day, you’re still the infidel (or Jew) and they will still hate you.
How many homemade rockets will that buy? How many rounds of 7.62?
How many homemade rockets will that buy?
With that kind of money they won’t use homemade rockets. I bet they’re already in the pipe line.
With that kind of money the MANUFACTURING FACILITIES are in the pipeline.
U.S. Army orders its first batch of suicide drones
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/44412133/ns/technology_and_science-innovation/t/us-army-orders-its-first-batch-suicide-drones/
Obama you are a bad man. The only thing that can defeat you is your own party. You own it all now. Let your decline begin.
That’s right.
They had a lock box for the Palestinian aid?
Generous $2 million in aid for our ally, Jordan, the cost of a couple nights in a hotel for Biden and his entourage.
well thank goodness, not like we could’ve used it for air traffic control towers or anything...
why are we still paying these people for their ‘service’? they need to be fired and brought up on charges
I'd like to know where they're getting their 7.62 rounds. I need some.
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