Posted on 02/05/2006 10:12:38 AM PST by Alouette
The government of Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has approved the transfer of $53.2 million to Finance the PA, despite concerns that the Hamas will use the money to finance terror against Israel.
A government committee chaired by Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has approved the transfer of NIS 250 million ($53.2 million) to the Palestinian Authority, after a five-day delay.
The panel of senior ministers and representatives of the country’s security establishment decided to transfer the money, mainly duties collected on imports to the PA, despite worries that the Hamas may use the money to fund a terror campaign against the Jewish state.
Panel members, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, Foreign Minister and Minister of Justice Tzipi Livni, IDF Chief-of-staff, Dan Halutz, Shin Bet chief, Yuval Diskin, and National Security Advisor, Dov Wiesglass, agreed unanimously to approve the transfer on the grounds that the Hamas has yet to take formal control of the PA government.
MK Gidon Sa’ar (Likud) said the government’s decision was tantamount to “giving a prize to terror and providing rewards for Hamas policy.” He added, “When terrorism strikes Israel in the north, south, and center of the country, Olmert gives kosher certification to the Hamas, and promotes political and security blindness.”
MK Zvulun Orlev, chairman of the National Religious Party said the government’s decision was like “oiling the terror wheels of the Hamas.”
The Hamas, which won a landslide victory in the PA election two weeks ago, is expected to form a new government by the end of the month. A Hamas official said at a press conference on Saturday that PA chief Mahmoud Abbas of the ruling Fatah party has agreed to turn over part of the PA’s security forces to the Hamas after it forms a government.
Hamas leader, Khaled Mashal, said in Syria following the group’s victory that Hamas will never recognize Israel’s right to exist. Mashal’s position has been reiterated by the organization’s leaders in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza.
The PA is largely dependent on a monthly transfer of import duties by Israel to remain financially solvent. The PA uses the money to pay the salaries of 135,000 employees many of whom serve in the military. A number of Israeli officials expressed concern that failure to make the monthly payment could precipitate a collapse of the PA.
Government legal experts said that Israel had no right under the Oslo accords to withhold the money, so long as the PA is ruled by the Fatah party. The Olso accords were based on legal recognition by the PLO, led by the Fatah, of the State of Israel.
The accords also preclude parties that do not recognize Israel from running in PA elections. The PA flouted that provision by allowing the Hamas to run in the election. After winning the PA election, the Hamas repudiated the Oslo accords, calling them null and void.
The government panel decided that further transfers of money to the PA will be made on a case-by-case basis, in order to make sure that a Hamas-led government does not use the money to finance terror against Israel.
Ze’ev Boim (Kadima), Minisiter of Housing, said on Sunday that “this payment is the last one that gets transferred to the PA in this fashion. If the Hamas forms a government, not a single shekel will be transferred to them.”
The PA also receives substantial subsidies from the European Community and the United States. The U.S. has announced that it will not authorize the transfer of additional funds to the PA until the Hamas recognizes Israel’s right to exist.
Commentator Michael Freund noted that the transfer of funds "only serves to undermine the case that Israel has been trying to make in recent weeks both to Washington and Europe. After pushing the international community to isolate the newly-elected Hamas regime, how can Israel now justify keeping such a regime afloat?"
Since winning the parliamentary election, the Hamas has made an effort to cement closer financial and political ties with Iran, one of the terror group’s primary backers.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad met with Mashal in Syria just before the PA election. Ahmadinejad promised Mashal to provide financial support to the Hamas and its military wing, Iz A-Din Al-Kassam.
Warning! This is a high-volume ping list.
Omert is to the Palistinians like Clinton was to the Chinese.
He is far worse than that..
you forgot the "barf" alert
The whole country will prove soon to be insane.
Israel won the battles, but the Arabs won the War.
The Israelis were not defeated militarily but psychologically.
Europe should take a lesson, and then the US.
If he felt obligated to transfer the money to the PA, because of previous commitments, he should have given it to them in the form of food and water and other goods they import from Israel. IOW, use it to pay bills owed to Israel or Israelis.
That way he still would hold the moral high ground, and could cut them off with less international repercussions once Hamas does take full control.
So, too, are parts of the Israeli "security" establishment who are now focusing their attention on beating Israeli teenagers to a bloody pulp, rather than fight the Jihadists.
So, too, are the Israeli electorate if they keep this skunk and the corrupt Jew-cleansing Kadima party in power.
Since the palestinian parasites have violated every aspect of the foolish Oslo agreement, Israel should than say: they broke the agreement, thus we do not need to keep our part of the deal.
Hmmm islam is an evil death cult!!!!
Leftism, most Jews' true religion, is a fatal mental disorder.
Israel wants peace so much that it risks being reckless.
Europe is getting an education first hand.
The tide is turning!!
Oslo has been dead for years, yet Sharon/Olmert/Livni/Kadima adhere to it as if it is the word of G-d.
They are fools, but so too are the Israeli people if they keep these mafiosi in power.
Old europe pays the pirates. Somethings never change.
<< He is far worse than that.. >>
Rubbish.
It doesn't get worse than that.
Alongside the traitor, Cli'toon, he's a piker.
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HUGE fricking mistake, Mr Olmert.
This is bone crushingly stupid on so many levels, that it is beyond comprehension.
A number of Israeli officials expressed concern that failure to make the monthly payment could precipitate a collapse of the PA.
Smack! Well, duh! The PA is a 2 week old stiff looking for a hole to fall in and you are going to give it mouth to mouth?
They will stab you with their last breath
"only serves to undermine the case that Israel has been trying to make in recent weeks both to Washington and Europe.
Darn near word for word what I've said in other posts.- You expect the EU nations that wiped Jewry off of the face of Europe and parts of Asia to stop funding Jew killers when you do not?
The good voters of Israel had best bounce this guy and his party out of power before they are all dead.
"A fool and his money are soon parted."
Oh. My. Lord. Words fail me. The b@stard might as well start handing out life preservers in the middle of Tel Aviv : (
Israel will ultimately win the war. In SPITE of her idiotic leaders.
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