Good Money After Bad?

I’m not seeing this as a very good idea at all.

President Bush has authorized 20 million dollars in direct aid to the Palestinian Authority. This authorization broke a self-imposed restriction not to fund the PA directly.

The President seems to hope that the money will be seen as a bit of goodwill and a way to make the PA better disposed toward coming willing to the table for more peace talks with Israel. That may happen, but given the past history of the PA, I’m not seeing it as all that likely.

Yasser Arafat dies with billions of dollars in various bank accounts. That’s money he diverted to himself that should have gone to the PA or the Palestinians themselves. That money is, as far as the world is concerned, completely unaccounted for. The question we ought to asking rather loudly right now is: Where is that money? Financial transparency ought to be a condition we put on getting any more money from us. Those billions of dollars can do a world of good to the Palestinians and it looks right now like we’re ignoring that it exists altogether.

No related posts.

Category: Our Foreign Policy