Thursday, October 05, 2006

Rice Clutches to Palestinian Pursestrings

Like the miserly rich lady, who struggles to share a pittance with the starving homeless, Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice continued clutching to her purse as hungry Palestinians stood nearby.

The top U.S. diplomat said Wednesday that she hopes to revitalize and expand agreements made last year to help people and goods move with fewer restrictions across the borders with Israel and Egypt. Although she said she would like to increase resources for humanitarian relief, Rice made no specific pledge of U.S. aid.

Who withheld funds that put the already dirt poor country in dire straits? Yes, that would be the United States and Israel. America stopped the flow of international aid, while Israel cut off the tax revenues owed to the Palestinians per past agreements. The money sits in escrow but who will reap the interest earnings?

Meanwhile the few jobs in the Palestinian territories are government positions. Unlke the United States with its substantial borrowing power, with no government revenue there are no paychecks. Riots broke out last week over the lack of income. Fatah and Hamas supporters clashed in the streets.

As that happened U.S. International manipulators broke out in applause, their plan to pit the poor and oppressed against each other achieving early success. It remains to be seen if the longtime tactic perfected by the British will succeed in the region. Fatah vs. Hamas in Palestine and Shia vs. Sunni in Iraq seem to have traction. It is unclear to me who is fighting internally in Lebanon, who is taking on Hezbollah. In the region, the U.S. would like to see the Muslim countries split along a Saudi Arabia-Jordan-Egypt vs. Syria-Iran line. The wild card is Israel, called America’s proxy by President Bush.

The Saudis don’t like America’s refusal to engage with parties or countries President Bush thinks are evil terrorists. They cautioned against invading Iraq prior to Shock & Awe, they encouraged the U.S. to engage Hamas and not cut off funding, they implored President Bush to seek an immediate cease fire in Lebanon while he dragged his knuckles.

How will our friends in the Middle East view Sec. Rice’s shallow gesture of dangling aid while sadistically enjoying the further fraying of the Palestinian people’s lifeline? It makes me sad….

What would be justice in this case? Should Condi come back in her next life as a bag lady?

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