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Friday January 19, 2007

Our tax dollars shouldn’t be arming Palestinians

When it comes to the Middle East, America strives to play the role of honest broker. But what happens when the honest broker faces a dishonest client?

That’s the fundamental problem with the Bush administration’s proposal to prop up Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and his “security forces” with $86 million in aid. According to the Wall Street Journal, that figure surpasses all monies handed over to the Palestinian Authority since its formation in 1994.

The Journal article quotes U.S. officials denying funds would be spent directly on arms, but suggests that once disbursed there’s no way to prevent it.

Calling it a “security package” is a misnomer. The money will pay for guns that will be used either to widen the war between Fatah and Hamas or, if Abbas has his way, aimed directly at Israelis.

How can we be certain? Abbas himself said so in a speech last week before 250,000 Palestinians in Ramallah. “We have a legitimate right to direct our guns against Israeli occupation,” he told the throng. “It is forbidden to use these guns against Palestinians … our rifles, all our rifles, are aimed at the occupation.”

And just in case that statement proved too subtle, he added: “The sons of Israel are corrupting humanity on Earth.”

Is that the voice of a moderate? It is a sad fact that Palestinian leaders — most notoriously, Yasser Arafat — would say one thing to Israel and the West and quite another to their own Arabic-speaking constituency.

Admittedly, with the feud between Abbas’ Fatah party and Hamas growing more incendiary, daily life for Palestinians deteriorating and prospects for peace receding, President Bush needed to act. But the world has learned the hard way that Bush and his foreign policy team make mistakes, some of them doozies.

The aid package is another mistake.

Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice says the disbursement of the $86 million will be closely monitored. That’s what the administration said about the hundreds of billions of dollars that went down the black hole of Iraq.

Some might argue if Israel really objected to the aid package, it could have stopped it. Moreover, the Israeli government announced this week that it, too, will hand over $100 million in back taxes owed the Palestinian Authority for more than a year. If Israel can give money to the authority, then why shouldn’t we?

While humanitarian aid is certainly acceptable, we should not give Abbas money for guns until he proves definitively that he will reign in violence, quash terrorism and disarm Hamas.

Until then, not one dime for Palestinian guns.

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