You Will Anyway: Economic aid to Palestine

Thursday, May 27, 2021

Economic aid to Palestine

[Secretaray of State Antony] Blinken announced $110 million in economic assistance to Palestinians Tuesday, including $5.5 million in immediate relief, but the administration’s effort to keep Congress onside and Hamas at arms length — while battling donor fatigue among foreign governments — is already at risk of derailing crucial assistance.

Blinken said “we are in the process of providing $360 million in urgent support to the Palestinian people” — that compares to $440 million the Obama administration delivered to Palestinians in 2014, the year of the previous Gaza conflict. Meanwhile, Joel Braunold — managing director of the S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace — told Global Translations that the biggest chunk of the “new” money, $75 million, “is an announcement of an intent to obligate [to Gaza] already budgeted assistance,” rather than totally fresh money.

It’s unclear whether Congress considers this $75 million compliant with the 2018 Taylor Force Act (which severely limits what cash Congress can send to the Palestinian Authority) or eligible for a “global health notwithstanding authority in order for it to not be subject to congressional holds,” Braunold said. Blinken said Wednesday he is committed to complying with the Act. Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) is leading the charge of Republican skeptics, calling “U.S. assistance to Hamas-controlled Gaza” a reward for Palestinian obstructionism, that should be “conditioned on Palestinian leaders returning to the peace table.”

[...]

The U.S. is left carrying the can. Canada says a previous $90 million Covid cash infusion it offered can cover reconstruction from the May conflict, and Norway has promised a small bump in humanitarian assistance. The rest of the world is largely silent about helping Gaza: either distrustful of who will spend the money (UAE is channeling cash through the Emirates Red Crescent rather the U.N. or Hamas, for example), or afraid Israel will blow up any new infrastructure, in the absence of a wider peace process.

Politico

Wow.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

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Life, as Explained in "Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead"

GUILDENSTERN: What a fine persecution---to be kept intrigued without ever quite being enlightened.

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ROSENCRANTZ : The only thing that makes it bearable is the irrational belief that somebody interesting will come on in a minute.

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GUILDENSTERN: But for God's sake what are we supposed to do?!

PLAYER: Relax. Respond. That's what people do. You can't go through life questioning your situation at every turn.

GUILDENSTERN: But we don't know what's going on, or what to do with ourselves. We don't know how to act.

PLAYER: Act natural. You know why you're here at least.

GUILDENSTERN: We only know what we're told, and that's little enough. And for all we know it isn't even true.

PLAYER: For all anyone knows, nothing is. Everything has to be taken on trust; truth is only that which is taken to be true. It's the currency of living. There may be nothing behind it, but it doesn't make any difference so long as it is honoured. One acts on assumptions.

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GUILDENSTERN : We act on scraps of information... sifting half-remembered directions that we can hardly separate from instinct.

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PLAYER: Life is a gamble, at terrible odds-if it was a bet you wouldn't take it.