by Harvey Morris
Israel reacted on Monday to the swearing in of a Palestinian emergency
cabinet in the West Bank by urging the international community to release
funds for the government appointed by President Mahmoud Abbas.
Tzipi Livni, Israel's foreign minister, however, said she would try to
persuade European Union foreign ministers meeting in Strasbourg on Monday to
continue their year-old aid boycott against the Islamist group Hamas, which
refuses to recognise Israel and runs a rival administration in the Gaza
Strip.
Ehud Olmert, Israel's prime minister will have talks in Washington on Monday
with Vice-President Dick Cheney, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and
other officials to develop a joint strategy aimed at strengthening Mr
Abbas's government.
Mr Olmert, who meets US President George W Bush on Tuesday has said he plans
to release some $562m in customs and tax revenues that had been collected on
behalf of the Palestinians and withheld while Hamas controlled the
government. . . .
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Enver Masud, "Mahmoud Abbas:
Israel's New 'Security Subcontractor'?," The Wisdom Fund, January
16, 2005
"U.S. Supports Fattah, Hamas Wins
Election," The Wisdom Fund, January 22, 2006
Jimmy Carter, "Don't Punish the
Palestinians," Washington Post, February 20, 2006
Stephen Lendman, "Forty Years Of Israeli
Occupation," sjlendman.blogspot.com, May 23, 2007
VIDEO:
Ali Abunimah and Laila El-Haddad, "The Situation
in Gaza," electronicintifada.net, June 15, 2007
[WHAT HAPPENS when one and a half million human beings are imprisoned
in a tiny, arid territory, cut off from their compatriots and from any
contact with the outside world, starved by an economic blockade and unable
to feed their families?
Some months ago, I described this situation as a sociological experiment set
up by Israel, the United States and the European Union. The population of
the Gaza Strip as guinea pigs.--Uri Avnery, "The
Gaza Cage," Gush Shalom, June 16, 2007]
[Israel's economy isn't booming despite the political chaos that devours the
headlines but because of it. . . . In 2006 Israel exported $3.4 billion in
defense products--well over a billion more than it received in US military
aid. That makes Israel the fourth-largest arms dealer in the world,
overtaking Britain. . . . Much of this growth has been in the so-called
"homeland security" sector.--Naomi Klein, "Laboratory for a
Fortressed World," Nation, June 14, 2007]
Ilan Pappe, "Towards a Geography of
Peace: Wither Gaza?," electronicintifada.net, June 18, 2007
Scott Wilson, "Palestinian Leader Meets Resistance From Rival
Hamas," Washington Post, June 18, 2007
Shawn Pogatchnik, "Carter Blasts US Policy on Palestinians," breitbart.com, June
20, 2007
[A decade before Oslo, the Israeli military government in the territories
embraced an unarmed and fledgling Islamic movement, licensing Islamic
schools, sports clubs, charities and the university that would become the
training ground for Hamas's political leadership.--Scott Wilson, "With Hamas Takeover, Tough Calls for
Israel," Washington Post, June 30, 2007]
James Brooks, "AIPAC and Mahmoud Abbas - The Undemocratic Road to Defeat,"
counterpunch.org, July 16, 2007
