By Ted Belman
EU vows to keep helping Palestinians
The European Union will never halt aid to the Palestinian people even if a new Hamas-led unity government fails to meet conditions set by the “Quartet,” its external relations commissioner said Thursday.
“We have never abandoned the Palestinian people … and even if the [unity] government did not meet these requirements we will not abandon the Palestinian people,” she said.
But the people elected the government.
The Quartet – the EU, Russia, the UN and the US – is demanding that Hamas recognize Israel, renounce violence and honor previous interim peace deals. It says it is awaiting the formation of the new government before deciding whether to lift the sanctions.
“We are reaching out to one-quarter of the Palestinian population,” she said in Amman of European Commission social allowances handed out to Palestinian people who have suffered loss of income as a result of the international sanctions.
“They absolutely need it in this very difficult moment … and we are trying to help them in this very difficult situation,” she added.
First of all total aid has gone up not down, since Hamas was elected. So there are no sanctions. Secondly Saudi Arabia has pledged to provide One billion dollars. So sanctions are a non issue. The EU is solely interested in championing the Palestinian cause to appear as a friend of the Arabs. That’s what its all about.
She said in a separate interview that the EU believes final-status issues such as Jewish settlements on occupied territory need to be addressed soon to encourage Palestinian support for Arab-Israeli peace talks.
“For the Palestinians it is highly important to also speak about the political horizon … That means final-status issues in order to really see that things can be going for the future,” she said.
This is also a bullshit issue. If the Palestinians want peace, let them compromise. Why should they not have to compromise? If they don’t want to compromise, “fuckem”.
