Secretary Rice in addressing House Appropriations Subcommittee recently, said,
In that regard, frankly, the formation of the Palestinian unity government has provided something of a challenge because the Palestinian unity government as formed does not meet the Quartet principles. I have stopped calling them the Quartet principles; I now call them the “foundational principles for peace” because quite clearly you cannot have peace unless you recognize the right of the other party to exist, unless you’re prepared to renounce the violence and unless you’re prepared to live up to past agreements.
First of all the PA Unity government is dedicated to resistance, not peace. That should be the end of the discussion.
Secondly, she only asks the PA to “be prepared to renounce violence” or to “be prepared to live up to past agreements”. God forbid she should actually ask them to stop the violence or honour the agreements let alone demand that they do. How weak is that?
But there are people in the Palestinian political leadership and indeed in this government who have themselves personally accepted those principles and lived their political lives on that basis, therefore, our position toward the Palestinian unity government is that it must move to accept these foundational principles for peace. The United States is not prepared to change its assistance policies toward this government because it does not recognize those foundational principles for peace.
I defy her to name just exactly who in the government has “personally accepted those principles and lived their political lives on that basis.” Once again she only says they must “move to accept” rather than “must accept”. Enough to make you sick.
We are encouraging others in the international community to continue to deal with the needs of the Palestinian people through the mechanisms that are available that do not go to the government where Hamas still holds the prime ministership. I noted a story in the paper this morning, something that we have known, very interestingly since — in the last year there has been more aid actually to the humanitarian and other needs of the Palestinian people through individuals, through nongovernmental organizations and I think it shows that we are not ignoring the humanitarian needs of the Palestinian people. We’re speaking to those needs.
There are many other people in the world in greater need. Why the desperation to not ignore the needs of the Palestinians. There should be a discussion of the need to let them stew in their own juices, but no the poor darlings shouldn’t be allowed to suffer no matter how bad they are.
The Investor’s Daily got it right when it wrote,
The West Bank regime is in fact a zombie state, kept alive by Western aid and without any real way to sustain itself. Tragic, but it’s the U.N.’s own fault. It has kept Palestinians in ‘camps’ for more than 50 years, turning them into long-term welfare cases and keeping alive through countless anti-Israel U.N. resolutions the hope that, someday, they’ll be able to drive Israel into the sea.
As we’ve said before, we’re perplexed by the Western powers’ need to engage in endless rounds of pointless ‘talks’ when those talks inevitably lead to disappointment and violence, not peace.
