Tiptoe Through the Land Mines

I'm a little dubious about President Bush's promise of $50 million in aid to the Palestinians under Mahmoud Abbas, but my skepticism is at least in part my habitual distrust of Arab promises regarding Israel. I'm genetically inclined to assume that both parties in any conflict bear some responsibility, and Israel has certainly made its share of mistakes and then some, but it's very plain that if the Arab nations had simply accepted Israel's legal presence in the region back in 1948, there would have been no wars. Instead, they tried to destroy the Jewish nation from the very first minute it emerged, they got their heads handed to them, and now they want to cry victim. Forget it.

Nevertheless, I'm cautiously optimistic about Abbas' future and that of his people. Yasir Arafat was a corrupt sleazebag, as anyone knows who is aware that his widow still receives $1 million a month in support while the Palestinian people live in desperate poverty - how do you suppose she got used to that standard of living, huh? Abbas, on the other hand, resigned as Prime Minister under Arafat because he couldn't get his job done with the old man at the wheel. I could be happier with Abbas' performance as President so far - it seems he's borrowed Arafat's old trick of arresting terrorists with loud public pronouncements and then quietly letting them escape - but the man is locked in a bloody political battle with Hamas, so I'm willing to give him a bit of a pass.

Let's see if President Bush's $50 million really does go to build houses in Gaza once Israel leaves, or if that cash somehow goes astray in the general direction of some official Palestinian fat cat.

Benshlomo says, Follow the money.