Official: US aid to Gaza to top $900 million

[Dantheman62]

First we let Israel bomb the s...t out of them and then we donate to help rebuild them, that we can't afford to do! Is there something wrong with this picture?

JERUSALEM – The United States is preparing to donate more than $900 million for the reconstruction of Gaza, a U.S. official said Monday, as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton prepared to attend a donors conference for the war-ravaged territory next week.

Israeli and Palestinian officials said earlier Monday that Clinton will visit Israel and the West Bank during the first week of March for her first trip to the region as America's top diplomat.

Clinton said during her Asia trip this month that she would attend an international donors conference in Egypt on March 2 to discuss reconstruction in Gaza.

She provided no other details, but a U.S. official in the United States said Monday that the Obama administration's donation will likely top $900 million in humanitarian and rebuilding aid to the Palestinian Authority to help Gaza recover from Israel's offensive against Hamas last month.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the donation had not received final approval, said the exact amount was still to be determined.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090224/...i_ea/israel_us

[Humble Janitor]

It certainly seems fishy but I bet that they'll use Uncle Sam's charge card and just charge it to China.

[Dantheman62]

I guess I'm the only one who's mad about this and thinks it's wrong.

[Noela]

No you're not the only one Dan - I wrote a similar
post under the thread "Israel switches to Iran after Gaza"
on 26 Jan.

I'm not against sending aid - surely it is sorely needed -
but the irony of the situation is there for all to see -

In Community life the prevailing wisdom is if youngsters
trash a place they are expected to work to undo what
they have done - yet in international relations the
international community provides the money and
manpower (many of the places ruined were govern-
ment buildings) to prepare Palestine for a two-state
solution - Israel goes in and trashes it - the
international community builds it again - and so.

Surely at the very least Israel should be expected
to put up some of the money to repair what they
have done - but that is not likely to happen!

[Dantheman62]

Thanks Noela and Kathleen, I was just going to say that if nobody else is pi...ssed off about this then I'm giving up on the forum, and America. I think this is hard to actually believe that we're even considering sending that much over there with the situation we have here.

I know that some here will say "oh start sending letters to your congressman" and such, well those letters would stop at the secretary's desk if they even get that far. It just gives me yet another reason to wish that I didn't live here in this country. It makes me want to just go away up into the wilderness and hide, I'm just fed up with all this BS about the economy and politics and all associated BS that goes with it.

900 million is enough to buy them a whole new country, or all of them a new house. The more I think about this the more pi..ssed off I get and actually wish that Israel would get wiped off the map, if it involves getting America into a war than so be it, end this s...t once and for all!

[Humble Janitor]

I'm not ****** off. I just don't care anymore because I know that it's more money we don't have and it's proof that no one gives a ****. I don't want to waste my energy worrying about it.