The Bush administration has decided to halt funding for an infrastructure development project in the Palestinian Authority, and will provide the Palestinians with humanitarian aid only, American officials told security officials and the Foreign Ministry.
The new policy was implemented to make sure U.S. foreign aid money does not reach a Hamas-led government, and to prevent administration officials from having to make contact with representatives of a ‘terror’ organization.
Incoming Palestinian PM Ismail Haniyeh said Wednesday that he was calling a special session of parliament next week to vote on the new Hamas cabinet.
A government source in Jerusalem said the United States rejected Israeli requests that it continue funding a few projects in the territories, such as the new sewage system in Hebron, saying that all contact with the Hamas government was prohibited. The United States will, however, continue funding a project to install new X-ray machines at checkpoints between Israel and the West Bank and Gaza.
In an interview with Israel Radio on Thursday, Kadima No. 2 Shimon Peres called Hamas a ‘terror’ government and said he did not believe it would be able to maintain a government.
‘Hamas won't be able to maintain a functioning government, who will give money to a ‘terror’ government, who will support it,’ said Peres.
‘The Palestinian people have brought about a crisis. We say to Palestinians, 'you want peace, we could meet tomorrow for real negotiations that will set borders, that will stop ‘terror’, that will make it possible for you to have a Palestinian state. If you want, we're ready.'‘
Peres added, ‘The Palestinians had the choice to follow in the path of Nelson Mandela, or in the path of Sadaam Hussein. I am telling you, if they had chosen the path of Mandela, they would have had a state along time ago.’
James Kunder, the assistant administrator for Asia and the Near East at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), arrived in Israel on Wednesday to discuss the formation of the Hamas government. Kunder met with representatives of Palestinian organizations that receive American aid, and is set to meet Thursday with Israeli security officials and visit the Karni crossing near Gaza.
The United States has been pressuring Israel over the last few days to reopen the crossing, despite warnings that Palestinians are planning to carry out a ‘terror’ attack there. The U.S. ambassador to Israel, Richard Jones, and the U.S. security coordinator, Lieutenant General Keith Dayton, told Israeli officials that it's important to open the Karni crossing before the Hamas cabinet takes power.
Jones and Dayton said that if the crossing remains closed, Israel will be held responsible for a humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, and said it was important to make sure the crossing was operating while there was still someone to talk to on the Palestinian side. They said the U.S. administration will cut off all contact with the Palestinian government after Hamas takes power.