Bush: Millions to Palestinians; Congress: ‘Not One Cent’ Without Monitoring
Last week, President Bush promised to give the Palestinians $190 million in aid and another $80 million in security assistance.
But it won’t be all that easy — at least not as far as Congress is concerned.
Democrat Steve Rothman and Republican Mike Pence started circulating today a letter to the White House calling on the president to “ensure not one cent of taxpayer money” is diverted to terrorism by the Palestinian leadership. The lawmakers demand not only that the administration makes sure the use of the money is monitored, but also that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas change the Fatah constitution and remove anti-Israel clauses from it.
But then again, there was no new money for the Palestinians anyway, as we reported last week, so the threat to stop the aid won’t make much of a difference.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
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