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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: SARMAN who wrote (251479)	12/15/2007 9:41:46 AM
From: Ruffian	Respond to of 281500

U.S. Pledges $500 Million Aid for Abbas-Led Palestinian Government Saturday, December 15, 2007 WASHINGTON — The United States will pledge about $500 million for the moderate-led Palestinian government in the West Bank when Arab, European and other nations meet next week, U.S. officials said. The money would go toward a goal of $5.6 billion that former British Prime Minister Tony Blair hopes to raise to rescue the tattered Palestinian economy and reinforce institutions that would become the backbone of any eventual independent Palestinian state. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will deliver the pledge at a conference Blair has called Monday in Paris, the officials said. The officials spoke Friday on condition of anonymity because the figure has not been announced and might be changed slightly. The money is part of world efforts to improve the Palestinians' financial position as new U.S.-sponsored peace talks begin. Rice cannot promise that she can deliver on the pledge, which must be approved by the U.S. Congress. The money includes about $400 million that the White House has already announced, but that has not been approved by Congress. Some members of Congress are worried that money spent to strengthen the West Bank eventually could benefit a rival radical-led government in the other, separate, Palestinian territory of the Gaza Strip. Other legislators want greater assurance that the West Bank government has shed its long reputation for corruption and cronyism. Rice will meet Sunday with Palestinian prime Minister Salam Fayyad to discuss the pledge. Fayyad is a banker whose clean reputation and efforts to reform the government are often praised by the Bush administration. Fayyad is expected to raise Palestinian frustration that he has been unable to win assurances from Israel that it will ease stifling restrictions on Palestinian movement. The World Bank has warned that unless Israel removes some of the physical and administrative obstacles to Palestinian travel and trade, donor countries may be wasting their money. Even if the donors pay the full amount, the Palestinian economy would keep shrinking by about 2 percent a year as long as the Israeli restrictions remain in place, the World Bank wrote in a report issued Thursday. Israel's military has been reluctant to remove some of the hundreds of roadblocks and barriers in the West Bank, saying they're an effective tool against Palestinian militants, and the Palestinian government does not have sufficient control over the territory to prevent attacks on Israelis. The United States provides more than $2 billion a year in aid to Israel, its closest Middle East ally and single largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid. Egypt, the first Arab state to make peace with Israel, receives about $1.3 billion. Both nations would receive more money over the coming decade under a package announced this year. By comparison, the United States provides very little to the Palestinians, whose economy and government are dependent on foreign donations. The $400 million requested this year marked a departure for the administration, which had contributed roughly $250 million in recent years. The administration intended the $400 million to be spent in 2008. The election victory of Hamas radicals nearly two years ago has complicated U.S. interaction with the Palestinians and hopes for peace in a separate and sovereign Palestinian state in Gaza and the West Bank. The United States and Israel regard Hamas as a terror group and refuse to deal with it. That meant the United States scaled back previous aid plans for fear of inadvertently giving money to Hamas. Hamas' defeat of forces loyal to the moderate Fatah Party in Gaza in June clarified the aid picture. The administration says its direct aid money can now bypass Hamas by going only to the U.S.-backed West Bank government. The United States also is spending a small amount for humanitarian relief in Gaza. France is hosting the donor conference as a follow up to the international peace conference last month in Annapolis, Maryland.

To: SARMAN who wrote (251479)	12/15/2007 11:14:08 AM
From: Ruffian	Respond to of 281500

Der Judenstaat (German, The Jewish State) is a book written by Theodor Herzl and published in 1896 in Berlin and Vienna by M. Breitenstein's Verlags-Buchhandlung. It was originally called "Address to the Rothschilds" referring to the Rothschild family banking dynasty which was very influential in the realization of a Zionist state in Palestine.[1] It is considered to be one of the most important texts of early Zionism. As expressed in this book, Herzl envisioned the founding of a future independent Jewish state during the twentieth century. He argued that the best way of avoiding anti-Semitism in Europe was to create this independent Jewish state. Herzl, who had lived as a secular, largely assimilated Jew, was fluent in neither Hebrew nor Yiddish. His lack of contact with Jewish culture and intellectual currents, and his limited contact with Jews less assmilated than he prior to hitting upon the idea of a Jewish return to Zion, led him to imagine that popular Jewish support for a Jewish State elsewhere than in Israel was conceivable. In Der Judenstaat, Herzl noted the possibility of a Jewish state in Argentina. Herzl is credited for coining the political term "Zionism", having named the political movement after Mount Zion in Jerusalem, a symbol of the Jewish homeland in Palestine since the Babylonian captivity in the 6th century BCE. The movement culminated in the birth of the State of Israel in 1948, though Zionism continues to be connected with political support of the State of Israel. [edit] A Summary of Herzl's Argument After centuries of various restrictions, hostilities, and occasional pogroms, the Jews of Europe have been reduced to living in Ghettos. The higher class is forced to deal with angry mobs and, in consequence, experiences a great deal of discomfort; whereas, the lower class is forced to live in a state of despair. Middle class professionals are distrusted, and the statement: "Don't buy from Jews," leads to a great deal of anxiety amongst Jewish people. It reasonable to assume that the Jews shall not be left in peace. Neither a change in the feelings of non-Jews nor a movement to merge into the surrounds of Europe offers much hope to the Jewish people. However, the creation of a Jewish State may be a possible solution the problem faced by Europe's Jews. He opposed the efforts already made by Zionist groups to settle Jews in Ottoman-controlled Israel, arguing that "important experiments in colonization have been made, though on the mistaken principle of a gradual infiltration of Jews. An infiltration is bound to end badly. It continues till the inevitable moment when the native population feels itself threatened, and forces the government to stop a further influx of Jews. Immigration is consequently futile unless we have the sovereign right to continue such immigration.” Quoted from The Jewish State, translated by Sylvie d’Avigdor, Nutt, London, 1896, and reprinted by Dover, 1988, p. 95. For this reason, Herzl, both in his arguments in Der Judenstaad, and in his political activity on behalf of Zionism concentrated his efforts on securing official legal sanction form the Ottoman authorities.