The United States and European Union lifted their economic embargoes of the Palestinian Authority on Monday after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas expelled the rival Hamas faction from his government.
It was the right move by the world community, even as Hamas remains firmly in control in Gaza.
“We will not leave one and a half million Palestinians at the mercy of terrorist organizations,” Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said, referring to Hamas.
The U.S. lifted its economic and political embargo against the Palestinian government now that it no longer includes Hamas. Abbas’ Fatah party has been accused of corruption in the past, but Rice said she’s confident Abbas’ new prime minister will institute reliable controls to ensure the aid actually benefits Palestinian people.
President Bush called Abbas on Monday “to express support for him and the Palestinian moderates.” Abbas in turn seized on his enhanced international support to tell Bush that now is the time to renew Mideast peace talks.
But even as the world community rallied behind Abbas in the West Bank area, Hamas was cementing its grip in Gaza, where its gunmen routed Abbas’ Fatah forces last week. Palestinians, who have long sought their own state, were thus faced with a de facto partition between a West Bank still largely under Israeli control and a Gaza plunging into chaos.
Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn summed up the dilemma by noting, “The question of today is: How can we help the 1.4 million people in Gaza?”
That is indeed the question, but at the moment, tragically, there is no clear answer. Riyad al-Malki, the new Palestinian minister of information and justice, said the resumed international aid will be used in part to pay salaries of government employees in Gaza. But it’s unclear how much authority they will wield or with whom their loyalties lie following the Hamas coup.
Israel also said it would consider releasing $550 million in customs duties it has withheld from the Palestinians since Hamas took power.
Thus, as it so often does, the Middle East has again married crisis and opportunity. If Abbas can parlay the international support now rallying behind him into a comprehensive peace plan, he may yet emerge as head of a stable Palestinian state. But Hamas’ anarchistic assaults are undermining what little progress the Palestinians have been able to make.
