U.S. REJECTS AID FOR GAZA RESETTLEMENT
JERUSALEM ø The Bush administration has signaled to Israel that the
United States would not provide aid for the resettlement of thousands of
Israelis from the Gaza Strip.
Israeli officials said the White House has quietly requested that Israel
refrain from relaying a formal request for U.S. aid for the evacuation of
7,500 Israelis from the Gaza Strip. The officials said the administration
did not want to commit the United States to any financial aid that would
facilitate the dismantling of settlements it has opposed since 1967.
"It's a non-starter," an Israeli government source said. "The
administration sees this as a bottomless pit."
Israeli officials have estimated that the cost of compensating and
resettling the Gaza residents could approach $2 billion. They said the
Sharon government raised the issue with the administration in January 2004.
The U.S. move could hamper the plan by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon to complete a plan for the evacuation of the Gaza Strip by July 2004.
Sharon has proposed U.S. aid to help resettle Israelis from their homes in
the Gaza Strip to either the West Bank or inside the pre-1967 borders of
Israel.
On Wednesday, two senior U.S. National Security Council officials were
scheduled to arrive in Israel for the first high-level discussion of the
Sharon plan. Elliot Abrams and Stephen Hadley were expected to meet Sharon
and senior aides, including Maj. Gen. Giora Eiland, director of the Israel
National Security Council and head of a panel that has completed the
drafting of most of the unilateral withdrawal plan from the Gaza Strip. The
plan also includes the cost of compensation and resettlement.
The officials said the administration has raised several objections to
any Israeli compensation request. They cited the longtime U.S. opposition to
settlements; the prospect that the administration will become bogged down in
a major foreign aid request during a presidential election, and concern that
many of
the Israelis who leave the Gaza Strip will resettle in the West Bank.
Instead, the administration was said to have advised the Sharon
government to wait until 2005 for any discussion on U.S. financial aid for
the evacuation of the Gaza Strip. Officials said the Bush administration
said at that point it would be willing to review the Israeli plan.
So far, the administration has linked its support for the dismantling of
Israeli communities in the Gaza Strip to coordination with the Palestinian
Authority. White House officials said the dismantling of some Israeli
communities could constitute an interim measure, but must not replace the
need for
Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.
Israeli community leaders in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip have
lobbied the Republican-led Congress to deny U.S. support for Sharon's plan.
One community leader, identified as Gush Etzion regional head Shaul
Goldstein, met House and Senate members as well as staffers last week to
warn that an Israeli unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip would
destabilize the Middle East and encourage Palestinian attacks against
Israeli and U.S. targets.
