Olmert Strengthens Fatah

Israeli Prime Minister Olmert is giving the Palestinian Authority $100 million dollars. The question is why?

Israel will turn over $100 million in tax revenue that it has collected on behalf of the Palestinian Authority but held up since Hamas came to power earlier this year, Israeli officials said after a surprise meeting in Jerusalem Saturday night between Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.

The answer is pretty simple. If you want a civil war to be as destructive as possible, you see that both sides are about equally armed. Cash is good because you can buy allies. This is a policy with a very long tradition in all politics everywhere. When the British played a similar game it was called "Balance of Power".

Abbas adviser Nabil Abu Rudeina was quoted after the meeting as saying it was the first of what will be a series of meetings between the two men. He said the meeting was "positive" and that there was agreement on a number of issues. According to a statement the Prime Minister's Office put out after the meeting, the money will not go the Hamas-led Palestinian government. Releasing the money was one of the steps Israel would take, the statement said, to ease the humanitarian situation in the PA.

Humanitarian? I believe that statement is for the rubes. I suppose if you are planning to cut a man's throat it doesn't hurt to tell the world it is a medical proceedure.

It looks like Fatah is getting some manpower as well as cash.

PA officials claimed that the meeting took place after Israel accepted some of Abbas's demands, including the deployment of the Jordan-based Badr Brigade - which belongs to the PLO's Palestine Liberation Army - in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, as well as the release of frozen Palestinian tax and tariff revenue.

Excellent.

A previous look at the Pali Civil War and Olmert's plan.