UPDATE: QUARTET AGREES TO SEND MONEY TO P.A.

HAMAS HAS DECIDED TO SPEND MONEY ON KILLING JEWS INSTEAD OF TAKING CARE OF THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE. NOW THE QUARTET WILL BE SENDING MONEY TO TAKE CARE OF THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE. NOW HAMAS IS UNDER EVEN LESS PRESSURE TO DIVERT MONEY FROM GUNS TO BUTTER.

Quartet agrees to aid PA (YNet)
The quartet of Middle East peace brokers agreed on Tuesday on an "international mechanism" to channel aid to the Palestinians for a trial period to ease the financial squeeze on the new government following the election of Hamas.

The group of international mediators—the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations—issued a statement indicating they had agreed on a three-month trial period for the mechanism after day-long meetings in New York.

Before the meeting, United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the US was concerned by the situation in the PA and that no one wanted to see the Palestinians suffer, but added that no one wanted to deal with a government which finds cause for celebration when a suicide bomber blows himself up in Tel Aviv.

She added that Hamas must make a decision, and if it wants to govern, it must declare an end to violence. Rice said this was the international consensus expressed in the Road Map.

The ministers convened at 10:00 p.m. Israel time in New York. The meeting was also be attended by the foreign ministers of Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia, who warned that "if the Palestinian Authority crashes, a civil war will break out."

A diplomatic source told Reuters news agency that the United States was moving closer to the stance of other members of the Quartet – Russia, the United Nations, and the European Union – that an "international temporary body" should be set up to transfer funds to PA workers.

STOP TREATING THE PALESTINIANS LIKE CHILDREN. THEY ELECTED HAMAS. THEY KNEW HAMAS WANTED TO DEVOTE ITS RESOURCES TO KILLING JEWS. THEY KNEW THAT THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY WASN'T OBLIGATED TO KEEP POURING MONEY DOWN THE CORRUPT PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY SINK-HOLE. THEY VOTED TO USE THEIR RESOURCES TO KILL JEWS AND DESTROY ISRAEL INSTEAD OF BUILDING HOSPITALS. TOUGH HUMMAS!

Israel to Oppose Quartet Payment of Salaries to Hamas Government Employees - Ran Dagoni
Israel Ambassador to the U.S. Daniel Ayalon said Tuesday that Israel will oppose paying salaries to Hamas government employees in the PA via the humanitarian mechanism that the Quartet announced. U.S. and European diplomats said that the mechanism's funds might be used to pay the salaries of doctors, teachers, or other workers of the Hamas government. "I hope that the Quartet mechanism doesn't plan to finance the salaries of PA workers under the Hamas government," said Ayalon. "External financing of salaries will only strengthen Hamas, intensify violence, and block any chance of a solution." Sources in Washington said EU representatives in the Quartet lobbied to include the payments of salaries as one of the goals of the mechanism, but U.S. representatives strongly objected.

Ayalon said that if the payment of PA civil service salaries is put on the agenda, "Israel will know how to deal with this." He stressed that Israel would definitely not agree to paying salaries of education system employees, who poison the minds of Palestinian children with anti-Semitic texts. (Globes-Israel)