NORWAY IGNORES BOYCOTT, FINANCES HAMAS

Norway prepares first direct aid transfer to PA government (Haaretz)
Norway is set to make the first transfer of direct aid to the Palestinians’ new government, the foreign minister said Monday - more than two months after the country broke with most Western nations by recognizing the Hamas-led coalition. “Palestinian Finance Minister Salam Fayyad has now structured a financial account by which we can channel our support,” Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere said.

Norway soon will transfer U.S. $10 million to that account, Stoere said. “I urge others to follow,” he said.

WILL THE U.S. BE FAR BEHIND?

New Palestinian funding plan may ease crunch.
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Palestinian Finance Minister Salam Fayyad’s plan to use an outside account under his control to collect Arab funds to pay government salaries and other bills may ease a year-old Western embargo, diplomats said on Friday.

But the plan, which hinges on the United States making clear to banks and donors that they can send funds into a Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) account, will not in itself fill the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority’s funding void nor give it the direct control it seeks over its own finances.

U.S. officials said they were considering Fayyad’s request, which if approved could send a signal to Arab donors to transfer hundreds of millions of dollars in promised funds. But Washington said the underlying financial sanctions against the Authority remain in place, including a ban on bank transfers.

HERE'S A BETTER IDEA:

Hamas Wants War - David Frum
International aid to the Palestinian territories has actually risen since Palestinians elected a Hamas government in January 2006. The Palestinian areas received $1.2 billion in official aid in 2006, up from $1 billion in 2005. America's contribution rose from $400 million in 2005 to $468 million in 2006. Aid from the EU and other international organizations also increased handsomely, and the UN has called for still greater increases in aid in 2007. The Palestinian areas now receive more than $300 per person, per year, making them the most aid-dependent population on Earth. (The people of sub-Saharan Africa receive only $44 per person per year.)

What if the incentives changed? Suppose that each Hamas rocket cost the PA $1 million in reduced U.S. and EU aid? The 80 rockets fired over recent days would mean $80 million less in salaries, food, aid, subsidies of all kinds. The next 80 rockets - another $80 million gone. For the first time, Hamas' adventurism would exact a serious and predictable cost. Such a cost would do more than any number of U.S.-trained Fatah gunmen to restrain Hamas. But if the aid continues - if the world continues a policy of sending money to the Palestinian territories, no matter what the Palestinian government does - Israel, Gaza and the world stand just one well-aimed rocket away from war. (National Post-Canada)