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April 22, 2005/Nisan 13 5765, Volume 57, No. 34
Israel to ask U.S. for Gaza withdrawal aid
RON KAMPEAS
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
WASHINGTON - The extended bloody conflict in Iraq, just a few hundred miles from Jerusalem, makes this both the best and the worst of times for Israel to ask for hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. assistance to get Jews out of the Gaza Strip.
The director general of Israel's treasury, Yossi Bachar, was in Washington this week to launch talks aimed at shaping Israel's request for cash to soften the landing of thousands of settlers due to be evacuated this summer from Gaza and part of the West Bank.
A senior Israeli official told JTA the amount to be requested was likely to reach $1.6 billion.
The request comes as Congress is considering President Bush's request for $82 billion in fast-track funds, mostly to be spent in Iraq, and at a time when the administration is cutting back on a wide variety of domestic programs.
"It's not a time when Congress is looking to spend more money overseas," said a congressional staffer familiar with Israel's aid requests.
Already there are signs that the White House and Congress will use the funds as leverage to extract concessions from Israel.
The request jibes with the estimates Israeli officials have cited for the transfer - some $1 billion for new housing for the evacuated settlers and $600 million to build new bases.
The money is to be spent developing the Galilee and Negev, the Israeli regions likeliest to absorb settlers.
Bush lent his weight to the plan last week when he met with Sharon at his Texas ranch.
"The prime minister believes that developing the Negev and the Galilee regions is vital to ensuring a vibrant economic future for Israel," Bush said. "I support that goal, and we will work together to make his plans a reality."
Israel has worked hard to make the request palatable by attaching it to projects favored by Americans: the development of transportation infrastructure and business parks that would promote private enterprise and employment; and assistance to Bedouin communities in the Negev, to show that the assistance isn't intended only for Jews.
The amount to be requested, $1.6 billion, "is more than half of the aid Israel gets annually," a staffer said. "It would look a lot smaller as part of an $82 billion package."
In the meantime, legislators are using Israel's outstretched hand to extract concessions.
When Shimon Peres, the Israeli deputy prime minister who is to run the civilian part of the disengagement plan, was in Washington two weeks ago to make the case for U.S. assistance, the powerful chairman of the House of Representatives' International Relations Committee, Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.), criticized what he said was Israel's mistreatment of West Bank Christians.
Hyde said Israel's West Bank security barrier and its settlement policy are "drastically undermining the mission of Christian institutions and the social fabric of their communities in the Holy Land."
Peres was caught off guard by Hyde's complaint, and replied that Palestinian Christians face graver threats from Palestinian Muslims than from Israel.
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