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March 12, 1999/24 Adar 5759, Vol. 51, No. 24
Israel, Palestinian aid 'locked at hip'
MATTHEW DORF
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
WASHINGTON - U.S. aid to Israel and the Palestinian Authority promised during last October's Wye peace talks is intrinsically linked and must move forward as one package, according to a top State Department official.
Responding to Israeli concerns that the United States was preparing to deliver money to the Palestinians but not to the Israelis, Stuart Eizenstat, the U.S. undersecretary of state for economics, said this week that the aid packages are "locked at the hip." Speaking at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Eizenstat called a recent report in the Israeli daily Ha'aretz "grossly inaccurate" and "literally 180 degrees off."
The newspaper reported that during meetings in Israel last week, Eizenstat told the Israelis that the United States would delay $1.2 billion promised over three years to Israel, while the Palestinians would begin to receive $400 million promised over three years. The paper said the distinction was being made because the Palestinians had carried out their obligations under the Wye peace agreement, while the Israelis had not.
The Wye agreement stipulated further Israeli redeployments from the West Bank according to a specific timetable that coincided with specific Palestinian steps to crack down on terrorism.
In the wake of the Ha'aretz report, Israeli officials accused the United States of meddling in Israel's election campaign by implying that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's peace policies were costing the Jewish state $1.2 billion in aid.
When pressed whether the aid would be delivered together or simply passed by Congress together, Eizenstat said, "As a practical matter, just like the Israeli and Palestinian economics are locked at the hip, so too is this aid package."
The debate came as a Senate committee last week agreed to provide an immediate $100 million to Jordan, also promised at the Wye talks.
Meanwhile, the request for Israeli and Palestinian aid is bogged down in Congress over disagreement about how to pay for the aid, which is in addition to the almost $3 billion annual foreign aid package to Israel and the $100 million for the Palestinians.
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