Israel, EU, US Now Funding Fatah Terrorists

Yesterday we reported that the US was about to squeeze Israel to pay money to the Fatah 'moderate' terrorist organization after previous payments and arms slated to 'fight Hamas' are actually now in Hamas' hands. One astute reader, Dan Friedman, mocked the headline's assumption that Olmert and company needed pressuring prior to playing the appeasement card.

It didn't take long for this to follow:

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Sunday evening he would release frozen tax revenue to the Palestinian Authority and remove some West Bank blockades.

His words came on the eve of his visit to Washington, where the US Administration was expected to ask him to take significant steps to bolster Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, in order to show the Palestinians what they have to gain under the "moderates," as opposed to what they have to lose under the extremists.

"We will cooperate with this government," Olmert said in a Manhattan address to the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. "We will defreeze monies that we kept under our control because we didn't want these monies to be taken by Hamas to be used as part of a terrorist action. And we will do what we can to upgrade the quality of life [in the West Bank]."

and this:

The emergency government Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas installed after Islamic militants seized control of Gaza reaped its first windfall Monday with the European Union promising to restore hundreds of millions of dollars in crucial aid.

President Bush also lent critical support in a phone call to Abbas, who called for a resumption of Mideast peace talks. The Bush administration is expected to soon lift its sanctions on the Palestinian government now that it no longer includes the Islamic Hamas.