Bush Welcomes Abbas at White House, Pledges $50 Million in Assistance

President Bush welcomed Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to the White House Thursday (May 26th), hailing him as a courageous democratic reformer. Bush also helped Abbas' standing back home by pledging $50 million in assistance for new housing in the Gaza Strip, which Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon plans to evacuate of Jewish settlements this summer, AP reports. The visit came just weeks before Palestinian parliamentary elections in which Abbas's supporters are going up against the militant group Hamas. Abbas is the first top Palestinian leader to visit the White House during Bush's presidency, since the president had refused to meet with Yasser Arafat, who died last year.

During his visit, Abbas said that Palestinians were, quote, "in dire need to have freedom" from Israeli control and that the need for U.S. help in the peace process was urgent. He also said his people are entitled to all the land lost to Israel in the 1967 Mideast war, including Gaza, the West Bank and east Jerusalem. During a joint news conference, Bush gave some support to the Palestinian position, saying any expansion of Israel's borders since the end of the 1948 war for independence, quote, "must be mutually agreed to." He also said Israel must remove any illegal outposts from the West Bank and stop expanding Jewish settlements there.

The two disagreed on the security wall being built by Israel, however, with Abbas calling it, quote, "illegitimate," but Bush saying it was part of an Israeli security effort, although adding it, quote, "must be a security rather than a political barrier."

How generous of Mr Bush. Somebody help me out with this story. How does building Palestinian homes in the Gaza strip become the responsibility of US taxpayers? Why not chase down the millions Yasser Arafat embezzled from his own people and use that money to build a settlement?