Israel seeks billions from US for Gaza pullout

TUESDAY , 12 JULY 2005
Reuters

JERUSALEM: Israel will ask the United States for $US2.2 billion, one of the largest aid requests by the Jewish state, to pay for its planned withdrawal from the occupied Gaza Strip, Israeli political sources have said.

The special funding would be used to pay for the evacuation, slated to begin in mid-August, of all 21 Jewish settlements in Gaza and four of 120 in the West Bank, and the relocation of the 9,000 settlers to underpopulated areas of Israel.

Asked about the aid request, a senior US administration official said in Washington: “They have not asked for any money and we have not made any commitment to provide any.”

The official would not say whether the United States would look favourably upon any future requests.

In a debate scheduled for Tuesday, Israel’s security cabinet is to consider a Defence Ministry recommendation to keep Israeli forces in the northern West Bank area where the four settlements are to be evacuated, government officials said.

The proposal, likely to disappoint Palestinians, appears to be a departure from Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s “disengagement plan”, which says Israel will evacuate “all military installations in this area and redeploy outside”.

The officials, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity, said the military fears that if troops quit the area, Palestinian militants could set up rocket production facilities and attack nearby Israeli cities.

ISRAEL HIGH ON US AID LIST

Commenting on the Israeli request for US aid, a senior Israeli political source said it was “hardly surprising given the unprecedented scale of the Disengagement Plan”.

Israel is among the largest recipients of US aid, and the $US2.2 billion would be in addition to annual aid of around $US2.8 billion. Much of the annual funding comes in the form of grants that are spent on US military exports.

Israel’s Haaretz daily said the request would be made by aides to Sharon in talks with US National Security Council official Elliot Abrams.

The Bush administration has agreed in principle to help fund the Gaza plan, Haaretz said. Washington wants the withdrawals to consolidate a five-month-old truce and spur talks on a US-led “road map” for a Palestinian state alongside a secure Israel.

The Gaza plan funding could be the biggest US aid package to Israel since 1992, when Washington paid $US3 billion to make up for damage sustained from Iraqi missile salvoes in the Gulf war.

Sharon portrays the pullout as “disengagement” from 4-½ years of fighting with Palestinians. He faces mounting hostility from rightists who condemn the move as a betrayal of Jewish claims on biblical land and a reward for a Palestinian uprising.

The cost of the Gaza withdrawal, the first time Israel will have uprooted settlements from occupied land Palestinians want for a state, is estimated at 8 billion shekels.

The settlers facing removal have been encouraged by the government to move to the under-developed Galilee and Negev areas, relocation requiring heavy investment in infrastructure.

The government will spread the pullout cost over three years to keep the national budget deficit from rising significantly.

Haaretz quoted government sources as saying the US money would be for military outlays like relocating army bases and for developing the Galilee and Negev.

The Palestinians, who were this week promised $US3 billion in aid from the Group of Eight industrialised nations, welcome the prospect of gaining Gaza but suspect Sharon plans to keep a permanent hold on much of the West Bank.