U.S. to sink $900M into rebuilding Gaza Strip

The United States will provide
approximately $900 million in aid aimed at rebuilding the war-torn Gaza Strip
and the economically struggling Palestinian Authority, the State Department
announced Monday afternoon.

At a donors conference in Egypt, the
U.S. said it would provide $300 million for urgent humanitarian needs
identified by the United Nations, along with money to help the Palestinian
Authority cover a $1.15 billion budget shortfall.

{mosads}Up to $400 million will be aimed at
solidifying reforms in the West Bank, including private sector development,
infrastructure improvements and security assistance targeted at bolstering the
ruling Fatah Party.

The conference marks Secretary of
State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s first foray as America’s top diplomat into the volatile
Middle East. She is joined by former Sen. George Mitchell (D-Maine), the
experienced international negotiator who has been tapped as President Obama’s
lead envoy to the region.

The donors conference, held at the
Egyptian resort at Sharm el-Sheik, yielded more than the nearly $2.8 billion in
total aid the Palestinian Authority had sought from the U.S., the United
Kingdom, the European Union and the Arab Gulf Cooperation Council.

The money, which donors have said
will go only to the Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority, will be used to
rebuild Gaza after a three-week-long conflict in which Israel pounded militant
positions in response to shelling lobbed near Israeli cities.

Egypt has served as the mediator
between Israel and Hamas, the terrorist organization that controls Gaza. Israel
has said it will open crossing points with Gaza if Hamas and other militants
agree to stop shelling and hand over an Israeli soldier who had been kidnapped
in 2006.

During the meetings, Clinton met
Monday with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Italian Prime Minister Silvio
Berlusconi, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and King Hamad of Bahrain, as
well as foreign ministers from Saudi Arabia, Norway and other attending
nations.

A State Department spokesman said
the Quartet, made up of the United States, the European Union, Russia and the
United Nations, met informally during the day.

In remarks to the conference,
Clinton said the U.S. aid was meant to restart and accelerate what had been the
foundering Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

“As President Obama has said,
the United States will engage in this effort with vigor and intensity in
pursuit of genuine progress — progress that will improve the lives and the
livelihoods of the people of Gaza and the West Bank, the people of Israel, and
the neighbors throughout the region,” Clinton said.