Debbie Schlussel: Bush's Giant Mortgage Bail-Out Program . . . FOR PALESTINIANS!
Remember George W. Bush's big lie in a 2000 debate against Al Gore, when he said he opposed "nation-building"?
Well, as we know, while oil gushes daily in Iraq, WE--not the Iraqi oil profits--continue to pay for the Iraqi welfare state. Now, this ethos has extended to propping up the de facto Palestinian terrorist state.
With Americans hurting all over, getting evicted from their homes, and struggling in a recessed economy, President Bush has decided to form and bankroll a corporation to fund mortgages for new homes . . . for PALESTINIANS. Even worse, it's in addition to hundreds of millions which American taxpayers already sent to pay for new businesses for Palestinians:
The Palestinian West Bank . . . got a boost on Monday: the announcement of a plan, led by the American government, to help tens of thousands of people buy homes.The plan, which establishes a $500 million mortgage company, aims to build 10 new neighborhoods over the next five years and, in the process, create thousands of jobs in construction and real estate. In doing so, it could improve the depressed local economy and the political prospects of the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, of the relatively pro-West Fatah party. . . .
A secondary aim of the housing program is to send a message to the Gaza Strip, run by the Islamist party Hamas, that its citizens, too, could benefit from international generosity and economic progress if they restore Fatah's authority, overturned by Hamas forces in a battle last June.
The new company's name, Affordable Mortgage and Loan Company, yields the acronym AMAL, an Arabic word meaning hope. . . . The new plan will make mortgages available for about 30,000 apartments. . . .
Half of the money for the new mortgage company, $250 million, will come from the United States through the Overseas Private Investment Corporation. . . . . At a ceremony in Ramallah, Tony Blair, the former British prime minister who is representing the international community in helping the Palestinian Authority build institutions, called the plan "a major step forward for ordinary Palestinians."
This is the second major international initiative of its kind in the West Bank. Last summer, $230 million was pledged for a similar program for small- and medium-size businesses in the area.
Robert Mosbacher Jr. [DS: Another rich, preppy Bush friend of Daddy], the president of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, which was also involved in that endeavor, said about half a dozen loans had been made so far in that program. He said he hoped that the first construction in the housing plan would start this year.
"Our role is to deploy private capital as a soft power tool," Mr. Mosbacher, a businessman from Texas, said after the ceremony held to announce the program.
Nauseating. Not only are you financing new homes for terrorists and their supporters in the Palestinian population, but the whole aim of this absurd program will fail. HAMAS is already in control of significant parts of the so-called West Bank, and it will take over, probably sooner than later.
Yup, American taxpayers financing homes and businesses for "poor" Palestinians who now support Fatah terrorists against Israel and will soon support HAMAS terrorists against Israel.
Your tax dollars "at work" for terrorism.
Well, I guess, technically, Bush didn't lie when he said he opposed "nation-building." He's actually more into Terrorist State Building.
Would John Kerry and Al Gore have been any different on this issue? Would they really have been worse? Or just the same.
Posted by Debbie on April 18, 2008 06:22 AM to Debbie Schlussel