Like a dumb parrot I’ve been harping on the cash aspect of the convergence plan. More than anything else I’ve felt that money and paying for the construction of new settlements, security, and compensation will be the number one factor of difficulty for Olmert’s plan.

There’s only one thing that can stop a unilateral move, cash

Unilateral by definition means undertaken by one side only. In the area of support, if Israel were to shrug Europe off and proceed without the EU (and they will never support the plan in any case) and relied solely on US support it still would not solve the cash riddle.

Before Gaza the Israelis had banked on about a billion plus dollars from the US to aid in offsetting the costs, that money was allocated in talks but has not materialized. The US is spending hard and heavy these days, the reluctance to toss out more is natural. Olmert’s advisers got a bit of a rude shock this week when they were advised themselves to not even consider tabling any requests when the two leaders meet in Washington, for a potential 10 Billion dollars in aid to help for the convergence should it roll out.

The notion that this was newsworthy for Olmert’s adviser’s is a little scary, it speaks to a real disconnect by withdrawal supporters to realities. I want to secure the major blocks, I don’t think it is realistic to think Israel can hold all the territories and as such under different circumstances I would support a unilateral move if a referendum in Israel called for it.

But handing the territory to Hamas, not having anyone recognize the borders as legitimate, and lastly not being able to fund this initiative in the time frames laid out by Olmert mean convergence will simply have to wait.

One parrot is more than enough, two becomes highly annoying

It’s find and dandy for me to repeat myself like a parrot, but Olmert is the Prime Minister of the State of Israel. He can’t merely stick to this repeating record he’s in about convergence, he should be assessing the realities and changed facts on the ground since last year and be formulating policy for the betterment of the State. It has now become in some sense, converging just for the sake of converging, but I have news for you Olmert, the US is not going to pay.. just for the sake of paying.

Tags: Israel, USA, Olmert, Bush, Convergence

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