After 'Israel's Staunchest ally' Unblocks $500 million Aid to Palestinians, Abbas annouces New Push for Statehood.

After 'Israel's Staunchest ally' Unblocks $500 million Aid to Palestinians, Abbas annouces New Push for Statehood.(CNSNews).

Just days after the Obama administration announced it was unblocking almost $500 million in aid to the Palestinian Authority, P.A. chairman Mahmoud Abbas told an Arab League summit this week he was pushing ahead with efforts to upgrade the P.A.’s status – the reason Congress wanted the money held up in the first place.

Abbas complained that the Palestinian people were being collectively punished for opting to seek statehood at the U.N.

Abbas also used his speech at the summit in Doha, Qatar to reprise his accusations that Israel is systemically racing to “judaize” Jerusalem, and repeated the inflammatory claim that it is “attacking the al-Aqsa Mosque and Muslim and Christian holy sites.”

Last Thursday, President Obama in a speech in Jerusalem told Israelis he believed Abbas to be “a true partner.”

Hours earlier, standing alongside Abbas in Ramallah, Obama announced, “I’m pleased that in recent weeks the United States has been able to provide additional assistance to help the Palestinian Authority bolster its finances.”

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland then confirmed that $495.7 million in FY 2012 funds was being moved to the P.A. and that Congress has been notified that the administration was looking to unfreeze another $200 million. The money includes direct budget support for the P.A., funding for narcotics control and law enforcement, and for USAID-implemented assistance programs.

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa, this week called the administration’s decision to release the funds “reckless.”

“With the Palestinian Authority’s unilateral actions at the U.N. and its reconciliation efforts with Hamas, the U.S. could have used this as an opportunity to leverage our assistance to demonstrate to Abu Mazen [Abbas] that he needs to stop pursuing policies that undermine the peace process,” she said.

Ros-Lehtinen said Abbas “needs to realize that there are repercussions for his actions and that he will not be rewarded for his malfeasance with millions of hardworking American taxpayer dollars that he considers an entitlement for the P.A.

“With our nation facing its own financial crisis at home with runaway deficits and an ever expanding national debt, committing this amount of money unconditionally to the P.A. is reckless and an example of misplaced priorities.”

Secretary of State John Kerry (I will implement Obama's World Vision) has made releasing the funds a priority. During his visit to Europe and the Middle East last month, he stressed the importance of funding the P.A. to “virtually every one of his interlocutors,” according to Nuland.

Since P.A. self-rule was established under the Oslo Accords in the 1990s, the U.S. has provided more than $4 billion in bilateral assistance to the Palestinians, “among the world’s largest per capita recipients of international foreign aid,” according to a Congressional Research Service report released last January.Hmmmmmm.......Trough peace he will deceive many.Read the full story here.