Lending a Helping Hand
Third, international reaction will also be affected by what's going on with the Palestinians. Cutting off the Hamas-led government, which remains committed to its ideology of rejection, is the right policy but can be sustainable with the donor community only if there is also a plan for preserving assistance to the Palestinian society. International donors seem poised to let Hamas off the hook if the PA moves toward collapse and the Palestinian people face a real crisis. With this in mind, the administration should develop with the Israelis and the donor community three alternative mechanisms for providing assistance to the Palestinian public: use the U.N. delivery bodies to provide humanitarian aid, broadening the definition to include healthcare, education, and environmental workers; use Abbas's office to create development and job-creating projects; and build a new nongovernmental organization structure to provide social and educational services.
All three paths require an intensive American-led effort, since nothing in the Middle East ever implements itself. If we hope to shape Olmert's concept into a path for a future that is more promising--or at least preserves options for a different future--the Bush administration will have to be prepared to roll up its sleeves and work on the problem.
Dennis Ross is counselor at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and author of The Missing Peace: The Inside Story of the Fight for Middle East Peace. David Makovsky, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute, is author of Olmert's Unilateral Option: An Early Assessment.
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