(New York Sun) Eli Lake - White House and National Security Council aides last week discreetly passed messages to some Jewish leaders urging that Prime Minister Olmert's first visit with President Bush, scheduled for May 23, should focus primarily on large strategic questions and not on the details of a proposed aid package to defray the cost of withdrawal from the West Bank. Since last fall Israeli officials and some pro-Israel lobbyists in Washington have quietly worked together on a supplemental aid request to defray the $1 to $2 billion Israel spent on dismantling settlements from Gaza and relocating its citizens who had lived there. Rough estimates from the Olmert camp suggest the cost of the prime minister's consolidation plan for the West Bank would be ten times that of Gaza.
2006-04-15 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive