NY Times:
The United States spent about $1.9 million of its yearly $400 million in aid to the Palestinians on dozens of quick projects before elections this week to bolster the governing Fatah faction's image with voters and strengthen its hand in competing with the militant faction Hamas, American and Palestinian officials said Sunday.
The spending was intended "to work with the Palestinian Authority to enhance democratic institutions and support democratic actors, not just Fatah," said Micaela Schweitzer-Bluhm, a spokeswoman for the American consulate in East Jerusalem. The program, run by the United States Agency for International Development, was described Sunday in The Washington Post.
American and Palestinian officials who spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to speak to reporters said that the program, which started in August, was intended to help defeat Hamas and that the government had done a detailed political analysis to try to focus on constituencies where Hamas was doing well. The international development agency's Office of Transition Initiatives was allowed as much as $30,000 in discretionary spending for each project instead of the $10,000 usually allotted.
Ha'aretz:
The American administration has promised Israel that the United States will not recognize any Palestinian government in which Hamas participates, government sources in Jerusalem have said.
The sources said that American envoys who visited here about 10 days ago told Israeli officials that recognizing such a government would violate American law.
...Polls have shown that Hamas could win a third or more of the vote in the Wednesday elections for the Palestinian parliament, a showing that could prompt an offer from the ruling Fatah party to share power in a coalition government.
Translation: "
democracy" is wonderful, as long as the "right people" win the elections.
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