Via JWF, who calls it a different kind of “stimulus package.” After flushing $800 billion down the toilet on the stimulus, flushing another $900 mil in a doomed attempt to buy goodwill from a revanchist anti-western culture seems almost like a bargain.

The money, which needs U.S. congressional approval, will be distributed through U.N. and other bodies and not via the militant group Hamas, which rules Gaza, said one official.

“This money is for Gaza and to help strengthen the Palestinian Authority. It is not going to go to Hamas,” said the official, who asked not to be named as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton planned to announce the funding at a donors’ conference in Egypt next week…

Clinton’s bid to get “substantial” funds could face an uphill battle in Congress because Hamas continues to rule Gaza and the U.S. focus is on its own souring economy…

The United States wants Abbas’s PA to play a central role in the reconstruction effort in Gaza, hoping this will increase its influence in the Hamas stronghold. Washington is also putting pressure on other donors to bolster Abbas.

Wasn’t one of the left’s chief criticisms of Israel’s Gaza operation that there was no Plan B if Hamas disintegrated? Fatah couldn’t ride in as the white knight on the backs of Israeli tanks to restore order or else they’d be seen as stooges and collaborators, we were told, not unreasonably. How is this de facto bribe of Gazans by Uncle Sam to restore Abbas to authority any different? And why would Hamas take the chance of letting the Palestinian Authority back into the strip knowing the threat it might pose to their hegemony? What am I missing here?