| 
| 
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Monday will pledge about $300 million in U.S. humanitarian aid for the war-torn Gaza Strip, plus about $600 million in assistance to the Palestinian Authority, a U.S. official said Sunday.
State Department spokesman Robert A. Wood told reporters traveling with Clinton Sunday that she would announce the donations at an international pledging conference at this Red Sea resort. The conference is seeking money for Gaza and the Palestinian economy.
Obama administration officials had indicated last week that the U.S. was preparing to pledge $900 million in assistance for Gaza, but Wood’s description of the plan Sunday indicated that the only portion going directly to rebuilding Gaza was the $300 million. source.
Talk about wasting money, wasting American tax money to something that is worth less than GM stocks.
| 
| 
Related Reading:
Funding the Enemy: How U.S. Taxpayers Bankroll the TalibanWith the vague intention of winning hearts and minds in Afghanistan, the US government has mismanaged billions of development and logistics dollars, bolstered the drug trade, and dumped untold millions into Taliban hands. That is the sobering message of this scathing critique of our war effort in Afghanistan by investigative journalist Douglas A. Wissing. According to Wissing, America has already lost the war.During Wissing's research and fieldwork in Afghanistan's war zones, a drumbeat of off-the-record and offhand remarks pointed him to one conclusion: "We blew it." The sentiment was even blazoned across the US military's fortifications, as Wissing saw at Forward Operating Base Mehtar Lam in insurgency-wracked Laghman Province: "I glanced over at a concrete blast barrier while waiting for a helicopter," Wissing says. "Someone had spray-painted in jagged letters: 'The GAME. You Lost It.'"
Wissing's vivid narrative takes the reader down to ground level in frontline Afghanistan. It draws on the voices of hundreds of combat soldiers, ordinary Afghans, private contractors, aid workers, international consultants, and government officials. From these contacts it became very clear, as the author details, that US taxpayer dollars have been flowing into Taliban coffers, courtesy of scandalously mismanaged US development and counterinsurgency programs, to calamitous military and social effect.
This is the first book to detail the toxic embrace between American policymakers and careerists, Afghan kleptocrats and opportunistic Taliban. The result? US taxpayers have been funding both sides of the disastrous Afghanistan War.
Lonely Planet Israel and the Palestinian Territories (Country Travel Guide)Lonely Planet knows the magic of Israel and the Palestinian Territories. We've walked the lively alleyways in Nazareth and Jerusalem, explored biblical ruins, slept under the starry Negev skies and floated weightless in the Dead Sea. Take your own unforgettable journey with our guidebook's 6th edition. Lonely Planet guides are written by experts who get to the heart of every destination they visit. This fully updated edition is packed with accurate, practical and honest advice, designed to give you the information you need to make the most of your trip.
In This Guide:
Day Trips to Petra in Jordan & Sinai in Egypt
Color feature with locals' tips on the best sights and food
Green Index makes responsible travel easier
Jerusalem, Israel, Petra & Sinai (EYEWITNESS TRAVEL GUIDE)From the green hills and sun-drenched coast of Galilee to the sacred sites of Jerusalem's Old City; from the dramatic desert of Wadi Rum to the vibrant reefs of Dahab, there is much for pilgrims and holidaymakers alike.This relaunched edition has new features and three brand new walks, as well as clear maps and extended hotel and restaurant listings.
Hamas: From Resistance to GovernmentWhen the radical Islamist group Hamas was elected to lead Palestine in 2006, the Western world was shocked. How had the majority of Palestinians come to support an extremist organization and how would the group’s new political power affect the larger Israel/Palestine conflict?Italian journalist and historian Paola Caridi offers a clear-eyed account of how the conditions in this war-torn region led to the rise of Hamas and an unbiased look at the complex feelings that Palestinians have toward getting behind a government that supports violent resistance. By breaking from the sensationalist journalism surrounding the elections, Caridi is able to tell the story of a movement caught between the desire to resist its oppressor and the need to provide support for a refugee people. Caridi, informed by years of on-the-ground research and interviews with residents of Gaza and leaders of Hamas, covers the history of Gaza from its golden age as a port city to the formal birth and slow militarization of Hamas. This English-language translation brings the reader to present-day Palestine by offering a never-before-seen chapter on Operation Cast Lead, the shocking WikiLeaks disclosures, and the Cairo Revolution.
Hamas paints a picture, with intelligence, dexterity, and heart, of a people trapped in the most historic of political battles and reveals the strange complexities behind the controversy by explaining one of the key players in the search for peace and justice that runs through the central crisis of the Middle East today.
The Muslim Next Door: The Qur'an, the Media, and That Veil ThingBronze Medal Winner of the Independent Publishers Award 2009Since 9/11, stories about Muslims and the Islamic world have flooded headlines, politics, and water-cooler conversations all across the country. And, although Americans hear about Islam on a daily basis, there remains no clear explanation of Islam or its people. The Muslim Next Door offers easy-to-understand yet academically sound answers to these questions while also dispelling commonly held misconceptions. Written from the point of view of an American Muslim, the book addresses what readers in the Western world are most curious about, beginning with the basics of Islam and how Muslims practice their religion before easing into more complicated issues like jihad, Islamic fundamentalism, and the status of women in Islam. Author Sumbul Ali-Karamali's vivid anecdotes about growing up Muslim and female in the West, along with her sensitive, scholarly overview of Islam, combine for a uniquely insightful look at the world's fastest growing religion.
