WASHINGTON — President Bush on Thursday made an important show of support for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, offering U.S. financial aid and hailing his reform efforts in the first White House meeting with a Palestinian leader since 2000.
Bush offered Abbas $50 million in direct aid to help Palestinians settle the Gaza Strip once Israel completes its planned withdrawal of Jewish settlers and soldiers this summer. Although the amount is not considered large, the gesture is a key sign of confidence. The United States, concerned about corruption in the Palestinian government, has given it direct aid only twice in the last decade.
"You have made a new start on a difficult journey, requiring courage and leadership each day," Bush told Abbas, who has faced mounting challenges since he was elected in January. "And we will take that journey together."
The offer of aid and Bush's warm words marked a sharp contrast from the treatment accorded Abbas' predecessor, the late Yasser Arafat. Bush did not consider the longtime Palestinian leader a viable diplomatic partner and never invited him to the White House.
As Bush praised Abbas' commitment to democracy at a Rose Garden news conference, he registered his unhappiness with the government of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, which the Bush administration has been prodding toward democratic reform.
Asked about reports that officials of Mubarak's party had encouraged thugs to attack anti-government demonstrators Wednesday, Bush said, "The idea of people expressing themselves in opposition to the government, and then getting a beating, is not our view of how democracy ought to work."
The attacks took place in Cairo on the day a nationwide referendum was held on reforms to allow multiple parties to take part in presidential elections.
Abbas, who has been eager to show Palestinians that he can deliver results from Washington, had sought a letter from Bush laying out U.S. commitments on key points in the Palestinian-Israeli dispute. At a meeting in April 2004, Bush gave a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon that the prime minister has since held out as a key expression of American support.
But U.S. officials, who have been reluctant to do anything that might weaken Sharon's political position at a time when the Israeli leader faces a challenge from the political right over his Gaza withdrawal plan, declined Abbas' request.
