Saturday, June 16, 2007

Let's try a 'New York Times' type headline

Bush Administration to send hundreds of millions to holocaust deniers

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) - The United States strengthened its offer of support for President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday, telling him an international aid embargo against the Palestinians would end as soon as he forms a new government without Hamas, aides to Abbas said. There was no immediate U.S. confirmation.

Dr. Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) was born in 1935 in Safad in northern Israel, at that time part of the British Mandate. Abbas left his hometown with his family in 1948 when Israel was created, moving to Syria. He holds a B.A in Law from Damascus University. Abbas earned his Ph.D. in history from Moscow's Oriental College. His doctoral thesis denies that six million Jews died in World War II. In his Arabic-language book "The Secret Relationship Between Nazism and Zionism" Abbas rejects "the Zionist fantasy, the fantastic lie that six million Jews were killed. The limited number that did succumb were victims of a joint [Nazi-Zionist] plot".

The international community, both in the Arab world and the West, have sided with Abbas in the dispute. In a major boost for Abbas, the U.S. consul-general in Jerusalem, Jacob Walles, said Washington would end 15 months of sanctions once the new Palestinian government is formed, aides to Abbas said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the meeting was closed.

The sanctions were imposed after Hamas, which the U.S. has branded a terrorist group, was elected in January 2006. Hamas and Fatah have been locked in a power struggle since then, especially over which group would control security forces.

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