International donors pledged $5.2 billion in Egypt this week to rebuild the Gaza Strip and fund the Palestinian government.
The pledges far surpassed the $2.8 billion that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Palestinian Authority had set out to raise at the conference in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik.
Saudi Arabia was the biggest single donor, promising $1 billion, followed by the United States, which promised $900 million.
The money will be divided into three funds: budget support of the Palestinian Authority, immediate aid to Gaza, and rebuilding in Gaza, Palestinian Planning Minister Samir Abdullah said.
Hillary Clinton, attending the gathering on her first Mideast tour as secretary of state, told reporters the pledges showed the international community’s “confidence” in Abbas and his administration. The pledges are expected to give Abbas a boost and put new pressure on Hamas to moderate.
Clinton, at the start of a three-day trip that also took her to Jerusalem and the West Bank, issued a blunt call for urgent action to forge a comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace. “We cannot afford more setbacks or delays — or regrets about what might have been,” she said.
But the meeting’s broader message targeted Hamas, seeking to isolate the group and force it to compromise in its control of Gaza. Many of the participants — including top diplomats from 45 nations — called for the creation of a Palestinian unity government led by Abbas that would be able to rebuild Gaza and pursue negotiations with Israel.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy told Palestinians, in a clear message to Hamas, to acknowledge there is “no other road to the creation of a Palestinian state but to engage resolutely in searching for a political solution and engage in a dialogue with Israel.”
As for Clinton, she promised March 3 in Jerusalem to work with the incoming Israeli government, but delivered a message that could put her at odds with the Israel’s next leader, Prime Minister–designate Benjamin Netanyahu. She said the United States is committed to the establishment of a Palestinian state and “will be vigorously engaged in the pursuit of a two-state solution every step of the way.”
While in Jerusalem, she met with Netanyahu following a meeting with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. She also visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial. On March 4, she met with Abbas in the West Bank.
She announced March 3 that the United States will dispatch two emissaries to Syria for “preliminary conversations.” Clinton was not specific about what the emissaries — Mideast experts Daniel Shapiro of the National Security Council and Jeffrey Feltman of the State Department — would seek to achieve in Damascus, beyond what she called exploring issues of concern to the United States.
Clinton also suggested Israel might be justified in renewing a military offensive in Gaza in response to further rocket attacks by Hamas. A durable cease-fire “can only be achieved if Hamas ceases the rocket attacks,” she said.