Palestinian Candidates Condemn U.S. Program

The Bush administration's effort to increase the popularity of the Palestinian Authority and its governing Fatah party before critical parliamentary elections this week came under intense criticism Monday.... The program calls for funding Palestinian Authority events and projects and announcing those projects in the days before the vote. Included are a national youth soccer tournament, street-cleaning campaigns, computers for classrooms and free food and water at border crossings.

Honestly don't understand what the big deal is here. The programs promote the Palestinian Authority (PA), not Fatah. The election is over who controls the PA, Fatah or Hamas. De facto Fatah is associated with the PA, because it runs the PA now; but de jure, whoever controls the PA in the future would be associated with similar programs, provided they were able to keep the money coming, find other sources, or not keep so goddamn much of it for themselves like Fatah.