Bush and Olmert reaffirm support for Abbas

US President George W. Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Tuesday pledged to bolster Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, as Israel tightened the diplomatic and economic embargo on Hamas who control Gaza.
In reaffirming the goal of a Palestinian state alongside a secure Israel, Bush said he and Olmert were working on a "common strategy to fight off" what he termed extremists in the Gaza Strip and elsewhere. "Our hope is that President Abbas and Prime Minister (Salam) Fayyad will be strengthened to the point where they can lead the Palestinians in a different direction," Bush said before the closed-door White House meeting with Olmert.
Israel and the United States want to isolate Hamas financially, diplomatically and militarily in the Gaza Strip, while throwing their support behind Abbas' new government of Fatah loyalists.
The United States and EU pledged on Monday to lift an economic and diplomatic embargo on the Palestinian government of Fatah loyalists Abbas formed in the West Bank. The embargo was imposed on the Palestinian Authority in March 2006 after Hamas won elections and rejected calls to recognise Israel and renounce violence.
"Like you, I want to strengthen the moderates and cooperate with President Abu Mazen (Abbas), who is ... perhaps the only person who was widely elected in a democratic manner by all of the Palestinian people," Olmert said.
In Jerusalem, senior Israeli and Western officials said Israel plans to choke off all but humanitarian and basic supplies to the Gaza Strip. Israel evacuated Palestinians wounded in Gaza fighting at a border crossing on Tuesday where dozens have been trapped for days since Hamas routed Fatah forces in the coastal strip. Israeli radio stations also reported Israel permitted truckloads of food and medical equipment sent by international aid groups to enter Gaza.
The embargo will be coupled with a US-led push for renewed peace talks between Abbas and Olmert. Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said: "It is surprising that while they (Fatah leaders) are for holding a dialogue with the Zionists, they reject dialogue with us." "Gaza is a terrorist-controlled entity now," said an Israeli official who is working with the Bush administration to isolate Hamas. "No financial assistance can go to any entity or person with connections to the Hamas-run administration in Gaza."
Israel plans to bar Palestinian tax funds transferred to Abbas from reaching Gaza to run Hamas-led agencies and pay workers, two senior Israeli officials said. Palestinian Information Minister Riyad al-Malki said the emergency government knew of no Israeli conditions on the tax funds which Israel collects on the Palestinian Authority's behalf. "We will not accept any conditions," he said.
Majdi al-Khalidi, an adviser in Abbas' office, told Western diplomats the emergency government could remain for a period of two months and then become a caretaker administration that could try to lay the ground for new elections.
A senior Western diplomat said Abbas' office made clear it does not want the international community to have "any contact or provide any legitimacy to Hamas in Gaza" except to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian assistance.
The flow of water and power would not be affected but Gaza would face severe restrictions, including a freeze on exports while Hamas is in power, a senior Western diplomat said.
Israeli officials say up to $400 million in Palestinian tax revenues will be transferred to Abbas's emergency government in stages, short of the $700 million sought by Abbas. Israel says the rest of the money has been frozen by court order. It is unclear if the EU will go along with Israeli efforts to isolate Gaza, whose 1.5 million residents are aid-dependent.
A European Union aid programs plans to continue paying monthly "allowances" - approximately $360 each - directly to the Palestinian Authority's non-security work force, including those in Hamas-controlled Gaza, EU officials said. But an Israeli official said Israel wants to scale back the European programs to pay allowances only to workers in Gaza's health sector to ensure hospitals keep functioning.