Palestinian Authority Aid Elimination Bill

[MasterJedi]

Palestinian Authority Aid Elimination Bill

1. No money or supplies paid for by the government of Atlasia shall reach the Palestinian Authority.
2. This does not affect private aid organizations, so long as their aid does not provide assistance to terrorist organizations.
___________________________________________________________

Sponsor: Sen. Jake

[True Democrat]

I support this completely.  If Hamas does eventually agree to end terror, recognize Israel, and follows through on these actions, I think we should reinstitute the aid.  And it should be noted that in my current draft of foreign aid, the PA receives no money.

[Jake]

Also, the amount of aid that goes directly to the PA is very low, and possibly wasn't even appropriated in this budget. I think I saw somewhere that we've only sent money directly to the PA four times, three times under Bush. Most of the money we give to Palestine is used by USAID, which we may have cut sometime ago (stupid bastards if we did).

Anyway. Amendment time:

3. No aid provided by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) will be affected by this bill, unless it provides assistance to terror organizations.

[Colin]

I have to say that I agree with this bill. Untill Hamas renounces terrorism and violence as a means of political action we cannot deal with any Hamas-led Palestianian government. While this may mostly be a symbolic move it will be important to show that while Atlasia supports the Palestinian people themselves we cannot support a terrorist-led government in power.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

I'm not 100% happy with this bill as it will require the cumbersome act of passing another bill should Hamas choose to behave in a civilized fashion.  It needs some rewriting so as to allow funding to resume if that should happen.

[Democratic Hawk]

I don't think I need spell it out, how I would vote on this bill

Dave

[Jake]

I'm not 100% happy with this bill as it will require the cumbersome act of passing another bill should Hamas choose to behave in a civilized fashion.  It needs some rewriting so as to allow funding to resume if that should happen.

That's what I like about you Ernest. You always have a sense of humor about these things.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Who would have thought 20 years ago that Fatah would have been seen as the moderate faction of the Palestinians?  People and organizations do change.  They also have a tendency to behave as we expect them to.  If we don't give Hamas a reason to moderate, they never will.  They still might choose to not do so, but we shouldn't make it easier for them to be maniacs than not.

[Peter]

I propose the following amendment to totally replace the bill:

1. No aid whether financial, economic, humanitarian or otherwise shall be donated to the Palestinian Authority by the government of the Republic of Atlasia.
2. The Secretary of State may relax the restrictions specified in clause one in a manner that he sees fit if in his judgement:

i. The Palestinian Authority honestly engages in the peace process with Israel to seek an equitable resolution to their conflict.
ii. The Palestinian Authority apprehends, detains and criminally tries those Palestinians responsible for terrorist atrocities against Israel.
iii. Humanitarian considerations that were not foreseeable at the time of the passage of this legislation occur.

3. The Secretary of State shall report in full any relaxation of restrictions to the Senate.
i & ii cover us for the Palestinians becoming sensible and iii covers us when they have a natural disaster that clearly needs humanitarian aid un-hamstrung by the Senate.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

If we had co-sponsors under out rules, I would gladly co-sponsor the Senator for Two's amendment, as it satisfies all of my concerns with this bill.

[MasterJedi]

I hereby open up the vote on this amendment. Please vote Aye, Nay or Abstain.

I propose the following amendment to totally replace the bill:

1. No aid whether financial, economic, humanitarian or otherwise shall be donated to the Palestinian Authority by the government of the Republic of Atlasia.
2. The Secretary of State may relax the restrictions specified in clause one in a manner that he sees fit if in his judgement:

i. The Palestinian Authority honestly engages in the peace process with Israel to seek an equitable resolution to their conflict.
ii. The Palestinian Authority apprehends, detains and criminally tries those Palestinians responsible for terrorist atrocities against Israel.
iii. Humanitarian considerations that were not foreseeable at the time of the passage of this legislation occur.

3. The Secretary of State shall report in full any relaxation of restrictions to the Senate.

[MasterJedi]

Aye

[CheeseWhiz]

I was going to vote aye on this, but I'd like to hear what Jake thinks about the amendment, first.

[Jake]

I oppose granting the power to modify the restrictions imposed to the Secretary of State. But, you guys already (foolishly) gave him the power to distribute foreign aid money. So whatever.

Nay

[CheeseWhiz]

Abstain.  I really can't say I know a lot about this issue, so I really would have liked to hear both sides before voting, but since there was very little discussion on this amendment, I'm abstaining so that the vote on this will go faster.  That isn't saying that I won’t be voting on the final version of the bill, I definitely will, there just wasn't any debate on this particular amendment.

[The Dowager Mod]

Nay.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Aye to the amendment, but if this should pass and others wish to submit an amendment that more rigidly defines the circumstances under which aid could be resumed, I would likely support such an amendment.

[Gabu]

Aye.

[Peter]

Aye on the amendment

[Colin]

Abstain

[MasterJedi]

This amendment has passed.

[MasterJedi]

I missed Jake's amendment before and used Peter's first, first time I've done that and sorry to Jake.

This is what his amendment would have changed the bill to be (would you still like a vote on it to make the bill look like this again Jake?):

1. No money or supplies paid for by the government of Atlasia shall reach the Palestinian Authority.
2. This does not affect private aid organizations, so long as their aid does not provide assistance to terrorist organizations.
3. No aid provided by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) will be affected by this bill, unless it provides assistance to terror organizations.

[Jake]

No, instead, I propose an amendment to replace the reference to the Secretary of State in section 2 with the Senate and to strike section 3.

[MasterJedi]

If there is no debate on Jake's amendment before I get back from school today (around 3-4 CST) I'll open the vote on his amendment.

[MasterJedi]

I hereby open the vote on Jake's amendment to the bill. Please vote Aye, Nay or Abstain. This is what the bill looks like now: https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=36515.msg826758#msg826758  And here is how the amendment would change it:


1. No aid whether financial, economic, humanitarian or otherwise shall be donated to the Palestinian Authority by the government of the Republic of Atlasia.
2. The Senate may relax the restrictions specified in clause one in a manner that they see fit if in their judgment:

i. The Palestinian Authority honestly engages in the peace process with Israel to seek an equitable resolution to their conflict.
ii. The Palestinian Authority apprehends, detains and criminally tries those Palestinians responsible for terrorist atrocities against Israel.
iii. Humanitarian considerations that were not foreseeable at the time of the passage of this legislation occur.