Very urgent that the Palestinian Authority has a balanced budget, doncha know. The U.S. doesn’t need one, but the P.A. must have one. Won’t you sleep better tonight, American taxpayer, knowing that you have worked to help fill an urgent Palestinian budget shortfall? I mean, Qassams aren’t cheap. “US accelerates funding to PA with $150 million transfer,” by Hilary Leila Krieger for the Jerusalem Post, November 10 (thanks to all who sent this in):

WASHINGTON – The US sped up delivery of $150 million in direct aid to the Palestinian Authority Wednesday, citing the need to fill an urgent budget shortfall.”This figure underscores the strong determination of the American people and this administration to stand with our Palestinian friends even during difficult economic times,” declared US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in announcing the aid, which was taken from the $200 million the Obama administration plans to allocate to the PA in 2011.

“We need to work with the Palestinian Authority to support their efforts to build toward a future Palestinian state that is able to govern itself, uphold its responsibilities to provide for its own people, and ensure security,” Clinton said at the State Department Wednesday, with PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad participating by video conference. “Progress on this second track gives confidence to negotiators, removes excuses for delay, and underscores that the Palestinian Authority has become a credible partner for peace.”

Senior administration officials pointed to a year-end shortfall in the Palestinian Authority’s budget as the driving factor behind the timing of Wednesday’s announcement.

“Given the significant budget gap that the Palestinian Authority faced, we were looking … to do all that we could to close their budget gap for this year,” one official said, noting that the EU and some Arab states has also recently made allocations. “We obviously wanted a number of things here, including encouraging others to do more as well on the funding.”…