Representatives of the Palestinian Authority and Jordan reached a curious understanding last week: to prevent the transfer of food and merchandise to Arab cities in Yesha via Jordan. The Itim News Agency quotes a senior Arab clerk in the Customs Wing at the Allenby Bridge Crossing who says that last Thursday\'s decision, which he called \"puzzling,\" forbids Palestinian merchants from importing goods via Jordan, and allows only donated goods to be allowed through. The source said that the decision was apparently initiated by Yasser Arafat. Many trucks laden with thousands of tons of foodstuff, usually make their way every day from Jordan to PA storehouses - but the starved population does not often get to partake of them. Instead, they are sold by the PA to persons close to them or to other merchants, who then sell them at even higher prices to others. The Arab source told Itim that the PA is thus intensifying the food shortage in order to allow it manage its budget deficit and to allow its \"friends\" to earn extra money.



Headlined, \"Who\'s Financing Terror Now?,\" today\'s Jerusalem Post editorial refers to the \"stunning and inexplicable reversal of policy\" under which Israel decided last week to give the PA 200 million shekels of the PA\'s frozen assets. \"And so,\" writes the paper, \"just several weeks after it justifiably criticized the European Union for continuing to support Yasser Arafat despite the violence, Israel itself now joins the list of those propping up his terrorist regime with a steady cash flow.\"